Search

Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush... : Review

starstarstarstar
The great joke implicit in the title of this talking-head documentary is that contrary to what many liberals would have you believe, President George W. Bush does in fact have brain — it's inside Karl Rove's head. Bah-dah-dum!. Rove has been Bush's chief political guru throughout his career in politics and, as journalists James Moore and Wayne Slater argued in their 2003 Rove expose, Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, he's also his alter ego. Long before Bush ever even considered running for governor of Texas, Rove saw his potential. Bush was everything the geeky political junkie from Salt Lake City wasn't: An oil-rich, blue-blooded Yankee with an Ivy League education, an unbeatable political pedigree and great personal charm. In Rove, who first consolidated his power as an influential direct-marketing specialist, Bush found a Republican Party loyalist with a pit-bull approach to partisan politics, an encyclopedic mind for U.S. political campaign history — not bad for a guy who never graduated from college — and a Machiavellian ruthlessness that has earned him a reputation for running winning political campaigns while turning anyone who dares cross him into political roadkill. The film basically follows Moore and Slater's book, but without the details that reveal the strange complexity of the Bush-Rove symbiosis. Instead we get the highlights, beginning with the scandal over the bug found in Rove's office during the 1986 gubernatorial campaign of his client, former Texas governor Bill Clements, that many believe was planted by Rove himself. The film then jumps back to Rove's early years in the College Republicans, through which he first met then-RNC chairman George H. Bush and his son, George W.; Rove's involvement in the merciless investigation of the Texas Agricultural Department that ended careers and ruined lives; and Rove's campaign to unseat the enormously popular Texas governor Ann Richards and pave the way for Rove's dream-come-true: a successful presidential campaign for the twice-elected governor of Texas, George W. Bush. Of course none of Rove's alleged dirty tricks are ever traced back to the man himself — the biggest irony about the "Mark of Rove" is that it's invisible — not even in what may turn out to be the biggest scandal yet: the retaliatory outing of an undercover CIA operative whose husband dared contradict the Bush White House. The film poses an interesting question — doesn't the very existence of the unelected, unconfirmed and very powerful Rove violate the very idea of democracy? — but few of the Texas witnesses to Rove's reign and Beltway insiders interviewed here offer much of an answer. Rove, who politely declined to be interviewed for this documentary, is only present in a 15-page fax he fired off to Slater after reading through an advance copy of his manuscript. Not surprisingly, he denies just about everything. leave a comment --Ken Fox
Advertisement

Advertisement

Most Popular TV Shows

  1. NCIS
  2. Dancing with the Stars
  3. The Game
  4. Biggest Loser
  5. American Idol
more popular tv shows

Most Popular Celebrities

  1. Morgan Freeman
  2. Tiger Woods
  3. Drew Barrymore
  4. Jake Gyllenhaal
  5. Robert De Niro
more popular celebrities

Most Popular Movies

  1. The Twilight Saga: New Moon
  2. The Blind Side
  3. 2012
  4. Old Dogs
  5. A Christmas Carol
more popular movies

Top Videos

  1. Victorias Secret
  2. Glee
  3. Biggest Loser
  4. Desperate Housewives
  5. NCIS
more top videos