COURAGE AND CONSEQUENCE!
A REVIEW OF KARL ROVE’S NEW BOOK
A REVIEW OF KARL ROVE’S NEW BOOK
by Steve Fair
On a recent business trip to Mexico, I read Karl Rove’s book, Courage and Consequence-My life as a conservative in the fight. The 520 page book was interesting and gave a great deal of insight into Rove. A brilliant political strategist, Rove gives some insights into how to run campaigns that is both practical and insightful. The Rovian Campaign model is one that is well thought out. Few politicos can brag they ran two successful presidential campaigns, so when Rove talks strategy anyone who is interested in the mechanics of politics should listen.
*****
Where Rove gets off the tracks is when he begins to deal with the multiple attacks he endured while he served in the White House. He spends page upon page recounting the incidents that is designed to convince the reader there was never any justification for any investigation into anything Rove had done.
*****
He spends a inordinate amount of time on the “Joe Wilson/Valarie Plame’ incident and is critical of Patrick Fitzgerald, the Special Prosecutor assigned to investigate. Fitzgerald, a Chicago Republican, has earned a reputation of being hard nosed and fair, but Rove paints Fitzgerald as a being petty.
*****
Rove’s total life has been politics. He started volunteering in campaigns while in high school and has never done anything else. But unlike true political activists and most volunteers, Rove has made a very good living in the political consulting industry. In reading his book, you would think he was broke. Rove says the reason he left the White House was because he needed to provide more money for his family. No one begrudges a person who wants to make an honest buck, but Rove should not have painted himself as someone who has sacrificed while being involved in politics. He gets big bucks making speeches and commenting on politics on FoxNews. He still is a highly sought out political consultant, so the poverty line rings hollow.
Where Rove gets off the tracks is when he begins to deal with the multiple attacks he endured while he served in the White House. He spends page upon page recounting the incidents that is designed to convince the reader there was never any justification for any investigation into anything Rove had done.
*****
He spends a inordinate amount of time on the “Joe Wilson/Valarie Plame’ incident and is critical of Patrick Fitzgerald, the Special Prosecutor assigned to investigate. Fitzgerald, a Chicago Republican, has earned a reputation of being hard nosed and fair, but Rove paints Fitzgerald as a being petty.
*****
Rove’s total life has been politics. He started volunteering in campaigns while in high school and has never done anything else. But unlike true political activists and most volunteers, Rove has made a very good living in the political consulting industry. In reading his book, you would think he was broke. Rove says the reason he left the White House was because he needed to provide more money for his family. No one begrudges a person who wants to make an honest buck, but Rove should not have painted himself as someone who has sacrificed while being involved in politics. He gets big bucks making speeches and commenting on politics on FoxNews. He still is a highly sought out political consultant, so the poverty line rings hollow.
*****
Rove defends former President George W. Bush throughout the book, which is understandable because not only are they friends, but Rove has earned a pretty good living running Bush's campaigns. I do believe Bush is a principled man, but he did expand government and Rove defends that action to preserve his conservative credentials.
*****
The most disturbing thing in the book is near the end- page 514 where Rove quotes Barrick Obama in his book The Audacity of Hope. Rove is mentioned in Obama’s book along with Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed as "‘conservative operatives’ who believe the fiery rhetoric of NO NEW TAXES and WE ARE A CHRISTIAN NATION."
The most disturbing thing in the book is near the end- page 514 where Rove quotes Barrick Obama in his book The Audacity of Hope. Rove is mentioned in Obama’s book along with Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed as "‘conservative operatives’ who believe the fiery rhetoric of NO NEW TAXES and WE ARE A CHRISTIAN NATION."
*****
Rove says he never said ‘America is a Christian nation’ and goes on to detail how he confronted then Senator Obama in the White House for ‘misquoting’ him. The disturbing part is that Rove says he doesn’t believe America IS a Christian nation, but a ‘nation of faith.’ Whether the grandson of a Presbyterian minister was just trying to ‘spin’ the message to be politically correct or is intelligently lazy doesn’t matter. The majority of the fifty six signers of the Declaration of Independence would have disagreed with Rove, as well as George Washington.
*****
I would recommend the book for it’s ‘textbook’ on campaigns (Chapter 4), but all in all, Rove’s memoir is too self serving and detailed. Rove is a secularist whose reputation of situational ethics in politics and campaigns is not diminished by what he writes in the book.
Rove says he never said ‘America is a Christian nation’ and goes on to detail how he confronted then Senator Obama in the White House for ‘misquoting’ him. The disturbing part is that Rove says he doesn’t believe America IS a Christian nation, but a ‘nation of faith.’ Whether the grandson of a Presbyterian minister was just trying to ‘spin’ the message to be politically correct or is intelligently lazy doesn’t matter. The majority of the fifty six signers of the Declaration of Independence would have disagreed with Rove, as well as George Washington.
*****
I would recommend the book for it’s ‘textbook’ on campaigns (Chapter 4), but all in all, Rove’s memoir is too self serving and detailed. Rove is a secularist whose reputation of situational ethics in politics and campaigns is not diminished by what he writes in the book.
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