Rove: ‘Policy Won Out’ Over Politics In The Bush White House
Rove: ‘Policy Won Out’ Over Politics In The Bush White House
Last night on Hannity and Colmes, Karl Rove vigorously defended his role in the White House as the Bush administration’s political guru. “The politics and policy are constantly banging into each other in decisions that are made inside the White House. That’s just the way it is,” he said. When Colmes asked him if that presented a “conflict of interest,” Rove insisted that, under Bush, “policy won out” over politics:
COLMES: Is that a conflict of interest though? The intersection of politics and policy? I know you’ve been criticized in the past of combining the two, as if when one conflicts with the other, maybe the country suffers, and it should be about policy regardless of the politics involved.
ROVE: Well, at least in the White House I was in, policy won out, but you had to be aware of the political fallout of what you were going to do in order to contain it and deal with it. You bet. But to — but first and foremost if — the president I worked for, George W. Bush said, you know what, let’s do right, and the politics will take care of itself. It didn’t mean you were blind to it, but it didn’t mean that you needed to focus first and foremost on what you thought was in the right interest of the country.
Watch it:
Rove personally oversaw the unprecedented politicization of nearly every aspect of Bush’s federal government, from the Justice Department to the Environmental Protection Agency to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Perhaps the clearest examples of the Bush White House’s prioritizing of politics over policy come in the area of climate change and science:
– In 2006, NASA’s chief global warming scientist James Hansen revealed that the White House routinely muzzled him and tried to block his climate change findings. “I find a willingness to listen only to those portions of scientific results that fit predetermined, inflexible positions,” Hansen told CBS’s “60 Minutes.” “This, I believe, is a recipe for environmental disasters.”
– In 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the congressional testimony of its director, Dr. Julie Gerberding, “was eviscerated” by the White House to prevent her from discussing the disastrous effects of global warming on human health.
– A 2007 report by the House Oversight Committee found 435 instances in which the Bush administration interfered into the global warming work of government scientists over the past five years. It also found that 46 percent of government scientists “personally experienced pressure to eliminate the words ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming,’ or other similar terms from a variety of communications.”
– Hansen recently discovered that the White House edits all government scientists’ testimony: “Do you know that before a government scientist testifies to Congress his/her testimony is typically reviewed and edited by the White House Office of Management and Budget? When I asked for a justification, I was told that a government scientist’s testimony ‘needs to be consistent with the President’s budget’.”
Climate science clearly took a backseat to rational and necessary policy. Similarly, it was Karl Rove who urged Bush to ban embryonic stem cell research — presumably because it was a favorite subject of the party’s evangelical base. Rove falsely claimed that “recent studies” show researchers “have far more promise from adult stem cells than from embryonic stem cells,” even though a White House spokesman “could not provide the name of a stem cell researcher who shares Rove’s views on the superior promise of adult stem cells.”
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Once again, we have to take anything that Rove says and believe the opposite. If he says that he didn’t politicize anything you can be damn sure that he did.
I can’t wait until Rove crawls back under his rock.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:22 pm“if — the president I worked for, George W. Bush said, you know what, let’s do right, and the politics will take care of itself.
Luckily for Rove, the words “let’s do right” never passed Dumbya’s lips…
November 25th, 2008 at 2:24 pmWhy the hell hasn’t this POS been handcuffed and hung yet?
November 25th, 2008 at 2:24 pmAs long as the policy promoted Neocon politics, that is.
Lying sack o’ mofo!
November 25th, 2008 at 2:25 pmI would pay to see that pig-eyed sack of shit thrown in Leavenworth with the general population.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:26 pmSure, policy wins as long as it’s faith based. Faith-based economic policy, faith-based foreign policy, faith-based environmental policy…
Of course, everybody knows that Karl Rove is one of the trustworthiest people in the world. If he says it, you can bet on it, ‘cuz he’d never lie about something like that. Sigh…
November 25th, 2008 at 2:26 pmI hear one of the Mars Rovers died. Can we send this one up as a replacement? The only down-side would be that whatever information it sent back would have to be transposed but it’s perfectly predictable in that every bit of information it imparts is directly and proportionately the opposite of reality.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:26 pmUncle HO, wanna bet that the last action Herr Busch takes on Jan 19 is a complete blanket pardon for every mofo that worked in his administration, for any crimes they may have committed???
November 25th, 2008 at 2:26 pmWhen I asked for a justification, I was told that a government scientist’s testimony ‘needs to be consistent with the President’s budget’.” -James Hansen
What a complete crock of shit. The President’s budget never included 1 DOLLAR for the Iraq invasion. Not one.
It was designated as supplemental funding, & our Congress Critters all bent over in unison to vote for this.
If lies were money, the Bushies would have generated a budget surplus…
November 25th, 2008 at 2:32 pmIt was designated as supplemental funding, & our Congress Critters all bent over in unison to vote for this.
Actually it was designated as “emergency supplemental” funding. Funny thing that emergency was rather constant.
I think that Obama is going to be quite shocked when his accountants figure out how much we have borrowed from China for the Iraq debacle. It was never put on our books and that in itself was a crime being committed.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:35 pmTo quote Neidemeyer from Animal House- ” I have a good mind to smack your fat face”!
November 25th, 2008 at 2:38 pmJebus, TP – what would be REAL news is that Karl Rove told the TRUTH.
This is just more dog bites man.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:40 pmPsychopathic blowfish
November 25th, 2008 at 2:41 pmYou know, basically Rove is saying that he never got his way in the White House, that in every disagreement he lost out and took it graciously, and pretty much that he had no power whatsoever there. Also, that the Bush White House did not take any of the actions it took for the reasons that it did.
Next up, Rove says the last eight years didn’t actually exist, so everything’s still Clinton’s fault.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:42 pmAt one point in the Bush Abomination, KKKarl was supposed to be writing a history of the West Wing. It appears now that his job is to write the “Re-written History of the Bush Abomination.”
November 25th, 2008 at 2:43 pmWith Rove, the Bush!t coming out of his mouth overrides anything resembling common sense.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:51 pmNo wonder the last 8 years have been a total disaster with this guy being “Bush’s Brain”.
I thought I could not get any angrier at these criminals and their free, careless, oblivious lives. The more I hear, read and watch, the more a seethe. Where in the hell is the outrage ? We need to do something before the window of justice closes ! Any ideas out there ?
November 25th, 2008 at 2:55 pmROVE: “…it didn’t mean that you needed to focus first and foremost on what you thought was in the right interest of the country.”
Ladies and gentlemen, THIS is/was part one in Herr Chimpy’s policy making process: DO NOT ASK YOURSELF WHAT IS IN THE RIGHT INTEREST OF THE COUNTRY! Just make sure that you satisfy the neocons and your corporate brethren and f@ck the rest of ‘em!
November 25th, 2008 at 2:57 pm“Stop me before I lie again.” The nightmare dream of Rove, Cheney and Bush and little Miss Dana.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:58 pmRove took Bush’s “policy” decisions and used low brow politics to sell them to the world. After eight years, America wants a refund on his defective policies.
As for David Axelrod, Businessweek did a story on him in March of this year.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:01 pmGood Lord, the blatant politicization of the DOJ is not enough proof?
‘The Genius’ finally proves to be utterly delusional.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:05 pmkrystalviews Says:
I thought I could not get any angrier at these criminals and their free, careless, oblivious lives. The more I hear, read and watch, the more a seethe. Where in the hell is the outrage ? We need to do something before the window of justice closes ! Any ideas out there ?
I don’t believe there’s any statute of limitation for war crimes and certainly not murder. Don’t give up hope that justice will be done sooner or later. I refer to Simon Wiesenthal, who hunted down Nazi criminals throughout the world from 1947 until his death in 2005. He wasn’t alone in that effort, and we needn’t be either.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:08 pm“Rove: ‘Policy Won Out” – Do these POS is such a phucking liar.
Why is Rove not in jail?
November 25th, 2008 at 3:16 pm“It didn’t mean you were blind to it, but it didn’t mean that you needed to focus first and foremost on what you thought was in the right interest of the country.”
Um, correct me if I’m wrong but, isn’t doing the right thing for your country considered, I don’t know, PATRIOTIC? You know, the thing that you guys accuse us of not being?
November 25th, 2008 at 3:18 pm“Rove: ‘Policy Won Out” – This POS is such a phucking liar.
Why is Rove not in jail?
I’ve got to start reading the whole sentence after I edit it some….hehe.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:18 pmThe Big Lie and “the lying liars who lie them” are on the air.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:21 pm“Rove: ‘Policy Won Out’ Over Politics In The Bush White House”
Instead of asking Santa for a big toy truck or presents around the X-mas tree, I ask Santa to deliver a warrant for Tubby McTreason Rove’s arrest and police officers to put Rove in prison. Rove is getting to be nauseating with his pundit talks.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:28 pmI can’t bring myself to actually listen to that clip so I’ll ask you guys.
According to the quote above Rove said, “It didn’t mean you were blind to it (political “fallout”), but it didn’t mean that you needed to focus first and foremost on what you thought was in the right interest of the country.”
Shouldn’t Rove have said, “but it DID mean that you needed to focus first and foremost on what you thought was in the right interest of the country”?
His quote doesn’t make sense to me.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:30 pmUm, ever hear of the ‘Mayberry Machiavellians’?
November 25th, 2008 at 3:47 pmThink Progress is beginning to look like my daily local newspaper by posting blatant lies by this bespectacled, balding, bloated, bastard. Enough!
November 25th, 2008 at 3:52 pmTurdblossom bloviates, bubblin’ up the twists and turns meant to turn the sun blue and the sky yellow. When we all know it was only pitch-black when he pedaled the “Lying” bike. His body tells on him, like Sarah did in Tom Sawyer, “Aunt Polly!, Aunt Polly!” His double chin is a tell about the firmness of his words,…evidence that he was always picked last in the street games in his neighborhood. A sorry soul with ulcerated ideas that come conveniently packaged with their own instant karma. Please go away Karl, you are so irrelevant, it’s really sad.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:58 pmIf a Rove died in the middle of the forest and nobody was around, would anyone care?
November 25th, 2008 at 4:01 pmDamn it! That middle of the forest thing put me over the edge. And just when I finally managed to not envision that whole Ned Beatty thing everytime this tub-o-lard is mentioned. Thanks alot Progressive Veteran. Now I have to start all over again with the one day chip…
November 25th, 2008 at 4:07 pmlol sorry man.
November 25th, 2008 at 4:10 pmNow now, let’s be rational about this irrationality. We all know what uncle Karl means: the policy of politicizing the entire executive and judicial branch of government won out over doing the politically expedient thing of doing what it right for the nation. The policy won out over the political fallout; creating the ideological equivalent of a pure militarized fascist security state was clearly the aim, and intended to ignore the possible political ramifications (which could easily be overcome with selective election fraud).
November 25th, 2008 at 4:16 pmROVE: Well, at least in the White House I was in, policy won out, but you had to be aware of the political fallout of what you were going to do in order to contain it and deal with it. You bet. But to — but first and foremost if — the president I worked for, George W. Bush said, you know what, let’s do right, and the politics will take care of itself. It didn’t mean you were blind to it, but it didn’t mean that you needed to focus first and foremost on what you thought was in the right interest of the country.
So outing a covert CIA agent was Bush policy, for countering war critics?
I would never wish a mortal disease on anyone – except Karl.
November 25th, 2008 at 4:36 pmPolicy won out.
November 25th, 2008 at 4:56 pmExcept the policy was to do whatever was politically expedient.
Where is Rove going with all this ?
I seriously suspect that he is spinning his recent yarns with some goal in mind, but I just can’t see what that goal is.
November 25th, 2008 at 5:36 pmKarl suffers from Republican Alzheimers.
November 25th, 2008 at 5:41 pmCould there be a bigger lying sack of shit than Rove?
November 25th, 2008 at 5:46 pmFox News and Newsweek are the only media outlets still giving Rove a forum. Why? He’s wrong about everything, he’s permanently attached to the most disastrous presidency in the 20th and half of the 19th centuries and his methods brought down the party he was preparing for perpetual rule.
November 25th, 2008 at 5:54 pmPut this pig out to pasture.
Karl will be some imates girlfriend soon. He might thing George W. will keep him out of jail but George W. will have his own problems with the United Nations. Karl thinks the order by Bush will be enough but Karl and his idiot friends should have read the Constitution first.
November 25th, 2008 at 6:21 pmI think he slips up here :thought was in the right interest of the country.
November 25th, 2008 at 6:34 pmWhere everyother speaker of English would have said best interest, he inserts right, giving himself away as a deciever and manipulator.
If a Rove died in the middle of the forest and nobody was around, would anyone care?
I would. I have a special bottle of wine put away for the day that pig dies.
November 25th, 2008 at 6:38 pmI assume Albino Slimer is only talking because it’s getting paid to do so. Hardly anything it says makes sense and whatever sense it does make is a lie.
November 25th, 2008 at 9:55 pmThe fat pig has to lie as long as he isn’t under oath. Someday, hopefully soon, this criminal will be squealing like a pig stuck under a gate as he is thrown into the cell that has been awaiting his thuggish ass for the past thirty years. KKKarl Rove is the worst thing to ever appear in American politics. Even Lee Atwater was able to admit fault.
November 26th, 2008 at 10:53 amHaving participated in and ensured the destruction of the Republican Party, it would not surprise me to see Karl’s effigy burned in a public square by the old-style Republicans. His legacy will be right up there with Bush and he will likely be remembered as the worst political operative of modern times.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:23 pm