Demagogue

In case you missed this article from last Friday's Chicago Tribune (as I did), here are some excerpts worth a read:

... (Karl) Rove hasn't always hewed to the purest principles in pursuit of his political goals.

Rove left college in Utah to work on political campaigns and moved to Illinois in 1970. Working alongside Robert Kjellander, then president of the College Republicans of Illinois and now a Republican national committeeman, Rove took quickly to the task of organizing college campuses.

He also used an assumed name to gain access to the campaign headquarters of Democrat Alan Dixon, who was running for state treasurer. Once inside, Rove grabbed campaign stationery and later used it to print fake invitations to the grand opening of the Democrat's Chicago office, which he distributed to homeless people on Lower Wacker Drive.

People showed up in droves, lured by the free liquor, food and women that Rove had promised on the invitations. Dixon won anyway, but Rove's chicanery came to symbolize what would become a win-at-all-costs ethic that eventually permeated the state's Republican culture.

Of course, this 25-year-old incident doesn't help, in any way, to settle the question of whether Rove should be indicted for the Plame disclosure. This incident does, however, tell us a little bit more about the ethical code that has guided the man who has been described as "Bush's brain."