With all this Rove chatter I think it's high time to reprint my notes regarding my meeting with Bush's Brain at the Republican Convention.
August 30, 2004
I'm in the hallway at Madison Square Garden leading out from Radio Row through the filing center to the escalator which leads into the convention. Karl Rove just passed me. He looked down on me smiling. It was the friendly smile of a man trying to make contact, not so disimilar from the men who used to promise me things when I was a stripper twelve years ago in Chicago. The Jons would say things like, "What do you want to do? Are you an actor? I can help you. I know an agent." That's the way they were, always making promises they had no intention of keeping, anything to get their fingers dirty. "Come over," they would say. "I have a limousine out front. I'll send the maid home." Then they would stuff a dollar bill in your underwear as if they were big spenders.
Anyway, that's how Karl Rove looked at me and when I looked up the second time and he was still looking at me he said, "I like your Mac." He said. "That's a nice computer." He didn't nod, just smiled, his head didn't so much turn as swivel. It was just like that. He was being sincere. He was trying to connect. There was a large entourage following behind him and he slowed down just enough, never losing that sanguine smile, and then whammo, he was off.
You can say what you want about truth and speculation and you can interpret your own meaning from the things that happen inside Madison Square Garden this week. But what I'm saying is true. There were witnesses. Intent, like predicting the weather, is open for debate. But I saw what I saw. It's been twelve years since I pulled on a g-string and danced on a lit box in one of the clubs on Clark Street, but I've still got it. And I know exactly what Rove was trying to do.
p.s. for a serious look at Karl Rove's unraveling check out Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo