Rove and His Memory Problem
I'm not buying the Rove defense that he simply didn't remember mentioning Joe Wilson's wife to Matt Cooper. I'll explain one reason in a moment. Here's an article in Slate by John Dickerson that came to my attention (thanks to BT) about Rove and Plamegate:
I could be wrong but something I suspect that is true about Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush is that if they remember anything, they remember their perceived political enemies and anything having to do with them. Richard Nixon had the same problem and could remember in detail slights that had happened twenty to thirty years earlier. We know that in the weeks before Joe Wilson's article appeared in July 2003, the Bush Administration was taking a keen interest in who he was and what he was doing. Nothing buzzes Karl Rove's batteries more than dealing with what he or George W. Bush consider a political problem and if the 'problem' is regarded as a political enemy, the kid gloves come off.
I suspect the only difference between Karl Rove's method and Richard Nixon's is that Nixon's gaffes taught people like Rove to be more subtle about protecting the president and smearing selected enemies. In the Bush White House, an anonymous off-the-cuff remark is too often not idle gossip but rather a political tool.
As for Karl Rove's defense that he can't remember every conservation with a reporter, even when, within days, there's a political firestorm around the issue that ought to stimulate the memory, Rove reminds me of a kid who cheerfully steals cookies from the cookie jar when he visits the poor family down the street; when the kid is asked if he stole the round half-eaten ginger cookie that's found on the sidewalk after he leaves, he half-truthfully says he doesn't remember eating a round ginger cookie. Of course the kid has been stealing round cookies, square cookies, oblong cookies, etc. and it's possible he hasn't paid much attention to their shape. In other words, a possibly technical truth should not obscure that we're dealing with a dishonest person.
It's true. Karl Rove is a very busy man. He is never at rest even in his own office chair. He spins between multiple computers. His assistants know that in an instant he can be hovering over their shoulders making sure they have the formatting for a document just right. His portfolio seems to include everything but the thickness of the marzipan on the White House Christmas candies. Rove does have a reputation for extraordinary recall when it comes to political facts. But anyone as busy as he is might have forgotten a single conversation with a reporter.
But wouldn't a man who has such a busy life filled with so many distractions have been extra careful to examine his memory and his files when the question of who revealed the identity of Joe Wilson's wife started to become an issue? Lots of important people in Washington were asking, and some of them had subpoena power.
I could be wrong but something I suspect that is true about Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush is that if they remember anything, they remember their perceived political enemies and anything having to do with them. Richard Nixon had the same problem and could remember in detail slights that had happened twenty to thirty years earlier. We know that in the weeks before Joe Wilson's article appeared in July 2003, the Bush Administration was taking a keen interest in who he was and what he was doing. Nothing buzzes Karl Rove's batteries more than dealing with what he or George W. Bush consider a political problem and if the 'problem' is regarded as a political enemy, the kid gloves come off.
I suspect the only difference between Karl Rove's method and Richard Nixon's is that Nixon's gaffes taught people like Rove to be more subtle about protecting the president and smearing selected enemies. In the Bush White House, an anonymous off-the-cuff remark is too often not idle gossip but rather a political tool.
As for Karl Rove's defense that he can't remember every conservation with a reporter, even when, within days, there's a political firestorm around the issue that ought to stimulate the memory, Rove reminds me of a kid who cheerfully steals cookies from the cookie jar when he visits the poor family down the street; when the kid is asked if he stole the round half-eaten ginger cookie that's found on the sidewalk after he leaves, he half-truthfully says he doesn't remember eating a round ginger cookie. Of course the kid has been stealing round cookies, square cookies, oblong cookies, etc. and it's possible he hasn't paid much attention to their shape. In other words, a possibly technical truth should not obscure that we're dealing with a dishonest person.
posted by Craig at 4:11 PM
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