The Usual Suspect (9/19/04)
by Dean Hartwell
CBS’ 60 Minutes recently revealed documents that show that President Bush received preferential treatment in the Texas Air National Guard despite not performing his duties. This revelation has undergone intense scrutiny, as many believe that the documents are forgeries.
If the documents are forged, who did the forging? The Democrats? Probably not. No Democrat has been linked to this type of activity. The information in the memos has already been reported. Besides, they had the opportunity to forge documents in the 2000 Presidential campaign and did not do so.
Dan Rather has refused to disclose his source for the information. Some people believe that Bush advisor Karl Rove arranged for someone to give them to CBS. The news that the documents are fake, the theory goes, could only help the Bush campaign.
Let’s look at other controversies involving Karl Rove over the years.
In 1986, Republican Bill Clements challenged Democratic Governor Mark White for governor of Texas. Just before a debate between the two, Rove claimed that his office had been bugged. The media, despite any proof of wrongdoing, reported a bugging and Clements rolled to a victory (Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen1101.html).
This incident is part of the Karl Rove legacy. He used a desperate ploy to misdirect the media at a crucial juncture of a political campaign. But a close look at his work under George W. Bush suggests that someone else has used this strategy.
Last year, Robert Novak, a nationally syndicated columnist, “outed” the wife of a United States Ambassador as a CIA operative. This revelation took place after the Ambassador, Joseph Wilson, had written a report refuting the Bush Administration’s contention that Iraq had sought yellow cake uranium from Niger. Many suspected someone in the administration and Rove in particular as the source of the leak (Source: http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2004/03/waas-m-03-08.html).
Wilson reported receiving a phone message that Karl Rove had said his wife was “fair game” (Source: http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=2&contentid=955). That message fits in with the likely Rove motivation: to send a message to others in the Bush Administration not to speak out against it. However, Wilson retracted an earlier statement that he thought Rove was behind the outing.
In the 2002 mid-term election, Republican Saxby Chambliss challenged Max Cleland for his Senate seat in Georgia. The Chambliss campaign ran advertisements with pictures of Cleland alongside those of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden (Source: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/924026/posts).
Democrats yelled outrage at this smear of Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam. Once more, Bush’s opponents accused Rove of being behind it.
In the 2000 election, John McCain won the New Hampshire primary for the Republican Party. The campaign then moved to the next primary, South Carolina. There, Bush supporters handed out flyers and made telephone “push polls” that McCain had fathered a black baby by a prostitute and that he was unstable from being held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam (Source: http://www.deal-with-it.org/jokers/rove.htm).
Again, Bush detractors thought it was Rove who engineered these attacks. But no one has ever proven it.
When controversy arises in the Bush White House, fingers almost always point toward Rove as the culprit. But John Dean, a veteran of the Nixon White House, says that “dirty tricks” and other hardball political tactics always have the approval of the one who sits in the Oval Office.
If we look at each of these incidents, it should become clear that Karl Rove is a lightning rod for President Bush. The President thus has cover to conduct controversial activities knowing full well the public will blame Rove.
In the CBS memo situation, Bush has much to gain if the memos are conclusively revealed to be fakes. He will look like a victim. Some people will begin to disbelieve the content of the memos and think that Bush actually performed his duties for the Texas Air National Guard. And, the look of suspicion will point back at the Democrats.
It is time to stop looking at Bush as an unwitting accomplice to these tactics. If Republicans are found to be behind the release of forged documents, we should aim the blame at the top.