Karl Rove - Wikipedia

Karl Rove - Wikipedia
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American political consultant and policy advisor (born 1950)
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Karl Rove
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy
In office
February 8, 2005 – August 31, 2007
President
George W. Bush
Preceded by
Harriet Miers
Succeeded by
Joel Kaplan
Senior Advisor to the President
In office
January 20, 2001 – August 31, 2007
President
George W. Bush
Preceded by
Sid Blumenthal
Joel Johnson
Doug Sosnik
Succeeded by
Barry Jackson
Chair of the College Republicans
In office
1973–1977
Preceded by
Joe Abate
Succeeded by
John Brady
Personal details
Born
Karl Christian Rove
1950-12-25
December 25, 1950
(age 75)
Denver
, Colorado, U.S.
Party
Republican
Spouses
Valerie Mather Wainwright
m.
1976
div.
1980)
Darby Tara Hickson
m.
1986
div.
2009
Karen Johnson
m.
2012
Children
Website
Official website
Karl Christian Rove
(born December 25, 1950) is an American
Republican
political consultant
, policy advisor, and lobbyist. He was
Senior Advisor
and
Deputy Chief of Staff
during the
George W. Bush
administration until his resignation on August 31, 2007. He has also headed the Office of Political Affairs, the
Office of Public Liaison
, and the
White House Office of Strategic Initiatives
. Rove was one of the architects of the
Iraq War
Prior to his White House appointments, he is credited with the 1994 and 1998
Texas
gubernatorial victories of
George W. Bush
, as well as Bush's
2000
and 2004 successful presidential campaigns. In his 2004 victory speech, Bush referred to Rove as "the Architect". Rove has also been credited for the successful campaigns of
John Ashcroft
(1994 U.S. Senate election),
Bill Clements
(1986 Texas gubernatorial election), Senator
John Cornyn
(2002 U.S. Senate election),
Governor
Rick Perry
(1990 Texas Agriculture Commission election), and
Phil Gramm
(1982
U.S. House
and 1984 U.S. Senate elections). Since leaving the White House, Rove has worked as a political analyst and contributor for
Fox News
Newsweek
, and
The Wall Street Journal
Early life and education
edit
Rove was born on Christmas Day in
Denver
, Colorado, the second of five children, and was raised in
Sparks, Nevada
His parents separated when he was 19 years old
and the man whom Rove knew as his father was a
geologist
In 1965, his family moved to
Salt Lake City
, where Rove entered high school, becoming a skilled debater.
Encouraged by a teacher to run for class senate, Rove won the election. As part of his campaign strategy he rode in the back of a convertible inside the school gymnasium sitting between two attractive girls before his election speech.
While at
Olympus High School
he was elected student council president his junior and senior years. Rove was also a
Teenage Republican
and served as Chairman of the Utah Federation of Teenage Republicans. During this time, his father got a job in Los Angeles and visited the family during holidays.
Rove's mother suffered from depression and had contemplated suicide more than once in her life.
Rove has stated that although he loved his mother, she was seriously flawed, undependable and, at times, unstable.
In December 1969, after a heated fight with his wife, the man Rove had known as his father left the family and
divorced
Rove's mother soon afterwards.
10
It was at this juncture that Rove was finally told that he and his older brother had a different birth father, his mother's prior husband.
Rove's relationship with his adoptive father was briefly strained for a few months following the divorce, but they maintained a relationship afterward.
11
Rove had only infrequent contact with his mother in the 1970s. She frequently withheld child support checks and spent them for herself. She and her second husband lost most of their money due to poor financial decisions on her part and his gambling and overspending.
12
On September 11, 1981, Rove's mother died by
suicide
north of
Reno, Nevada
, shortly after she decided to divorce her third and final husband, to whom she had been unhappily married for only three months.
11
13
Early political career
edit
Rove began his involvement in American politics in 1968. In a 2002
Deseret News
interview, Rove explained, "I was the Olympus High chairman for (former U.S. Sen.)
Wallace F. Bennett
's re-election campaign, where he was opposed by the dynamic, young, aggressive political science professor at the
University of Utah
, J.D. Williams."
14
Bennett was reelected to a third six-year term in November 1968. Through Rove's campaign involvement, Bennett's son,
Robert "Bob" Foster Bennett
—a future United States Senator from
Utah
—would become a friend. Williams would later become a mentor to Rove.
College and the Dixon campaign sabotage incident
edit
In the fall of 1969, Rove entered the
University of Utah
, on a $1,000 scholarship,
15
as a
political science
major and joined the
Pi Kappa Alpha
fraternity. Through the university's
Hinckley Institute of Politics
, he got an
internship
with the
Utah Republican Party
. That position, and contacts from the 1968 Bennett campaign, helped him secure a job in 1970 on
Ralph Tyler Smith
's unsuccessful re-election campaign for
Senate
from
Illinois
against
Democrat
Adlai E. Stevenson III
In the fall of 1970, Rove used a false identity to enter the campaign office of Democrat
Alan J. Dixon
, who was running for
Treasurer of Illinois
. He stole 1000 sheets of paper with campaign letterhead, printed fake campaign rally fliers promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing", and distributed them at rock concerts and
homeless
shelters, with the effect of disrupting Dixon's rally. (Dixon eventually won the election.) Rove's role would not become publicly known until August 1973 when Rove told
The Dallas Morning News
. In 1999 he said, "It was a youthful prank at the age of 19 and I regret it."
16
In his memoir, Rove wrote that when he was later nominated and confirmed to the
Board for International Broadcasting
by President
George H. W. Bush
, Senator Dixon did not kill his nomination. In Rove's account, "Dixon displayed more grace than I had shown and kindly excused this youthful prank."
17
18
College Republicans, Watergate, and the Bushes
edit
In June 1971, after the end of the semester, Rove
dropped out
of the University of Utah to take a paid position as the executive director of the
College Republican National Committee
19
Joe Abate, who was National Chairman of the College Republicans at the time, became his mentor.
20
Rove then enrolled at the
University of Maryland in College Park
in the Fall of 1971, but withdrew from classes during the first half of the semester.
21
In July 1999 he told
The Washington Post
that he did not have a degree because "I lack at this point one math class, which I can take by exam, and my foreign language requirement."
16
Rove traveled extensively, participating as an instructor at weekend seminars for campus
conservatives
across the country. He was an active participant in
Richard Nixon
's
1972 presidential campaign
. A CBS report on the organization of the Nixon campaign from June 1972 includes an interview with a young Rove working for the College Republican National Committee.
22
Rove held the position of executive director of the College Republicans until early 1973. He left the job to spend five months, without pay, campaigning full-time for the position of National Chairman during the time he attended
George Mason University
20
Lee Atwater
, the group's Southern regional coordinator, who was two months younger than Rove, assisted with Rove's campaign. His campaign was managed by Daniel Mintz, of the Maryland College Republicans.
23
Karl spent the spring of 1973 crisscrossing the country in a
Ford Pinto
, lining up the support of Republican state chairs.
The College Republicans summer 1973 convention at the
Lake of the Ozarks
resort in
Missouri
was quite contentious. Rove's opponent was Robert Edgeworth of
Michigan
. The other major candidate,
Terry Dolan
of
California
, dropped out, supporting Edgeworth. A number of states had sent two competing delegates, because Rove and his supporters had made credential challenges at state and regional conventions. For example, after the Midwest regional convention, Rove forces had produced a version of the Midwestern College Republicans constitution which differed significantly from the constitution that the Edgeworth forces were using, in order to justify the unseating of the Edgeworth delegates on procedural grounds,
20
including delegations, such as
Ohio
and Missouri, which had been certified earlier by Rove himself. In the end, there were two votes, conducted by two convention chairs, and two winners—Rove and Edgeworth, each of whom delivered an acceptance speech. After the convention, both Edgeworth and Rove appealed to
Republican National Committee
Chairman
George H. W. Bush
, each contending that he was the new College Republican chairman.
While resolution was pending, Dolan went (anonymously) to
The Washington Post
with recordings of several training seminars for young Republicans where a co-presenter of Rove's, Bernie Robinson, cautioned against doing the same thing he had done: rooting through opponents' garbage cans. The tape with this story on it, as well as Rove's admonition not to copy similar tricks as Rove's against Dixon, was secretly recorded and edited by Rich Evans, who had hoped to receive an appointment from Rove's competitor in the CRNC chairmanship race.
24
On August 10, 1973, in the midst of the
Watergate scandal
, the
Post
broke the story in an article titled "GOP Party Probes Official as Teacher of Tricks".
25
In response, then RNC Chairman George H.W. Bush, had an
FBI
agent question Rove. As part of the investigation, Atwater signed an
affidavit
, dated August 13, 1973, stating that he had heard a "20 minute anecdote similar to the one described in
The Washington Post
" in July 1972, but that "it was a funny story during a coffee break".
26
Former
Nixon White House
Counsel
John Dean
, has been quoted as saying "based on my review of the files, it appears the Watergate prosecutors were interested in Rove's activities in 1972, but because they had bigger fish to fry they did not aggressively investigate him."
27
On September 6, 1973, three weeks after announcing his intent to investigate the allegations against Rove,
George H. W. Bush
chose him to be chairman of the College Republicans. Bush then wrote Edgeworth a letter saying that he had concluded that Rove had fairly won the vote at the convention. Edgeworth wrote back, asking about the basis of that conclusion. Not long after that, Edgeworth stated "Bush sent me back the angriest letter I have ever received in my life. I had leaked to
The Washington Post
, and now I was out of the Party forever."
As National Chairman, Rove introduced Bush to Atwater, who had taken Rove's job as the College Republican's executive director, and who would become Bush's main campaign strategist in future years. Bush hired Rove as a Special Assistant in the Republican National Committee, a job Rove left in 1974 to become Executive Assistant to the co-chair of the RNC,
Richard D. Obenshain
As Special Assistant, Rove performed small personal tasks for Bush. In November 1973, he asked Rove to take a set of car keys to his son
George W. Bush
, who was visiting home during a break from
Harvard Business School
. It was the first time the two met. "Huge amounts of charisma, swagger, cowboy boots, flight jacket, wonderful smile, just charisma – you know, wow", Rove recalled years later.
25
Virginia
edit
In 1976, Rove left D.C. to work in Virginian politics. Initially, Rove was the Finance Director for the Republican Party of Virginia. Rove describes this as the role in which he discovered his love for direct mail campaigns.
11
The Texas years and notable political campaigns
edit
1977–1991
edit
Rove's initial job in Texas was in 1977 as a legislative aide for
Fred Agnich
, a Texas Republican
state representative
from
Dallas
28
Later that same year, Rove got a job as executive director of the Fund for Limited Government, a political action committee (PAC) in Houston headed by
James A. Baker, III
, a Houston lawyer (later President George H. W. Bush's Secretary of State). The PAC eventually became the genesis of the Bush-for-President campaign of 1979–1980.
His work for
Bill Clements
during the Texas
gubernatorial
election of 1978 helped Clements become the first Republican Governor of Texas in over 100 years. Clements was elected to a four-year term, succeeding Democrat
Dolph Briscoe
. Rove was deputy director of the Governor William P. Clements Junior Committee in 1979 and 1980, and deputy executive assistant to the governor of Texas (roughly, Deputy Chief of Staff) in 1980 and 1981.
29
In 1981, Rove founded a
direct mail
consulting firm,
Karl Rove & Co.
, in Austin. The firm's first clients included Texas Governor Bill Clements and
Democratic
congressman
Phil Gramm
, who later became a Republican congressman and
United States Senator
. Rove operated his consulting business until 1999, when he sold the firm to take a full-time position in George W. Bush's presidential campaign.
Between 1981 and 1999, Rove worked on hundreds of races. Most were in a supporting role, doing direct mail fundraising. A November 2004
Atlantic Monthly
article estimated that he was the primary strategist for 41 statewide, congressional, and national races, and Rove's candidates won 34 races.
30
Rove also did work during those years for non-political clients. From 1991 to 1996, Rove advised tobacco giant
Philip Morris
, and ultimately earned $3,000 a month via a consulting contract. In a
deposition
, Rove testified that he severed the tie in 1996 because he felt awkward "about balancing that responsibility with his role as Bush's top political advisor" while Bush was governor of Texas and Texas was suing the
tobacco industry
31
citation needed
1978 George W. Bush congressional campaign
edit
Rove advised the younger Bush during his unsuccessful Texas congressional campaign in 1978.
1980 George H. W. Bush presidential campaign
edit
In 1977, Rove was the first person hired by
George H. W. Bush
for his unsuccessful
1980 presidential campaign
, which ended with Bush as the vice-presidential nominee.
1982 William Clements, Jr. gubernatorial campaign
edit
In 1982, Rove returned to assisting Governor Bill Clements in his run for reelection, but was defeated by Democrat
Mark White
1982 Phil Gramm congressional campaign
edit
In 1982,
Phil Gramm
was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a conservative Texas Democrat.
1984 Phil Gramm senatorial campaign
edit
In 1984, Rove helped Gramm, who had become a Republican in 1983, defeat Republican
Ron Paul
in the primary and Democrat
Lloyd Doggett
in the race for U.S. Senate.
1984 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign
edit
Rove handled direct-mail for the
Reagan
-Bush campaign.
1986 William Clements, Jr. gubernatorial campaign
edit
In 1986, Rove helped Clements become governor a second time. In a strategy memo Rove wrote for his client prior to the race, now among Clements' papers in the
Texas A&M University
library, Rove quoted
Napoleon
: "The whole art of war consists in a well-reasoned and extremely circumspect defensive, followed by rapid and audacious attack."
In 1986, just before a crucial debate in the campaign, Rove claimed that his office had been bugged by Democrats. The police and
FBI
investigated and discovered that the bug's battery was so small that it needed to be changed every few hours, and the investigation was dropped.
32
Critics, including other Republican operatives, suspected Rove had bugged his own office to garner sympathy votes in the close governor's race.
33
1988 Texas Supreme Court races
edit
In 1988, Rove helped
Thomas R. Phillips
become the first Republican elected as Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Phillips had been appointed to the position in November 1987 by Clements. Phillips was re-elected in 1990, 1996 and 2002.
citation needed
Phillips' election in 1988 was part of an aggressive grassroots campaign called "Clean Slate '88", a conservative effort that was successful in getting five of its six candidates elected. (Ordinarily there were three justices on the ballot each year, on a nine-justice court, but, because of resignations, there were six races for the Supreme Court on the ballot in November 1988.) By 1998, Republicans held all nine seats on the Court.
1990 Texas gubernatorial campaign
edit
In 1989, Rove encouraged George W. Bush to run for Texas governor, brought in experts to tutor him on policy, and introduced him to local reporters. Eventually, Bush decided not to run, and Rove backed another Republican for governor who lost in the primary.
Other 1990 Texas statewide races
edit
In 1990, two other Rove candidates won:
Rick Perry
, the future governor of the state, became agricultural commissioner, and
Kay Bailey Hutchison
became state treasurer.
One notable aspect of the 1990 election was the charge that Rove had asked the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) to investigate major Democratic officeholders in Texas. In his 2010 autobiography, Rove called the whole thing a "myth", saying:
The FBI did investigate Texas officials during that span, but I had nothing to do with it. The investigation was called "Brilab" and was part of a broad anti-
corruption
probe that looked at officials in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., as well as Texas
... An official for the U.S. Department of Agriculture spotted expenses claimed by
Hightower
's shop that raised red flags
... enough to indict some of Hightower's top aides; they were later found guilty and sent to prison.
... The myth that I had something to do both with spurring the investigation and with airing all of this has stuck around because it is convenient for some to blame me rather than those aides who ran afoul of the law.
34
Rove was campaign manager for
Florence Shapiro
's 1992 campaign for
District 2
in the
Texas Senate
, which included
Collin County
and counties in
East Texas
. Shapiro was the top vote-getter in the Republican primary against Don Kent and former Plano mayor Jack Harvard, then defeated Kent by 1 percentage point in a hotly-contested run-off election, during which vandals defaced her campaign signs with
swastikas
due to Shapiro's Jewish faith.
35
1991 Richard L. Thornburgh senatorial campaign and lawsuit
edit
In 1991,
United States Attorney General
Dick Thornburgh
resigned to run for a Senate seat in
Pennsylvania
, one made vacant by
John Heinz
's death in a helicopter crash. Rove's company worked for the campaign, but it ended with an upset loss to Democrat
Harris Wofford
Rove had been hired by an intermediary Murray Dickman to work for Thornburgh's campaign. Subsequently, Rove sued Thornburgh directly, alleging non-payment for services rendered. The
Republican National Committee
, worried that the suit would make it hard to recruit good candidates, urged Rove to back off. When Rove refused, the RNC hired
Kenneth Starr
to write an
amicus brief
on Thornburgh's behalf.
Karl Rove & Co. v. Thornburgh
was heard by U.S. Federal Judge
Sam Sparks
, who had been appointed by George H.W. Bush in 1991. After a trial in Austin, Rove prevailed.
20
1992 George H. W. Bush presidential campaign
edit
Rove was fired from the 1992 Bush presidential campaign after he planted a negative story with columnist
Robert Novak
about dissatisfaction with campaign fundraising chief
Robert Mosbacher Jr.
36
Novak's column suggested a motive when it described the firing of Mosbacher by former Senator
Phil Gramm
: "Also attending the session was political consultant Karl Rove, who had been shoved aside by Mosbacher." Novak and Rove denied that Rove leaked, but Mosbacher maintained that "Rove is the only one with a motive to leak this. We let him go. I still believe he did it."
37
During testimony before the
CIA leak grand jury
, Rove apparently confirmed his prior involvement with Novak in the 1992 campaign leak, according to
National Journal
reporter
Murray Waas
38
1993–2000
edit
1993 Kay Bailey Hutchison senatorial campaign
Rove helped Hutchison win a special Senate election in June 1993. Hutchison defeated Democrat
Bob Krueger
to fill the last two years of
Lloyd Bentsen
's term. Bentsen had resigned to become
Secretary of the Treasury
in the Clinton administration.
1994 Alabama Supreme Court races
In 1994, a group called the Business Council of Alabama hired Rove to help run a slate of Republican candidates for the state supreme court. No Republican had been elected to that court in more than a century. The campaign by the Republicans was unprecedented in the state, which had previously only seen low-key contests. After the election, a court battle over absentee and other ballots followed that lasted more than 11 months. It ended when a federal appeals court judge ruled that disputed absentee ballots could not be counted, and ordered the
Alabama Secretary of State
to certify the Republican candidate for Chief Justice,
Perry Hooper
, as the winner. An appeal to the Supreme Court by the Democratic candidate was turned down within a few days, making the ruling final. Hooper won by 262 votes.
Another candidate,
Harold See
, ran against Mark Kennedy, an incumbent Democratic justice and the son-in-law of
George Wallace
. The race included charges that Kennedy was mingling campaign funds with those of a
non-profit
children's foundation he was involved with. A former Rove staffer reported that some within the See camp initiated a
whisper campaign
that Kennedy was a
pedophile
30
Kennedy won by less than one percentage point.
1994 John Ashcroft senatorial campaign
In 1993, Karl Rove & Company was paid $300,000 in consulting fees by Ashcroft's successful 1994 Senate campaign.
39
Ashcroft paid Rove's company more than $700,000 over the course of three campaigns.
1994 George W. Bush gubernatorial campaign
In 1993, Rove began advising George W. Bush in his successful campaign to become governor of Texas. Bush announced his candidacy in November 1993. By January 1994, Bush had spent more than $600,000 on the race against incumbent Democrat
Ann Richards
, with $340,000 of that paid to Rove's firm.
Rove has been accused of using the
push poll
technique to call voters to ask such things as whether people would be "more or less likely to vote for Governor Richards if [they] knew her staff is dominated by
lesbians
". Rove has denied having been involved in circulating these rumors about Richards during the campaign,
40
although many critics nonetheless identify this technique, particularly as used in this instance against Richards, as a hallmark of his career.
41
42
43
1996 Harold See's campaign for Associate Justice, Alabama Supreme Court
A former campaign worker charged that, at Rove's behest, he distributed flyers that anonymously attacked
Harold See
, their own client. This put the opponent's campaign in an awkward position; public denials of responsibility for the scurrilous flyers would be implausible. Rove's client was elected.
citation needed
1998 George W. Bush gubernatorial campaign
Rove was an adviser for Bush's 1998 reelection campaign. From July through December 1998, Bush's reelection committee paid
Rove & Co.
nearly $2.5 million, and also paid the Rove-owned Praxis List Company $267,000 for use of mailing lists. Rove says his work for the Bush campaign included direct mail, voter contact, phone banks, computer services, and travel expenses. Of the $2.5 million, Rove said,
"[a]bout 30 percent of that is postage"
. In all, Bush (primarily through Rove's efforts) raised $17.7 million, with $3.4 million unspent as of March 1999.
44
During the course of this campaign Rove's much-reported feud with Rick Perry began, with Perry's strategists believing Rove gave Perry bad advice in order to help Bush get a larger share of the Hispanic vote.
45
2000 Harold See campaign for Chief Justice
For the race to succeed Perry Hooper, who was retiring as
Alabama
's chief justice, Rove lined up support for See from a majority of the state's important Republicans.
30
2000 George W. Bush presidential campaign and the sale of Karl Rove & Co.
edit
See also:
George W. Bush 2000 presidential campaign
In early 1999, Rove sold his 20-year-old direct-mail business,
Karl Rove & Co.
, which provided campaign services to candidates, along with
Praxis List Company
(in whole or part) to Ted Delisi and Todd Olsen, two young political operatives who had worked on campaigns of some other Rove candidates. Rove helped finance the sale of the company, which had 11 employees. Selling
Karl Rove & Co.
was a condition that
George W. Bush
had insisted on before Rove took the job of chief strategist for Bush's presidential bid.
31
During the Republican primary, Rove was accused of spreading false rumors that John McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child. Rove denies the accusation.
46
George W. Bush administration
edit
Rove with George W. and Laura Bush
When George W. Bush was first inaugurated in January 2001, Rove accepted an appointment as Senior Advisor. He was later given the title Deputy Chief of Staff to the President after the successful 2004 presidential election. In a November 2004 speech, Bush publicly thanked Rove, calling him "the architect" of his victory over
John Kerry
in the
2004 presidential election
47
In April 2006, Rove was reassigned from his policy development role to one focusing on strategic and tactical planning in anticipation of the November 2006 congressional elections.
48
Iraq War
edit
Rove played a leading role in the lead-up to the Iraq War.
49
50
In 2002 and 2003, Rove chaired meetings of the
White House Iraq Group
(WHIG), an internal White House
working group
established in August 2002, eight months prior to the
2003 invasion of Iraq
. WHIG was charged with developing a strategy "for publicizing the White House's assertion that
Saddam Hussein
posed a threat to the United States."
51
The group pushed narratives within the administration about the Hussein regime possessing weapons of mass destruction (the regime had no active WMD program) and its ties to international terrorism (the Hussein regime had no operational relationship with al-Qaeda).
50
Members of WHIG included Bush's
Chief of Staff
Andrew Card
national security advisor
Condoleezza Rice
, her deputy
Stephen Hadley
, Vice President
Dick Cheney
's Chief of Staff
Lewis "Scooter" Libby
, legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio, and communication strategists
Mary Matalin
Karen Hughes
, and James R. Wilkinson.
Quoting one unnamed WHIG member,
The Washington Post
explained that the task force's mission was to "educate the public" about the threat posed by Saddam and (in the reporters' words)
"[to] set strategy for each stage of the confrontation with
Baghdad
. Rove's "strategic communications" task force within WHIG helped write and coordinate speeches by senior Bush administration officials, emphasizing Iraq's purported nuclear threat.
52
The White House Iraq Group was "little known" until a
subpoena
for its notes, email, and attendance records was issued by
CIA leak
investigator
Patrick Fitzgerald
in January 2004.
51
53
In 2015, Rove defended the decision to invade Iraq, telling an Iraq War veteran that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States.
54
55
In 2010, Rove said his biggest mistake regarding the Iraq War was to not push back on the narrative that the Bush administration lied to lead the U.S. into the Iraq War.
56
46
57
Valerie Plame affair
edit
On August 29, 2003, retired ambassador
Joseph C. Wilson IV
claimed that Rove leaked the identity of Wilson's wife,
Valerie Plame
, as a
Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) employee,
58
in retaliation for Wilson's op-ed in
The New York Times
in which he criticized the Bush administration's citation of the
yellowcake documents
among the justifications for the
War in Iraq
enumerated in Bush's 2003
State of the Union Address
In late August 2006, it became known that
Richard L. Armitage
was responsible for the leak. The investigation led to felony charges being filed against
Lewis "Scooter" Libby
for
perjury
and
obstruction of justice
. Eventually, Libby was found guilty by a jury.
59
On June 13, 2006, prosecutors said they would not charge Rove with any wrongdoing.
60
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald stated previously that
"I can tell you that the substantial bulk of the work of this investigation is concluded."
On July 13, 2006, Plame sued Cheney, Rove, Libby, and others, accusing them of conspiring to destroy her career.
61
On May 2, 2007, the
Senate Judiciary Committee
issued a subpoena to Attorney General Gonzales compelling the Department of Justice to produce all email from Rove regarding the
dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy
, no matter what email account Rove may have used, with a deadline of May 15, 2007, for compliance. The subpoena also demanded relevant email previously produced in the
Valerie Plame
controversy and the investigation regarding the
CIA leak scandal (2003)
62
On August 31, 2007, Karl Rove resigned without responding to the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoena, saying, "I just think it's time to leave."
63
64
65
Former Bush press secretary
Scott McClellan
claims in his book
What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception
, published in the spring of 2008 by Public Affairs Books, that the statements he made in 2003 about Rove's lack of involvement in the
Valerie Plame affair
were untrue, and that he had been encouraged to repeat such untruths. His book has been widely disputed, however, with many key members of McClellan's own staff telling a completely different story. Former CNN commentator Robert Novak has questioned if McClelland wrote the book himself. It was also revealed that the publisher was seeking a negative book to increase sales.
66
67
2006 congressional elections and beyond
edit
On October 24, 2006, two weeks before the
congressional election
, in an interview with
National Public Radio
's
Robert Siegel
, Rove insisted that his insider polling data forecast Republican retention of both houses.
68
In the election the
Democrats
won both houses of Congress. The
White House Bulletin
, published by Bulletin News, cited rumors of Rove's impending departure from the White House staff:
"'Karl represents the old style and he's got to go if the Democrats are going to believe Bush's talk of getting along', said a key Bush advisor."
69
However, while allowing that many Republican members of Congress are "resentful of the way he and the White House conducted the losing campaign",
The New York Times
also stated that,
"White House officials say President Bush has every intention of keeping Mr. Rove on through the rest of his term."
70
In Rove's analysis, 10 of the 28 House seats Republicans lost were sacrificed because of various scandals. Another six, he said, were lost because incumbents did not recognize and react quickly enough to the threat. Rove argued that, without corruption and complacency, the Democrats would have gained around a dozen seats and Republicans could have kept narrow control of the House regardless of Bush's troubles and the war.
71
72
Torture
edit
Rove defended the Bush administration's use of
waterboarding
, a form of torture.
57
E-mail scandal
edit
Main article:
Bush White House e-mail controversy
Due to investigations into White House staffers' e-mail communication related to the
controversy over the dismissal
of
United States attorneys
, it was discovered that many White House staff members, including Rove, had exchanged documents using
Republican National Committee
e‑mail
servers
such as
gwb43.com
73
and
georgewbush.com
74
or personal e‑mail accounts with third party providers such as
BlackBerry
75
evasion of U.S. government record-keeping was determined to be a violation of the
Presidential Records Act
. Over 500 of Rove's e‑mails were mistakenly sent to a parody website, who forwarded them to an
investigative reporter
76
Congressional subpoenas
edit
On May 22, 2008, Rove was
subpoenaed
by
House Judiciary Committee
Chairman
John Conyers
to testify on the politicization of the
Department of Justice
. But on July 10, Rove refused to obey the congressional subpoena, citing
executive privilege
as his reason.
77
78
On February 23, 2009, Rove was required by congressional subpoena to testify before the House Judiciary Committee concerning his knowledge of the controversy over the dismissal of seven U.S. attorneys, and the alleged political prosecution of former Alabama Governor
Don Siegelman
, but did not appear on that date. He and former
White House Counsel
Harriet Miers
later agreed to testify under oath before Congress about these matters.
79
On July 7 and July 30, 2009, Rove testified before the House Judiciary Committee regarding questions about the dismissal of seven U.S. attorneys under the Bush administration. Rove was also questioned regarding the federal prosecution of former Alabama Governor
Don Siegelman
, who was convicted of fraud. The Committee concluded that Rove had played a significant role in the Attorney firings.
citation needed
Activities after leaving the White House
edit
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Activities in 2008
edit
Shortly after leaving the White House, Rove was hired to write about the
2008 presidential election
for
Newsweek
80
He was also later hired as a contributor for
The Wall Street Journal
and a political analyst for
Fox News
. Rove was an informal advisor to 2008 Republican presidential candidate
John McCain
, and donated $2,300 to his campaign.
81
His memoir,
Courage and Consequence
, was published in March 2010.
34
82
One advance reviewer,
Dana Milbank
of
The Washington Post
, said of the book that Rove "revives claims discredited long ago".
83
The controversial book inspired a
grassroots
rock and roll compilation of a similar name,
Courage and Consequence
84
that was released a week before the memoir.
On March 9, 2008, Rove appeared at the
University of Iowa
as a paid speaker to a crowd of approximately 1,000. He was met with hostility and two students were removed by police after attempting a
citizen's arrest
for alleged crimes committed during his time with the
Bush administration
. Near the end of the speech, a member of the audience asked, "Can we have our $40,000 back?" Rove replied, "No, you can't."
85
On June 24, 2008, Rove said of Democratic presidential nominee
Barack Obama
, "Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone."
86
In July 2008, Rove, who was hired by Fox News to provide analysis for the network's November 2008 election coverage, defended his role on the news team to the Television Critics Association.
87
Rove agreed to debate one-time presidential candidate and former Senator
John Edwards
on September 26, 2008, at the
University at Buffalo
88
However, Edwards dropped out and was replaced by
General Wesley Clark
89
Since 2009
edit
In September 2009, Rove was inducted into the
Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame
. The induction became a major dispute as political views clashed over the announcement. Governor
John Hoeven
was scheduled to introduce Rove during the SAHF banquet but did not attend. At that time, Rove was being investigated by Democrats in Congress for his role in the 2006 dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys.
90
In 2010, with former RNC chair
Ed Gillespie
, Rove helped found
American Crossroads
, a Republican
527 organization
raising money for the 2012 election effort.
91
Rove serves as an informal adviser for this
Super-PAC
92
In a profile which appeared in the December 15, 2011 issue of
The New Republic
, Rove, with his hands-on involvement with American Crossroads, was described as one of the shrewdest navigators of the political climate after the
Supreme Court's Citizens United decision
which exempted political broadcasts funded by corporations and unions from campaign finance limits. "Rove had no role in creating this new legal environment... but if Rove and his allies did not invent it, they certainly were adroit at exploiting it."
93
Following
Todd Akin
's comments regarding "
legitimate rape
" and the notion that
raped women are unlikely to become pregnant
, Rove joked about murdering the Missouri Senate candidate, saying "We should sink Todd Akin. If he's found mysteriously murdered, don't look for my whereabouts!"
94
95
After multiple news outlets picked up on the story, Rove apologized for the remark.
96
Rove's
Crossroads GPS
organization had previously pulled its television advertising from Missouri in the wake of the comments.
97
On November 6, 2012, Rove protested Fox News' call of the 2012 presidential election for Obama, prompting host
Megyn Kelly
to ask him, "Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better? Or is this real?"
98
99
100
Rove claimed that Obama had won the election by "suppressing the vote".
101
In 2013 Rove and the PAC American Crossroads created the
Conservative Victory Project
for the purpose of supporting electable conservative candidates.
102
These efforts have attracted criticism, and even personal attacks, from elements within the
Tea Party movement
103
Rove's history,
The Triumph of
William McKinley
: Why the
Election of 1896
Still Matters
, was published in 2015.
104
In 2017, Rove's
501(c)(4)
dark money
group
One Nation
nonprofit raised nearly $17 million, according to IRS tax filings released in November 2018.
105
Rove has lobbied on behalf of
Rivada Networks
, a communications technology business.
106
107
In December 2019, Rove predicted that the
2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
would result in a
contested convention
; in December 2020, after
Joe Biden
was nominated at the
2020 Democratic National Convention
with a clear majority of delegates,
Politico
named Rove's prediction one of "the most audacious, confident and spectacularly incorrect prognostications about the year".
108
Rove was an advisor to
Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign
109
In May 2020, Rove accused former president Obama of engaging in a "political drive by shooting" after Obama gave a
commencement speech
to
historically black colleges
where he criticized the
federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic
110
Rove worked as a guest professor at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall semester of 2021.
111
He taught a course for UT's Plan II Honors department called
Modern American Political Campaigns.
Each week Rove invited guest speakers for the students to interview including James Carville and Mary Matalin, former Secretary of State James Baker, Jonathon Swan, Ken Melhman, and others. The class was protested by a variety of students accusing Rove of being a war criminal.
112
Personal life
edit
Rove at the
LBJ Library
in 2024
Rove married
Houston
socialite Valerie Mather Wainwright, on July 10, 1976. He moved to
Texas
in January 1977. His sister and father said that "the wedding was so extravagant that [we] ... still recall it with awe".
113
Rove and Wainwright divorced in early 1980.
114
In January 1986, Rove married Darby Tara Hickson,
16
breast cancer
survivor,
graphic designer
, and former employee of Karl Rove & Company. Rove and Hickson have one son, Andrew Madison Rove, who attended
Trinity University
in
San Antonio, Texas
115
Rove and Hickson divorced in December 2009.
116
In June 2012, Rove married lobbyist Karen Johnson in
Austin, Texas
. The wedding was attended by
George W. Bush
and
Steve Wynn
117
Rove resides in the
Georgetown
section of Washington, D.C., and also maintains a house near Austin, Texas.
118
In 2002, Rove built a home in
Rosemary Beach, Florida
, near
Panama City
; the home includes a television studio for remote news appearances.
119
In a 2007 interview with the
New York Review of Books
atheist
Christopher Hitchens
claimed that Rove was "not a believer".
120
However, in 2010, Rove told Kamy Akhavan of ProCon.org, in an e‑mail exchange, that Hitchens had misinterpreted a quote of his about feeling that the faith of other White House staffers was stronger than his own: "I am a practicing Christian who attends a Bible-centered
Episcopal church
in Washington and an
Anglican church
in Texas."
121
References
edit
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POLITICO
. December 25, 2017
. Retrieved
July 16,
2025
Geraci, Charles (May 30, 2010).
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The Herald Journal
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2025
Baker, Peter (March 10, 2010).
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The New York Times
. Archived from
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on December 8, 2014.
Alexander, Paul (2008).
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. Rodale. p. 17.
ISBN
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Banaszak, Brendan; Elving, Ron (June 13, 2006).
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NPR
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2012
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PBS
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Deseret News
Rove, Karl (April 3, 2010).
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. Simon and Schuster.
ISBN
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HuffPost
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Newsweek
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Rove, Karl (April 3, 2010).
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. Simon and Schuster.
ISBN
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Thanapirom, Kessarin; Gonlachanvit, Sutep (May 2013).
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Gastroenterology
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doi
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ISSN
0016-5085
CNN
Transcripts:
The Situation Room: Reversal on 9/11 Trials; Karl Rove's Book; Shooting outside the Pentagon; Violent Incidents; Millennial Second Thoughts; Mitt Romney Interview.
CNN: The Situation Room
, Aired March 5, 2010.
Davidson, Lee (December 8, 2002).
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Deseret News
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The Salt Lake Tribune
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July 2,
2025
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. John Wiley & Sons. p.
129
ISBN
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The New Yorker
profile:
The Controller: Karl Rove is working to get George Bush reelected, but he has bigger plans.
by Nicholas Lemann "Profiles",
The New Yorker.
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(mirror)
Rebecca Walsh (September 18, 2004).
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Salt Lake Tribune
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2013
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The Guardian
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Frontline
PBS
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2013
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Salon
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PBS
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The Atlantic
Monthly
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. Retrieved
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, January 2003
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. 2007, p. 204
Burbach, Roger and Tarbell, Jim.
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. 2004, p. 118
Hill, Frances.
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The Texas Observer
. February 5, 1999. Archived from
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on February 25, 2008.
"POLITICO: If Rick Perry gets in, will Karl Rove be out?"
Politico
Archived
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. Retrieved
September 10,
2010
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NPR.org
. Retrieved
May 18,
2020
"President Bush Thanks Americans in Wednesday Acceptance Speech"
. White House press release. November 3, 2004. Archived from
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on February 25, 2008.
David Jackson and
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(April 20, 2006).
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USA Today
. Gannett
. Retrieved
August 12,
2009
Coaston, Jane (January 7, 2020).
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Vox
. Retrieved
May 18,
2020
Isikoff, Michael (2007).
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Newsweek
. Retrieved
May 18,
2020
Kelli Arena (March 6, 2004).
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CNN
. Retrieved
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2006
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The Washington Post
Tom Hamburger and Sonni Efron (August 26, 2005).
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CNN
. Retrieved
December 14,
2006
McNerney, Pem (April 3, 2015).
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courant.com
. Retrieved
May 18,
2020
Tani, Maxwell (April 3, 2015).
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HuffPost
. Retrieved
May 18,
2020
Dish, The Daily (July 16, 2010).
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The Atlantic
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2020
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The New York Times
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2007
Johnston, David (June 13, 2006).
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The New York Times
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HuffPost
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Politico
Archived
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The Washington Post
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CNN
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CNN
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September 1,
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Hibberd, James.
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. The Live Feed.
"Edwards, Rove to face off in UB debate"
The Buffalo News
. July 4, 2008. Archived from
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on July 4, 2008.
"Wesley Clark to Replace John Edwards in Debate with Rove"
University of Buffalo
. September 5, 2008. Archived from
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2012
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Cillizza, Chris (April 5, 2010).
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The Washington Post
. Archived from
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"Organization Man: Karl Rove and the Rise of the SuperPAC"
The New Republic
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Bloomberg Businessweek
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Kroll, Andy (August 31, 2012).
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Mother Jones
. Archived from
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Killough, Ashley (August 31, 2012).
"TRENDING: Akin accepts apology from Rove over murder comment"
CNN
. Archived from
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"Akin Fiasco Gets Rove to Admit, Again, Why Crossroads Exists"
The Nation
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The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters
. New York:
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2020
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2020
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