Shame on Karl Rove!

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Calling out Rove proper
May 19, 2014

One of the slimier tricks in politics is to make a recklessly non-factual charge just to get it into the political bloodstream. Once there, like an antibiotic-resistant bug, no amount of truth can ever kill it.

Sometimes you wonder whether the people making a charge don't really know what they're talking about, such as when Sarah Palin took to Facebook to claim there were "death panels" in Obamacare.

But nobody has to ask that about Karl Rove. The whip-smart Republican operative has a reputation for picking his words carefully and understanding how they'll resonate. So when Rove suggested at an off-the-record conference last week that Hillary Clinton might have a brain problem from a concussion she got in December 2012, he had to know how that might play out.

"Thirty days in the hospital? And when she reappears, she's wearing glasses that are only for people who have traumatic brain injury? We need to know what's up with that," he said, according to the New York Post.

It was bad enough that Rove lengthened Clinton's hospital stay by a factor of 10 (it was three days, after she fell and hit her head while weakened by a severe stomach bug), or that his "traumatic brain injury" wording lumped Clinton in with victims of IEDs and post-traumatic stress disorder. But the Post turned Rove's quote into this headline: "Karl Rove: Hillary may have brain damage."

After the story went viral, Rove said Clinton "doesn't have brain damage" and went on to say that all he had meant to do was point out that if Clinton runs for president, as she's widely expected to do, she'll be asked detailed questions about her health, as any candidate would be. Well, how helpful.

By Wednesday, the furor was bad enough that former President Bill Clinton weighed in to reassure everyone that his wife was fine: "Look, she works out every week, she is strong, she's doing great. As far as I can tell, she's in better shape than I am. She certainly seems to have more stamina now."

Politics ain't beanbag, and this is hardly the worst a political operative has ever done. Hillary Clinton can expect more such attacks, on Benghazi and other issues, in an effort to dissuade her from running for president, or soften her up if she does.

Rove's comments would be an occasion for the usual lamentations about why Americans have so little faith in the process, except for gratifying pushback from two high-profile Republicans.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich said on Facebook that he was "deeply offended" by the comments and that "kind of personal charge is exactly (what's) wrong with (American) politics." He called on Rove to apologize.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he had no doubt Clinton was qualified to run if she chose to. "I'm not a doctor, (but) as far as I can tell based on the way she engages, she's very alert and very feisty and keeps a busy schedule, so I have no reason to believe that there's anything in her background that will disqualify her," Graham told Politico.

Pundits can criticize political sleaziness all day long, but the critiques carry extra weight when people are willing to call out their own allies for bad behavior.
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