the smart

Interesting. Most people find George Bush a little too lame-brained to be a president. It turns out he is!

This book starts with an introduction that copiously thanks Mr. Rove for all the time he gave the authors. Then they spend the rest of the book at least challenging his scruples. They contend, in effect, that Dubya doesn't run the country but Karl Rove does. (And neither one was elected!)

Rove started before college as a Young Republican where he rapidly worked up the ranks to become a leader. Once he slid into the world of the real campaign, apparently his ambition was to win at all costs. The authors document a series of actions for which Rove is clearly responsible. "Unscrupulous" is far too weak a word for the actions. It's like Rove read some of those books popular in the 80s that said to make it do whatever it takes. If it's at the expense--or hide--of someone else, so be it. So a series of people spent time in federal prisons on Rove's account, while others' lives were changed forever (some even became Democrats because of Karl's ruthlessness!)

The text then covers in considerable detail Dubya's rise to power in Texas (and how that state converted from a "Southern Democrat" state to a Republican state, largely with the aid of Rove. Then when Rove decided that Dubya was presidential material, he dropped hints as to McCain's mental suitability for office (because of McCain's time in a POW camp, which Dubya avoided with daddy Bush's help!) Some of the actions the authors document they admit that they have no black and white evidence that Rove was responsible for them. But they all but have his fingerprints on them, i.e., they're so similar to things for which he was obviously responsible before that they reek of Rove. It's much like a criminal record brought up in court.

Oh, and if your suspicious as to Dubya's motives for invading Iraq, one of the last chapters fairly well summarizes what some of us have suspected all along: with the economy in ghastly shape, and a mid-term election coming up, what better to get the "masses" riled up than--rah, rah--a war! (There are several volumes in Amazon.com more directly addressing that issue, but this volume summarizes those reasons quite well.)

While it may have sidetracked the subject of Rove, I only wish the authors had gone into more detail of the election of 2000 in which Dubya was not elected. Much has been written of that and to me much of it also has Rove's fingerprints all over it.

The book is particularly important because we, the electorate, need to know more about Rove and his kind. Again, he wasn't elected; he is far more manipulative of policy than Dubya is capable of being. And, again, Rove's lack of integrity is legendary. (I talked with a State Dept. official who's experienced Rove's fabrications too. He pretty well confirmed what the authors are saying.)

I don't want to discuss the "objectivity" of the authors, though they had lots of experience with Rove. And their work is certainly well-researched unlike the ranting of many a right wing demagogue from whom we frequently hear these days. But if you want to find a lot more about how the country runs these days, and who runs it, this is a book I'd recommend. I only wish I could be as eloquent as the authors in reviewing the book. But there's so much there, and it's disconcerting. It's hard to be too eloquent while fighting some of the rage Rove stimulates.

I leapt at the opportunity to read anything about the elusive and enigmatic Karl Rove. This man, like some political "Where's Waldo", is stitched into virtually every political scenario involving President Bush. I was curious about who this big nerdy looking dude was, how he got on the scene, and what he might want. The latter curiosity was perhaps my strongest. I wanted to know why the Campaign Consultant didn't go home after the election.

This book did a fairly good job of satisfying most of these curiosities. I now know about Karl Rove as a kid, Karl Rove as the know-it-all student, Karl Rove as the guerilla campaign consultant, and Karl Rove as the first ever "permanent consultant"; which is a unique (if not scary) position. It seems that Bush decided it would be a good idea to keep someone in the White House full-time to help him ascertain how certain policy decisions would likely play with the electorate.

Unfortunately, and most likely because of the unprecedented secrecy of this administration, that's really where "trail ends". The author doesn't offer much as to what Rove has been doing the last four years. I found that disappointing. Also, I found way to much "kenstaresque" witchhunting going on - he said/janitor said style accusations about impropriety in some of the campaigning he was involved in. Nothing juicy.

I would recommend this book for those who have an insatiable appetite to know everything publicly available about the Bush Administration. Even in that case, I'd recommend skimming through this book vs. reading carefully. I read carefully, and there just wasn't enough there there.

Christian Hunter
Santa Barbara, California

I have read several current books about the Bush Administration that seem to share one element: the quest for the source of decisionmaking in the Bush White House. Even the insiders are baffled as to who is making decisions. This book, of course, points the finger at Karl Rove. It paints an interesting and persuasive portrait of him as a brilliant and sometimes devious political strategist, who is shaping national and international policy with a long-term view towards, well, ostensibly politics and election(s).

I have a couple of problems with the book and my primary one may be unfair, but here goes. Ultimately, Rove is not the story. If he is behind decisions on steel tariffs and war in Iraq and a myriad of other important policy decisions, then the "story" is exactly the inverse: who is being marginalized from these decisions and/or the lack of a sound decisionmaking framework in the Bush White House. Or, similarly, that the decisions are political and are being made by people who were never elected to office. So I guess I would have been happy with a nice, say, New Yorker article detailing the significant influence of Karl Rove - but for me it wasn't quite enough for a book. And the elements that I found interesting, the significant policy decisions - were not explored to the extent I would have liked.

I also had a problem with the Foreword that has been added to the latest edition. It basically argues that Rove must be behind the White House leak revealing Ambassador Wilson's wife as CIA undercover agent because, well, this is the sort of thing Rove does, it bears his signature. As much as I love a good conspiracy theory, I found this very weak and just not a solid way to start the book. It seemed gratuitous; the authors establish their point about Rove in the book - no need to mix inference (the Foreword) with their attempt to present solid factual research in the book itself.