If you've watched George W Bush handle a question-and-answer session, or if you've heard that Bush does not read most of his presidential briefings, you may have wondered: how could America have twice voted him into office?
The answer is Karl Rove. More than any other person, he's been responsible for Bush's political success. That's why it's an important political event in the United States - and, given the country's power, the world - that Rove has decided to retire on 31 August 2007.
Karl Rove has been the president's political adviser - some would say "Bush's brain" - for fourteen years: he led his successful Texas gubernatorial campaigns in 1994 and 1998 and his presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004. Rove holds the position of White House deputy chief of staff, but he actually runs the political arm of the Bush administration - while vice-president Dick Cheney handles day-to-day operations. Rove ensures that Bush considers the political ramifications of every presidential decision and appointment.
Bob Burnett is a writer based in Berkeley, California. He can be reached here
Also by Bob Burnett in openDemocracy:
"A liberal foreign policy for the US: ten maxims"(27 February 2007)
"America's choice: imperial vs constitutional rule" (10 May 2007)
"The road not taken: the Iraq Study Group" (21 May 2007)
"Alberto Gonzales's cookery lesson" (30 May 2007)
"Bush's failed freedom agenda" (25 June 2007)
"Bush's Iraqi endgame" (17 July 2007)
"Washington's Iraqi anchor" (30 July 2007)
In this regard he's had the same relationship to George W Bush that many other deeply partisan "fixers" and media manipulators have had to their political masters - Dick Morris to Bill Clinton, Alastair Campbell to Tony Blair. The ingredients of the relationship may be familiar, but Rove added to the mix an extra element: a willingness to employ his extraordinary propaganda talents in the service of a polarising, destructive and unscrupulous targeting of his leader's political opponents. In this, he has played a major role in the coarsening of American democracy.
Bush's brain
Rove was born in 1950 and turned his attention to politics during high school. In 1969 he became involved in Republican political campaigns. During the next few years he was involved with the Richard M Nixon political apparatus and acquired a reputation as a master of "dirty tricks". He first met George W Bush in 1973, and in 1977 he moved to Texas and began a career as a political consultant. In 1981 Rove founded a political direct-mail fundraising firm that serviced hundreds of Republican candidates. He developed a reputation as a fundraising guru and expert political demographer.
Over the same thirty-year period, Rove also became notorious for his ruthlessness. Opponents complained that he would do anything to win, that he believed that the ends always justified the means. Many reported that he was not satisfied merely with winning an election, but often sought to humiliate his political opponents. His motto was rumored to be: when in doubt, attack.
After George Bush became president in disputed circumstances in the aftermath of the November 2000 election, Rove began to get national recognition and became the subject of several books (Boy Genius, Bush's Brain, and The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power) and numerous articles (notably Nicholas Lemann's "The Controller" (New Yorker, 12 May 2003) and Elizabeth Drew's "The Enforcer" (New York Review of Books, 1 May 2003).
The lying game
Karl Rove's relationship with George W Bush may be reminiscent of earlier intimate, interpersonal and ideological bonds at the core of powerful democratic governments. But his ruthless practice as a propagandist also echoes that of earlier sophisticated operatives of the art who were very far from democrats.
One of the most notable uttered these words:
* "Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play"
* "The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over"
* "(The best) propaganda is successful without being obnoxious. It depends on its nature, not its methods. It works without being noticed. Its goals are inherent in its nature. Since it is almost invisible, it is effective and powerful."
* As the wolf attacks the sheep, so come we.
Joseph Goebbels may be more associated in popular or cultural memory with the idea of the "big lie", but such remarks indicate that his thinking has even wider resonances in today's United States (and not only there). Karl Rove is one who has seemed to draw on these lessons well. In the 2000 presidential campaign, he was instrumental in spreading the idea that Al Gore was a liar by accusing him of claiming to have invented the internet. After 9/11, Rove argued that Democrats could not defend America from terrorists: "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."
In 2002-03, in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, Rove assiduously promoted the Bush administration's claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was aiding al-Qaida. In 2004, many believed that Rove was responsible for the notorious "Swift Boat" ads that destroyed the presidential hopes of John Kerry.
Rove's indispensability to Bush is even more apparent in light of the manoeuvres needed to help ensure that his master was awarded victory in the disputed elections of both 2000 and 2004. In 2000, Republicans in Florida unscrupulously purged the voting rolls of thousands of minority voters - mostly Democrats - suspected of being ex-felons, costing Al Gore critical votes and ultimately determining the election.
In 2004, Republican election officials in Ohio surreptitiously moved voting machines out of heavily Democratic precincts; again, many observers felt that this tilted the election in Ohio and enabled Bush to win the electoral vote. Republican political chicanery became a commonplace after 2000 and, whenever suspicious events happened, they were said to have "the mark of Rove".
The symbiotic relationship between Bush and Rove makes it surprising that "Bush's brain" has decided to retire. In a Wall Street Journal interview, Rove claimed to be "done with political consulting". Many political observers regard this as a startling development. They expected Rove to remain in the White House bunker next to his beloved leader until the bitter end. Perhaps Rove is, for once, telling the truth and will indeed drop out of American political life after 31 August. What seems more likely is that he will take an extended vacation and then, early in the new year, he will reprise his role for Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, or whoever the Republicans select as their 2008 presidential candidate.
