The Emperor's Architect Has No Clothes (Rove's back story and firing)

[Dover]

The Texas Observer
Louis Dubose




...Rove was enrolled in the University of Utah when Louis Rove announced he was leaving Karl’s mother, Reba. At about the same time, through an offhand comment by a family member, Karl learned that the man he believed was his father was actually his adoptive stepfather. Louis Rove was leaving the family because he was gay. At 19 Rove discovered that “his family life had been based on a complex network of lies, secrets and denials.” His family life would get worse.

In 1981 Reba Rove drove into the desert north of Reno and took her own life. And Louis Rove began to achieve a certain notoriety through body piercing—a peculiar pastime that might not have posed a problem for his stepson had it remained in the confines of the elder Rove’s Los Angeles home, where “pin pals” gathered for piercing parties supervised by nurses. When photos of Louis aka “Louie” Rove’s pierced genitals made the cover of Piercing Fans International Quarterly, Karl Rove was reminded in a painfully public way that his was not a normal childhood.

Alexander doesn’t dwell on the pathos of the Rove family or try to put Rove on the couch. But the details provide a predicate for the life and career that follow. They also introduce a second theme. The Karl Rove who emerges from the early chapters of Machiavelli’s Shadow is not only determined but also desperate. The nerdy kid who wore a tie and carried a briefcase to high school resolves to do whatever it takes to get out of Utah and beyond his family. What it took often enough included destroying the lives and careers of anyone who got in his way.

I didn’t keep a body count, but Alexander begins in Texas, with Rove’s collaboration with FBI agent Greg Rampton (about whom much has been written). Rampton undertakes a series of investigations into the political contributions to Democrats elected to statewide office and finally sends two associates of then-Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower to federal prison for fundraising violations. Information about the investigation, leaked by Rove while Hightower was facing a well-financed challenge by Rove’s client Rick Perry, costs Hightower the election and ultimately ends his political career. A former reporter for a Texas daily told me that Rampton frequently called him to discuss the investigation into Hightower’s office, behavior completely out of character for an FBI agent....>


http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2840

[beac]

1. Kicking (like I wish I could KKKarl)! and Rec! n/t

[JDPriestly]

2. That explains a lot -- desperate is an understatement.