Courage and Consequence

That’s the title of Karl Rove’s soon-to-be-published memoir. The Associated Press got a look at the book and reports on its contents:

Republican strategist Karl Rove says in a new memoir that the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq badly damaged the Bush administration’s credibility and led to dwindling public support for the war.
The former White House political adviser blames himself for not pushing back against claims that President George W. Bush had taken the country to war under false pretenses, calling it one of the worst mistakes he made during the Bush presidency.

That’s what we said at the time. Bush’s failure to defend his “sixteen words” was the beginning of the end for his administration. However, despite the Bush administration’s flaws–I rated him a B- President when he left office–Rove’s summing-up is on the money:

Rove depicts Bush as a courageous and resolute leader whose conduct in office was forever shaped by the Sept. 11 attacks. He calls Bush’s achievements over two terms “impressive, durable and significant” and says many of the controversies that weakened his presidency were falsehoods perpetuated by political opponents.

That’s a fact; many if not all of the attacks on Rove were falsehoods perpetuated by political opponents, too.
I’m looking forward to reading Rove’s book. I’ll be getting a copy next week and will interview Rove on our radio show a week from Saturday.

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