Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight

Courage and Consequence:

My Life as a Conservative in the Fight

Hardcover Edition (2010)

by Karl Rove

Lucky Rove escapes the grueling Grand Jury to make this public appeal with impunity., April 10, 2010

            Lewis "Scooter" Libby pops up on the second page of the Prologue. Libby's testimony in front of the Grand Jury landed him in prison despite Rove's initial release of the classified in formation that incriminated Libby. George Bush played safer by hanging to Chaney's presence in their informal testimony. Karl Rove's credibility could be assessed form his casual statement on page 238, in which Rove wondered why the FAA and airlines force passengers to turn off their wireless devices. Rove claims: "My BlackBerry didn't interfere with the operation of Air Force One on September 11". How did Rove discern that his use of his BlackBerry on that date and airplane did not bring the airplane down was because he concluded that the airplane kept flying. This simplistic analysis will dominate Rove's approach to most of his writings. In chapter 21, "Bush Was Right On Iraq", Rove adopted his previous casual analysis to justify the Iraq war. His justification was with and without those Bush would have never invaded Iraq. The only facts Rove offered were that many senators from both parties urged Bush to find Saddarn's WMD before the war. Even though Rove cites Daschle's "War is a very powerful word", on page 271, Rove himself was taken aback by the Democratic leader's unexpected resentment for declaring war on faceless terrorists. The most shocking facts the book discloses are the events that took place on 9/11 within 102 minutes. The president of the United States and his immediate seniors were in Florida, a day earlier, to promote the No Child Left Behind legislation by getting the president to read a book on the Civil War to the second graders at Emma E. Booker Elementary School. The president ran five miles prior to starting his Elementary School lecturing after 8:30 am. At 8:46 am. 9:03 am, and 9:38 am, three hijacked airplanes struck the WTC and the Pentagon. No single Air Defense interception of those occurred in the 17 and 30 minutes intervals between each attack. Then comes the most perplexing question from Dick Cheney phoning the president, twice, asking for authorization to shot down uncontrolled hijacked airplanes that refused to heed orders. As if that was too complicated for the VP to decide without phoning the president. 

Soon after, United Airlines Flight 93 was claimed to have been brought down by the charismatic acts of its passengers, which was disputed by many sources. Rove describes the backwards technology on Air Force One that prevented the president of the United States to watch live TV when the nation was in war from 102 long minutes. Worse yet, was the fact that the president was prevented from arriving to Washington, D.C., until 8:45 pm in the evening. That is almost 12 hours after the war started. Rove explains how those 102 minutes were the longest minutes in the history that transformed the president's policy from domestic into national security issues. As lithe president who was on the job since January 20, 2001, could not define his responsibility until September 11, 2001 arrived. Running early in the morning and lecturing eight-year old kids on the Civil War was the main occupation of Bush for eight months. Rove's personal endeavor to climb from despair and poverty to such prominent status is well narrated. He does not hide his mother's mental illness that kept husbands at bay, attempted to blur his father's and his own ex-wife's entanglements with his growing up. Yet, Rove admits his dirty tricks in campaigning from his early twenties. One of those almost eliminated him completely from politics when is he maliciously advertised for the opposing Democratic candidate by promising voters with free beer, girls, and good times, at no expense. Another, when he cheated an opponent in students' election and started an investigation. Yet, Rove's ascent to such prominence is reasonably explained. His broken family led him to find his way in life. A motivating history teacher led him to engage in political campaigning. Here, he learned and mastered the art of organizing a political campaign, getting information to the running candidate, getting money to the campaign, and getting voters to believe in the campaign mission. Rove succinctly explains that dirty tricks are one of among many factors that make a successful political campaign. That being the main mission of the campaign, the image, the effort to advance both of the above, and most importantly is the cycle of the national theater in favor or against one party or another. The dirty tricks play into the image factor but could not sway from the larger issue such economy or national security. Rove then splits the campaign mission into one-sided issues and two-sided issues, economy being the former and abortion the latter. He asserts that the campaigner must clearly ascertain his/her stand on the two-sided issues if he/she is to earn the trust of voters. His supporting evidence, Obarna was vague on abortion yet won on the one-sided issue of economy and the national cycle of mistrusting the GOP. Rove's genius is his perseverance in the mailroom and customer service business that led him to climb to the position of presidential advisor without college degree or any advanced or standard education. All Rove has to do was to master the trust and loyalty business, send mail to willing donors, answer phones, and tell people what they want to hear. Rove's learned the hard way, what al I law students learn after long and tedious practice: 'Tit is all about winning". And Rove won at all costs including escaping prison hair thin.