Wordcruncher

Rats! The End of the Myth of Rove

The item that I think will carry the most impact when it comes to Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation into the Valerie Plame leak is the CIA damage assessment report, which will detail the damage done to any CIA assets as a result of the leak. It was this report that, I believe, carried the heft to force then-Attorney General John Ashcroft -- a client of Senior Presidential Advisor Karl Rove’s political consultancy -- to recuse himself from the case.

Of course, we know nothing about the report. Not a word of it has leaked. We know that Valerie Plame worked for Brewster-Jennings & Associates, a CIA front organization that was used to infiltrate organizations attempting to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Not only did Chicago Tribune columnist Robert Novak “out” Valerie Plame as a CIA operative, he also exposed the front organization in an interview with CNN, in which he stated, “Wilson's wife, the CIA employee, gave $1,000 to (Vice President Al) Gore and she listed herself as an employee of Brewster-Jennings & Associates. There is no such firm, I'm convinced."

All of Mr. Rove’s lawyer’s public tap dancing, any smearing of the special prosecutor and any other damage control methods will be unable to counter the potential damage done to CIA assets. We should all hope no one was hurt or killed as a result of the leak but someone, perhaps more than one, may have suffered such a fate as a consequence.

If Mr. Rove’s career isn’t similarly damaged, at least one result will be the death of the Myth of Rove.

Karl Rove isn’t the political genius the right thinks he is, nor is he the strategic mastermind the left fears (and craves). The secret to his success is a desire for absolute power, a weakness for strength that could be a Shakespearean character’s tragic flaw. His downfall will repeat one of history’s oldest lessons: Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Mr. Rove may or may not be the pillar upon which much of today’s Republican Party rests. Yet when one examines his hold on power, it appears that a mighty vacuum will need filling. Many have believed that Vice President Dick Cheney is the real force behind the throne. As the shepherd of the neo-cons, Mr. Cheney has influenced -- and severely damaged -- American foreign policy. Meanwhile, Mr. Rove’s acolytes populate congress, the Supreme Court and the media.

They aren’t hard to identify. The most common traits are a lack of intellectual curiosity, a fierce loyalty to the White House and an ego that craves positions of power and prominence. Combine these three traits and you have an easily manipulated pawn.

Intellectual curiosity begets a tendency to debate thoughtfully; this is unacceptable when the White House has legislation it wishes to push through without public knowledge (Mr. Cheney’s energy policy, the PATRIOT Act, the Medicare bill and FCC deregulation, to name a few). A fierce loyalty to the White House is required to stifle dissent within the ranks. People who aren’t fiercely loyal tend to squawk (Senator John McCain and the recent military appropriation bill’s torture amendment), publish books (former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill) or testify before independent panels (former security czar Richard Clarke). They cause problems.

Better to have someone who owes his position to Mr. Rove. Often, these positions were attained using another valued Rovian tactic, character assassination. Anyone who remembers the Swift Boat slanders need look no further for an example (but just in case, there’s the Max Cleland and the John McCain smears, plus more here).

This isn’t genius. These are the lessons in dirty tricks – affectionately termed “rat-fucking” by Richard Nixon’s operatives – that Mr. Rove learned from Donald Segretti. His way is to dive deeper into the dumpster than anyone else.

Mr. Rove reached his zenith of power after the 2002 elections, which ushered many of his loyal troops into positions of leadership in congress. At the moment, his hold on power is tenuous -- as is the structure upon which it rests. If Mr. Rove is indicted, he faces the delicious irony of having rat-fucked himself.

UPDATE: I couldn't resist adding this eloquent comment from Billmon, writing about the Harriett Miers and conservative movementarians squabble:

The Rovian game plan is, in all its essentials, the same sleazy blend of double speak, half-truths, non sequiturs, demagogic appeals and knees-to-the-groin smears that were used to sell the invasion of Iraq.