Karl Rove Testifies for the Fourth Time Today

Who's guessing Kevin Costner will play Patrick Fitzgerald in the movie. I can just imagine him sitting next to Martin Landau (sitting in for Donald Sutherland) as he is told: "This goes all the way to the top. But the top, this time, isn't the President. Be careful, Patrick."

Rove has been the public face of the worst of politics for years; proudly wearing the pig-mask of Machiavellian manipulator. His fatal flaw will undoubtedly be the opposite of Nixon's: confidence. If he is charged (I suspect of obstruction of justice) he will never receive the retroactive pity that Nixon has enjoyed. Rove is someone who deserves to be taken down a peg, at the very least for cultivating the popular belief that politics is about winning, about spinning, and not about representing the public.

The Bush hive makes one almost long for a man like Nixon in the White House. Because for all of Nixon's faults, indiscretions and lies; he was a man whose conscience existed and was eating him up in front of the camera. He was, by all accounts, paranoid, fervent in his desire to be loved, and displayed the kind of madness that one might find in the Tell-Tale Heart. The sort of man who knows he is dishonorable, and is only waiting to be caught and unburdened of his shame.

To say Bush has no shame is the same as saying a child has none. Some call this underestimating, but I have not seen this hidden intelligence that some say he actively hides. Instead, I see an impudent frat boy, with a great deal of money and exellent handlers. One such pedigree and such a powerful network that he was always going to be powerful, from the day he was born.

Rove, from all I can observe at this great distance, is worse. Rove is said to be an intelligent man, and his is. His greatest compliments come to his ability to create votes, control the media, bully his political "allies" into compliance; to create as much certainty and as little Democratic debate as possible, all in the name of consolidated power.

One can hope that Rove will be the last of the Kingmakers; it's a dishonorable title to have in a nation that strives for equalitarian government. There may always be men who find they live in great glory through the manipulation of the public; but let's put them back in advertising and keep them away from anyone who has the power to make war.