[Mb-civic] Rove's Last Campaign - Dan Froomkin - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

Rove's Last Campaign

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, October 26, 2005; 3:39 PM

Will Karl Rove, architect of President Bush's improbable political 
career, snatch one last victory from the jaws of defeat? (Or at least 
avoid getting indicted?)

Something appears to have provoked special prosecutor Patrick J. 
Fitzgerald into a last-minute flurry of activity centered around Rove.

Tom Hamburger, Richard B. Schmitt and Peter Wallsten write in the Los 
Angeles Times: "Prosecutors investigating the leak of a CIA agent's 
identity returned their attention to powerful White House advisor Karl 
Rove on Tuesday, questioning a former West Wing colleague about contacts 
Rove had with reporters in the days leading to the outing of a covert 
CIA officer. . . .

"Fitzgerald's investigators asked the former colleague about any 
comments Rove may have made about his conversations with journalists in 
the days before Plame's name was made public by syndicated columnist 
Robert Novak."

Whether this is good or bad news for Rove is unclear. But here's what 
you need to keep in mind: There is every reason to think that Rove is 
throwing every move he's got at Fitzgerald in an attempt to escape 
criminal charges.

In the Atlantic magazine's seminal profile of Rove last year, Joshua 
Green wrote that throughout his storied career, Rove has been at his 
most ferocious and wily when cornered.

"By any standard he is an extremely talented political strategist whose 
skill at understanding how to run campaigns and motivate voters would be 
impressive even if he used no extreme tactics. But he does use them.

"Anyone who takes an honest look at his history will come away awed by 
Rove's power, when challenged, to draw on an animal ferocity that far 
exceeds the chest-thumping bravado common to professional political 
operatives."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/10/26/BL2005102601379.html
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