Karl Rove: Rather Brilliant
8 Reasons Why Rove Wins, Even If He Isn't Behind 60 Minutes Controversy - Although He Just May Be

September 23 2004
Counterbias.com
Robert Furs

Karl Rove, known as “Bush’s Brain”, is the mastermind in charge of the current state of Republican political superiority. He turned a dimwit fortunate son into a man with a strong shot at a second term as leader of the free world.

With Rove’s keen sense for victory comes a knack – and a willingness to use – every dirty trick in the book. First came the Swift Boat Veterans For “Truth”, a group many suspect of being a Rove creation. The group successfully utilized a trademark Rove technique: turning an opponent’s strongest trait into a political liability. After the Swift Boat Vet controversy, Kerry’s status as a war hero – one of his strongest suits as a presidential candidate – had doubt cast upon it by the shady work of the Swift Boat Vets, who concocted stories and spouted lies to overturn Kerry’s historical record.

And it worked. Kerry fell in the polls when the media grabbed the issue and publicized the Swift Boat deceptions.

The New York Times finally reported on the close connection between Karl Rove and the group in question. Yet Kerry’s war-hero credibility has been tarnished.

The victor? Karl Rove.

Now, again, the CBS / Dan Rather situation has Rove’s name written all over it. If he had a hand in deceiving Dan Rather, as I suspect, then it’s another brilliant maneuver on his part. It’s too good to be true for the Bush campaign, almost as if it were planned in advance.

The 60 Minutes II flap is a victory for Bush and Rove in eight major ways:

1)   Heat is taken off of Bush regarding his failure to complete his National Guard duties. This could’ve been a major campaign topic, and is still a worthwhile story, but is now tarnished and untouchable. The issue of Bush’s past cocaine use became a closed case four years prior, when the man who reported it (J.H. Hatfield) was discredited as a criminal, taking the story down with him. (‘Coincidentally’, Hatfield claimed that Karl Rove provided him the cocaine lead as a secret source, knowing full well that Hatfield would soon be exposed as a criminal, in order to preemptively crush any credibility of the charges. If this is true, then the parallels with the National Guard story are unmistakable). If a Democrat brings up Bush’s questionable Guard service, the mere mention of the word “CBS” or “Rather” bring the issue to a close. It has been taken off the table for the rest of this campaign.

2)   CBS has always been peppered as a “liberal” network. The sole “liberal” network’s reputation is now smeared – and now proven, at least in the eyes of critics, as the truly liberal network it has always been criticized as.

3)   Dan Rather. He’s “liberal”. On the war, he recently said “It’s unpatriotic not to stand up, look them in the eye, and ask the questions they don't want to hear." He did the dirty deed of interviewing Saddam Hussein, humanizing the man Bush framed as the ultimate monster. And he's a Bush enemy: According to author Thom Hartmann, “The Bush family's hostility to Rather first broke the surface of public attention back in 1988, when Vice President George H.W. Bush was confronted on network television about his various roles in the criminal affair now known as Iran/Contra…Rather cornered [Bush] about the whole Iran issue, and Bush became furious. Barely able to speak, his face twisted with rage, Bush blurted out: ‘It's not fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran…’ Bush's voice was cracking with hysteria… Dan Rather has been on the Bush family enemies list ever since.” So, the falsified-memo flap would appear to be the ultimate get-back. Never mind the lost credibility: now, the media is asking whether one of America’s top journalists should be fired.

4)   60 Minutes (or in this case, 60 Minutes II) is one of the last bastions of serious TV journalism remaining, often taking a stance critical of the government. With this news, it’s instantly been smeared, a powerful critic of the Bush administration losing prestige, credibility, and quite possibly, viewers.

5)   News networks will now be even more afraid to pursue stories negative to the current administration. As if their passivity towards power wasn’t meek enough these days, it’ll now get worse. There’s nothing Rove wants more than a pro-Bush media, and reporters criticizing the president will now be even harder to come by – as the networks and corporations they work for will prefer to keep a safe distance from anything that may inspire another 60 Minutes moment.

6)   The Kerry campaign may be hurt, as Republicans attempt to connect this with the Democrats. The blame game has already begun.

7)   Bush now looks like the victim, the David going up against the Goliath of the Liberal Media, Democratic Liars, and Fake-Document Falsifiers. Americans love the underdog, and they tend to feel sorry for the “victim”—who appears, in many people’s eyes, to be Bush.

8)   The spotlight has moved from the quagmire in Iraq, failures of the Bush administration and anything Kerry says or does, to this worthless topic. Team Bush would love nothing better than the media to ignore the real issues.

Bush and Rove win – in eight big ways. I don’t have proof, certainly – but one way or another, I know that Karl Rove is behind the latest Dan Rather/CBS/60 Minutes controversy, just like many are certain he was behind the Swift Boat Vets For Bush. He’s dirty – yet brilliant. The President’s enemies be forewarned: Rove’s coming for you next. And he’ll leave without a trace.