some Karl Rove factoids

[roguevalley]

For some reason I was looking for my credit union and wikipedia popped open on the Karl Rove page. I don't know but for the grace of ... something, I saw this:

Rove learned at age nineteen, during his parents' divorce, that the man who raised him, a mineral geologist, was not his biological father. Rove's mother committed suicide in Reno, Nevada, in 1981 (New Yorker profile <5>).

and this:

In 1970, as a protégé of Donald Segretti (later convicted as a Watergate conspirator), Rove snuck into the campaign office of Illinois Democrat Alan Dixon and stole some letterhead, which he used to print fake campaign rally fliers promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing," and distributed them at rock concerts and homeless shelters. Rove admitted the incident years later, saying "I was nineteen and I got involved in a political prank." (The Nation).


A small role in the Watergate saga

On August 10, 1973, in the midst of the Watergate scandal, Rove was the subject of a Washington Post article titled "Republican Party Probes Official as Teacher of Tricks." The article, which was sourced to tape-recorded conversations, reported how the 22-year-old Rove and a colleague had been touring the country giving young Republicans "dirty tricks" training, complete with stories of derring-do such as the heist at the Dixon headquarters. At the request of then-Chairman of the Republican National Committee George H.W. Bush, Rove was questioned by the FBI.<2> Rove's mentor Lee Atwater signed an affidavit stating that the admissions caught on tape, including the Dixon heist, were made merely "in jest." <3>

Watergate veteran John Dean corroborates the investigation of Rove during Watergate: "...Based on my review of the files, it appears the Watergate prosecutors were interested in Rove's activities in 1972, but because they had bigger fish to fry they did not aggressively investigate him." <4>

and this:

Rove's 1977 marriage to Valerie Wainright was short-lived. Rove remarried in 1986 and has a teenage son by his wife, Darby.<6>

Allegations of conflict of interest

In March 2001, Rove met with executives from Intel, successfully advocating a merger between a Dutch company and an Intel company supplier. Rove owned $100,000 in Intel stock at the time. In June 2001, Rove met with two pharmaceutical industry lobbyists. At the time, Rove held almost $250,000 in drug industry stocks. On 30 June 2001, Rove divested his stocks in 23 companies, which included more than $100,000 in each of Enron, Boeing, General Electric, and Pfizer. On 30 June 2001, the White House admitted that Rove was involved in administration energy policy meetings, while at the same time holding stock in energy companies including Enron.

and finally:

Trivia
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about:
Karl Rove

* On 8 December 2004, Rove was named by Barbara Walters as the "Most Fascinating Person" of the year.

* George W. Bush has referred to Karl Rove as "The Boy Genius", "The Architect" and "Turd Blossom," <122> a Texan term for a flower which grows from a pile of cow dung. <123>

* Karl Rove is known for careful management of the press, including the use of humor to put reporters at ease.

* Karl Rove is a Norwegian-American. According to Bob Woodward's recent book, Rove is obsessed with the "historical duplicity" of the Swedes, who seized Norway back in 1814. According to Woodward, this nationalism manifested itself as hatred for Swedish weapons inspector Hans Blix. <124>

* Rove is also fascinated by Mark Hanna, President William McKinley's political adviser.

* Karl Rove's alleged reputation for political dirty tricks is such that, among both his supporters and critics the phrase "Rovian" has come to be used as a synonym for "Machiavellian". The documentary Bush's Brain “…depicts Rove as the most powerful political consultant in American history and, in essence, a co-president” according to USA Today. <125>

* The television show American Dad depicted Rove as a shadowy figure clad in a red robe and cowl, a visual allusion to the villainous Star Wars character Emperor Palpatine. Whenever his name is said a wolf howls (In much the same way that horses whinny when in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, Frau Blücher's name is said). When he tried to enter a church, he began to burn; when he later departed the scene, he transformed into a swarm of bats.