Yesterday, Karl Rove appeared on Fox News’s O’Reilly Factor where he was greeted by host Bill O’Reilly as the network’s “political guy.” O’Reilly asked Rove to help him come up with questions for his interview with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), which airs tonight. The weak brainstorming session eventually devolved into an unabashed love fest of McCain:
ROVE: I think you ought to ask McCain why he is so reticent to talk about himself personally. … He’s the most private person I’ve ever seen in my life.
O’REILLY: And he — but he’s wrote books on it. See, that’s the inconsistency. … He writes it in a book, but he won’t go out and talk. I think he may be shy about it.
ROVE: Well, and it’s something – there’s an admirable reticence in him. But yes, he may be comfortable having Mark Salter pry it out of him and put it in a book.
O’Reilly ended the segment by saying McCain should take his lead and “bloviate all over the place about how great you are.” Watch it:
It’s not surprising that Rove wants McCain to talk about his background more, since he allegedly helped orchestrate the senator’s biography tour. Of course though, Rove’s ties as an informal adviser, avid supporter, and maxed out donor to the McCain campaign were once again never identified.
O’Reilly’s refusal to disclose Rove’s ties is hypocritical. In 2004, he criticized CNN for keeping on Paul Begala and James Carville as commentators, even though they had ties to Sen. John Kerry’s (D-PA) presidential campaign. MSNBC’s Dan Abrams reported in September 2004:
Fox commentator Bill O’Reilly writes that this is evidence of the “collapse of CNN’s ethical standards.” That if he, O’Reilly, “signed on with Bush/Cheney 2004 the media mob would have stormed the Fox castle.”
The Obama Watch may be over, but unfortunately, the Rove Watch continues…
Transcript:
O’REILLY: By the way, Senator McCain will be here tomorrow night for a major policy discussion. So summing up, Senator Barack Obama has the nomination locked, an amazing achievement. And that’s the Memo.
Now for the best analysis anywhere, we begin with FOX News political guy Karl Rove, who is in Washington, D.C. So am I right?
KARLROVE: You’re right. Absolutely on target. [...]
O’REILLY: Now real quick, I got McCain tomorrow. What should I ask? Give me two tough ones.
ROVE: Oh, come on, look, you did such a great job. I gave you some goofy questions for Senator…
O’REILLY: Yes, and I rejected them out of hand, but I’ll do the same thing tonight. But maybe I can come up with some I can use.
ROVE: Yes, well – well, they’ll be just as goofy as the other ones. Hey, you know what you ought to do? I think you ought to ask McCain why he is so reticent to talk about himself personally.
O’REILLY: His background, yes.
ROVE: He’s the most private person I’ve ever seen in my life.
O’REILLY: And he — but he’s wrote books on it. See, that’s the inconsistency.
ROVE: Yes.
O’REILLY: He writes it in a book, but he won’t go out and talk. I think he may be shy about it.
ROVE: Well, and it’s something – there’s an admirable reticence in him. But yes, he may be comfortable having Mark Salter pry it out of him and put it in a book.
O’REILLY: No, no, he should take –
ROVE: But he’s uncomfortable talking about it.
O’REILLY: He should take it from me. He should do what I do.
ROVE: Yes —
O’REILLY: Just kind of bloviate all over the place about how great you are. All right, Mr. Rove, thanks very much as always.
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