The Knower of All-Knowing Knowledge: Karl Rove

As a long time observer of Karl Rove there is great entertainment in watching a rare moment of tribulation for the presidential counselor. Funny thing is, it's all happened before on a lesser scale when nobody but us obscure Texas reporters were paying attention. But if ever there were an iconic example of history's repetitive nature, our man from Utah presently carries that banner.

Back in 1991, Rove had been nominated to a seat on the Board of Regents for East Texas State University. Unfortunately, he had to undergo those pesky nomination hearings where he was to be held accountable for his previous behavior (which is never a happy time for Karl). Democrats were in charge of the Teas Senate committee asking questions and it was the first time they had gotten access to Rove. And there were many topics to chat about with Karl.

Their two primary interests were an alleged bugging of Rove's office and a politically debilitating investigation into the office of Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower and other Democrats. FBI evidence later indicated the bugging of Rove's office was an inside job. Though he was never charged, during the incident Rove made the acquaintance of an FBI agent named Greg Rampton. Rampton, another Utah boy who also displayed a penchant for distrusting Democrats, later summarily launched investigations into every state wide Democratic officeholder in Texas. Rove, during the probe, leaked information about subpoaenas to reporters before they were ever issued and people I interviewed told me that they had been informed by the FBI that if they had any information on Hightower that they were to share it with Rove and he would pass it on to the investigating agent. Rove's role could easily be interpreted as acting as a filter so that the FBI was not bothered with anything unless it was damaging.

Hightower, in the midst of a national political ascension, was brought down by the investigation's bad publicity and, in the case of the bugging, the news coverage turned around a flagging Republican campaign for Texas governor that was being managed by Rove. Obviously, the Democrats were, therefore, drooling over the chance to nail Rove on these allegations. But he was not to be touched.

Senator Bob Glasgow, the Democrat who chaired the hearing, asked the first question.

"Mr. Rove, would you now tell us publicly who bugged your office that you blamed upon Mark White [Democratic candidate for governor] publicly and in the press statewide?"

In his response, Rove showed the language parsing skills he is strutting today as investigators try to close their circle around the operative.

"First of all," Rove said, "I did not blame it on Mark White. If you'll recall, I specifically said at the time that we disclosed the bugging that we did not know who did it, but we knew who might benefit from it. And no, I do not know."

So, why blame it directly on White when you can just explain that he would benefit from whoever did it? Rove did not see any point in pointing fingers. He'd let the media do that, and we did.

Glasgow resumed by asking Rove if he "knew" an FBI agent named Greg Rampton. Rove, just as his attorney Robert Luskin is presently doing, turned language manipulation into an art form.

"Depends on what you mean by 'know,' senator," Rove explained. (Years before Bill Clinton was asking what the definition of is - is, Rove wanted to know what was meant by know.)

The answer he gave the committee proscribes precisely the word play Luskin is engaged in presently as he explains that Rove did not "knowingly" expose Valerie Plame. Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will have a hard time proving what Karl Rove "knew" just as the Texas Senate was unable to get Rove to admit he "knew" and worked with an FBI agent on investigations into the offices of the land commissioner, lieutenant governor, ag commissioner, and anyone else who had a D beside their name. Not a one of them ever faced charges but everyone of them endured political harm caused by the investigation and the constant leaking of information in advance about subpoaenas and the types of records a "federal investigator" was seeking.

The hallmarks of a Rove smear job are always the same: leak, lie, defame, obfuscate, and deny. He did it when he began a whisper campaign about Gov. Ann Richards' sexuality. He did it when he used surrogates in South Carolina to suggest that Sen. John McCain was mentally unstable and may have fathered a black child out of wedlock and he did it in the last election when he used the Swift Boat Veterans as a front group to proffer lies about John Kerry's time in Vietnam.

But hell, I don't know how to do anything but laugh about it all because I'm confident he is going to get away with it all again.