MC Rove

Bush’s current Deputy Chief of staff is an enigma of a man by the name of Karl Rove. Australian audiences would only be familiar with his work after Kim Beazley accidentally sent condolences his way following Belinda Emmett’s death (instead of to Rove McManus of course). In the US though, he is acknowledged to be the ‘brains’ of the administration – and as Bush calls him, the “architect” behind many of their political strategies.

For his entire career, Rove has cultivated an aura of mystery and untouchability – while becoming a master of spin and political gamesmanship. In recent times, under the weight of what seems to be a never ending list of controversies, Rove has become even more elusive. Despite getting credit for derailing John Kerry in the 2004 presidential elections, being implicated in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame (a federal offence) and more recently for a role in the firing of Us attorneys – Rove remains aloof and closeted away from the media. That’s a controversy in itself – how does the driving force behind many of the Administration’s shadiest dealings avoid accountability?

Now, leaving the debate about whether Rove is Satan incarnate to one side – I wonder what possessed him to recently emerge from his shroud of darkness and at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington no less (see video below – it starts off a bit slow, but hang in there). I’ve never seen a more bizarre effort, from a weirder guy. For a mysterious, political guru – he sure made a tool of himself. Let me go on the record as saying that I’d prefer my Deputy Chief of Staff kept this sort of stuff to an absolute minimum.