What book is Rove holding?

[sabra]

[jean]

1. looks like Nikita K's mug on the cover ...

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. Yup. The title is...

"Machiavelli and Hitler were Amateurs: How To Win Influence and Eliminate Enemies"

[blm]

16. You missed the subtitle - Why we Bought Control of the Media in the 80s and 90s.

.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

4. sure does.

Wonder if he's planning on having * bang his shoe on a table?

[Waya]

7. It is.....

[RobertSeattle]

2. Khrushchev's Cold War: The Inside Story of an American Adversary

[Fridays Child]

11. Hardly surprising.

Neocons use the Cold War as the model for all of their foreign policy folly.

[sabra]

12. thanks!

[TahitiNut]

13. Yep.

http://www.amazon.com/Khrushchevs-Cold-War-American-Adv...

[bdamomma]

40. maybe it's required reading for the PNAC crowd.

[riderinthestorm]

17. Chilling. Rove is evil and intelligent and here we have him studying past fascists.

I am way too suspicious - this gives me the creeps.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Quibble

Khrushev was not a fascist

He was a dictator, a left wing authorianrian and I am sure as far as the prole is concenred not that different, but he was not a fascist

Be careful with the language

[riderinthestorm]

23. I almost used "dictator"!

I stand corrected. As I was typing I was trying to organize the characteristics in my head and assign the proper "title" (cough) to Kruschev. Frankly, dictator and authoritarian could be argued to be even scarier.

Thanks for catching the diff!

[Sir Jeffrey]

25. Another slight quibble...

Rove is not intelligent. Rove is amoral. This is an important distinction. His actions are not overly impressive or showing any real sense of vision. He does things that make honest people recoil in disgust.

If he had any level of intelligence, he would not have the Republican party in the situation it is in currently. After 9/11 he could have established GOP rule for decades. Instead, he ran the party into the ground in about five years.

[riderinthestorm]

28. I can agree with amoral too but I really do believe he is intelligent.

Psychopaths are intelligent, so are sociopaths, and they usually fuck up at some point - especially when they are peaking in their mania imho. I'm thinking the pressure of this level of politics has perhaps thrown off Rove's usual game of evil success which is why he hasn't maximized.

Also, I'm not sure Rove is the sole player here - many other agendas were/are working to different goals: BFEE has their goals, the Carlisle group has another, Halliburton/Cheney are probably working their own angle - the Rethug party provides an umbrella for the maggots to hide under but I believe they are all squirming in a lot of different directions which is muddying up the turf and making it hard to accomplish one single goal like GOP domination for decades.

[Sir Jeffrey]

30. I just disagree with you on that point...

although I will say that many of the BFEE/Carlyle/Halliburton types are intelligent and amoral (probably immoral). Ari Fleischer is probably intelligent, Frank Carlucci is intelligent, Roger Ailes is intelligent, GHWB is intelligent (just to name some examples).

I just have no sense that Rove really knows what he is doing. I have heard him speak, I know his background, education level, etc. Nothing stands out for me that exhibits anything beyond a third year political science major smart enough to read his conservative prof's analysis of "The Prince" but too dumb to read "The Republic" on his own and too dumb to write a thesis that would pass muster with his dept.

IMO It doesn't take an intelligent person to call your opponent names or lie about them. It doesn't take an intelligent person to lie under oath or lie to the press. It doesn't take any noteworthy level of intelligence to scare people with attack ads and call your political opponents terrorist appeasers. It just takes an amoral ass who hasn't been caught. At least not yet.

[riderinthestorm]

33. He reminds me of Hoover - another evil political genius

of epic proportions. I believe Rove is Bush's blackmailer, I believe Rove masterminds the black ops intelligence collection that's been so effective in keeping the cats corralled. I think he does read and study techniques that have been effectively used by fascist and dictatorial regimes, and he knows how to shape and apply them.

I think he has a PhD in his "art of political persuasion" of the most criminal and amoral kind. I also believe he will never be "caught" via conventional means like subpeonas or any kind of judicial process - we need pics of him in a dress.

[Sir Jeffrey]

34. We're looking at intelligence differently...

he has obviously studied past methods of political persuasion...especially those employed by the 3rd Reich.

Political persuasion is a lot more science than art, though. I contend that true intelligence would consist of more than just learning the science of how to persuade this group of racists and that group of gay-bashers.

I will say that he appears to be smart enough not to prance around in a dress on camera though. He is just not smart enough to keep his fingerprints off of federal crimes.

[riderinthestorm]

37. Yes, I believe we are using it and defining "intelligent" in a small but different way

Astute observation which would lead me to agree that we are probably both correct, according to our own particular version.

Anyway, I would also state that I believe Rove's job description goes beyond political persuader. What he does could be described as "art" that is individually crafted by him, an original with heavy influences of past masters that indicates his masterful proficiency and deep study. There's intelligence in that: surely of an evil shape and type that is abhorrent but powerful nonetheless.

[Sir Jeffrey]

41. I mostly agree with that...

I should say that I was a poli sci major in college, so a lot of what Rove does looks, to me, very simplistic and poorly thought out. I would agree that Rove is excellent at co-opting various elements of successful fascist and totalitarian political movements. I am certain he has studied propaganda techniques (of which the OP's photo is surely one example among millions).

However, I would argue that the subsequent failures of the Bush administration at maintaining their control and authority mirrors the collapse of the very same totalitarian regimes from which they co-opt. This is where a higher level of intelligence would kick into gear and add to the accumulated knowledge with keen insight and an ability to read the situation accurately. A higher intelligence would make necessary changes and still win.

Rove, Bush's brain, is unable to come up with anything beyond stay the course because of the narrow political lessons he learned. He doesn't *think* for himself....rather, his ideology is based upon his accumulated knowledge and, as we all should know by now, ideology is a crutch dumb people use so they don't have to think and react on their own.

So how about this: Rove knows a lot of stuff, and he is good at applying his knowledge, but he is dumb when it comes to thinking on his own and reacting to changing events and unintended consequences.

[riderinthestorm]

43. Great post!

But...

Rove's job up until now has been to get Bush into office and keep him there. His job also entails corralling the cats and keeping them in line (which he does with black ops intelligence) PLUS I believe he is also the propaganda director. I think he does other stuff too but these are the tasks we are reasonably certain of. That's a tough gig that he performs masterfully imho. Perhaps we can even say with hooverian genius.

As to Rove's failure to perpetuate a Rethug dynasty (by exploiting the 911 aura Bush gained for example), I believe he ran smack into the PNACers and their agendas (yes, plural since some of them are true imperialists and others are just greedy capitalists). I don't think his failure is due to his lack of intelligence but by his running smack into the brick wall of people more powerful than he. He has met his match and he is outmaneuvered by the GHWBush's and the Saudi ruling family and....

Furthermore, I believe Bush Jr. thinks Rove can help Jr. be a playa amongst the BIG PLAYERS which is why Bush Jr. is so loathe to give up Karl. Rove has successfully steered his ship so far, he needs his captain.

(theorizes a long-ago history major who obviously is realizing decades later that she is probably a wanna-be poli sci major - alas too late now.)

[Mabus]

5. At first glance it reminded me of the Necronomicon

which would make Rove Abdul Alhazred, but it's not.

[ThoughtCriminal]

6. Khrushchevs Cold War

Khrushchevs Cold War by Aleksandr Fursenko

http://www.amazon.ca/Khrushchevs-Cold-War-Aleksandr-Fur...

[whistle]

21. 640 pages is not something KKKarl Rove would read so he must

...have been paid by the publisher to flash the cover to sell more copies:

<snip>
Product Details

Hardcover: 640 pages
Publisher: WW Norton (Oct 17 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393058093
ISBN-13: 978-0393058093
Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 5.1 cm
Shipping Weight: 1.1 Kg
Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #40,206 in Books

(Improve Your Sales)

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly
In the crowded field of Cold War historiography, Fursenko and Naftali continue to unearth valuable gems from newly available Soviet government documents, a portion of which were first put to use in their history of the 1962 U.S.-Soviet standoff over Cuba (One Hell of a Gamble). Building on increased access to such material, they develop a fascinating picture of the inner dynamics of the Soviet state and its leadership during the Khrushchev era that far surpasses anything U.S. intelligence could manage at the time. They make a convincing case that Khrushchev's major, post-Stalin reorientation of Soviet foreign policy was rooted in competition on the global playing field (and a policy of social regeneration at home), along with a need to cloak the U.S.S.R.'s weaknesses in arms and resources vis-à-vis the U.S. This volatile combination reinforces a strategy of bluffs and brinkmanship in several Cold War crises between 1956 and 1962—in the Middle East, Central Europe and the Caribbean. Yet perhaps most surprisingly, Khrushchev's foreign policy—despite an energy that, when unchecked, "tended toward recklessness"—came with a genuine desire for peaceful coexistence between the superpowers not seen again until Gorbachev. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book Description
What the Kremlin wanted during the Cold War—and what it was willing to do to get it.

Nikita Khrushchev was a leader who risked war to get peace during the most dangerous years of the twentieth century. In Khrushchev's Cold War, Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali, authors of the Cuban missile crisis classic "One Hell of a Gamble," bring to life head-to-head confrontations between Khrushchev and Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. Drawing from their unrivaled access to Politburo and Soviet intelligence materials, they reveal for the first time three moments when Khrushchev's inner circle restrained him from plunging the superpowers into war. Combining new insights into the Cuban crisis, startling narratives on the hot spots of Suez, Iraq, Berlin, and Southeast Asia, and vivid portraits of leaders in the developing world who challenged Moscow and Washington—Castro, Lumumba, Nasser, and Mao—Khrushchev's Cold War provides one of the most gripping and authoritative studies of the crisis years of the Cold War. 16 pages of illustrations.
<end>

Has anyone here on DU read this book?

[riderinthestorm]

24. What's wierd is I actually believe Rove IS reading that book

I believe he really is that intelligent. Evil, malignant and manipulative and yep, extremely smart.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Curious that he shuold come down the stairs

readying a copy of a bio of nikita
You'd think he'd have the common sense to put that in the computer case.

I mean if he was a college professor, and a specialist in the period, ok... but this is propaganda master K. Rove.. I gues he needs pointers

[Sir Jeffrey]

9. "I smart. I read books and stuff."

[radfringe]

10. Khrushchev's Cold War: The Inside Story of an American Adversary

http://www.amazon.com/Khrushchevs-Cold-War-American-Adv...

[whistle]

14. Former USSR leader during the 1960's Nikita Khrushchev is on the cover

...so it could be a biography of NK or some RW expose propaganda piece

[Crankie Avalon]

15. Wasn't he in some competition with the Ass-Faced Weasel over who could read the most books?

The Stranger and "Three Shakespeares" vs. Khrushev's Cold War. "Tha's four to one fur me, Turd Blossom, heheheheheh..."

[CrazyOrangeCat]

22. * reading Camus.

How funny is that?

(Yes, I remember their competition . . . more lies from the lying liars.)

[whistle]

31. Or as Shrub* refers to it as "Cau-moos"

[CrazyOrangeCat]

36. yep. what an intellectual juggernaut he is.

[whistle]

38. Dubya is indeed a "jugg-or-not"

[AlinPA]

19. Rove as the Bush** administration brain: While he has all the power,

things have been going wrong for him for a long time.
His Iraq invasion, WMD stories, Mission Accomplished lie, Abu Ghraib, K Street mess, policies during the hurricane, CIA leak of Plame's name, firing of attornerys................. he must have a lot on Bush** and that crowd for them to keep him on.

[sinkingfeeling]

20. Isn't that sweet? We've all been taken back to the '70s in last couple of days.

[Iwasthere]

27. He knows we are watching this

What is he trying to say?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

26. Here I was...

Expecting something like a baby's head he was snacking upon.

How wrong one person can be.

[paparush]

29. The Idiot's Guide to Destroying the Known World

[Fovea]

32. It's a book about brinksmanship

how to play chicken with the world in a high stakes game.

[sweetpotato]

35. You need to put a barf alert on this post

I can't stand looking at his photo - he is revolting.

[bdamomma]

39. taking some talking points from the KGB. perhaps.

I would love for that smirk of his go away, what a smug and arrogant man.

[Atman]

42. Shakespeare's "Gay Boys In Bondage."

Either that or Mien Kampf.

.