Karl Rove
Official portrait
White House Deputy Chief of Staff
In office February 8, 2005 – August 31, 2007 Served with Joe Hagin and Joel Kaplan
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Harriet Miers
Succeeded by	Joel Kaplan
Senior Advisor to the President
In office January 20, 2001 – August 31, 2007
President	George W. Bush
Deputy	Barry Jackson
Succeeded by	Barry Jackson
Personal details
Born	Karl Christian Rove (1950-12-25) December 25, 1950 (age 61) Denver, Colorado
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Valerie Mather Wainwright (m. 1976–1980) «start: (1976)–end+1: (1981)»"Marriage: Valerie Mather Wainwright to Karl Rove" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Karl_Rove) (divorced) Darby Tara Hickson (m. 1986–2009) «start: (1986)–end+1: (2010)»"Marriage: Darby Tara Hickson to Karl Rove" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Karl_Rove) (divorced)
Children	Andrew Madison Rove
Alma mater	University of Utah University of Texas-Austin University of Maryland, College Park George Mason University
Occupation	Political Consultant
Website	http://www.rove.com

Karl Christian Rove (born December 25, 1950) was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush until Rove's resignation on August 31, 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives. Since leaving the White House, Rove has worked as a political analyst and contributor for Fox News, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal.

Prior to his White House appointments, Rove was a Republican political consultant and strategist. He is credited with the 1994 and 1998 Texas gubernatorial victories of George W. Bush, as well as Bush's 2000 and 2004 successful presidential campaigns. In his 2004 victory speech Bush referred to Rove as "the Architect". Rove has also been credited for the successful campaigns of John Ashcroft (1994 U.S. Senate election), Bill Clements (1986 Texas gubernatorial election), Senator John Cornyn (2002 U.S. Senate election), Governor Rick Perry (1990 Texas Agriculture Commission election), and Phil Gramm (1982 U.S. House and 1984 U.S. Senate elections).

Early years[link]

Family, upbringing, early education[link]

Rove was born in Denver, Colorado, the second of five children, and was later raised in Sparks, Nevada. His biological father left the family when Rove and his older brother were children. His mother, Reba Louise (née Wood), was a gift shop manager, and his mother's second husband, Louis Claude Rove, Jr. (1928–2004), who adopted him^[1] and whom Rove knew as his father, was a geologist whose ancestry was Norwegian.^[2][3]

In 1965, his family moved to Salt Lake City, where Rove entered high school, becoming a skilled debater.^[4] Rove described his high school years as "I was the complete nerd. I had the briefcase. I had the pocket protector. I wore Hush Puppies when they were not cool. I was the thin, scrawny little guy. I was definitely uncool." Encouraged by a teacher to run for class senate, Rove won the election. As part of his campaign strategy he rode in the back of a convertible inside the school gymnasium sitting between two attractive girls before his election speech.^[5] While at Olympus High School,^[6] he was elected student council president his junior and senior years. Rove was also a Teenage Republican and served as Chairman of the Utah Federation of Teenage Republicans.

Entry into politics[link]

Rove began his involvement in American politics in 1968. In a 2002 Deseret News interview, Rove explained, "I was the Olympus High chairman for (former United States Senator) Wallace F. Bennett's re-election campaign, where he was opposed by the dynamic, young, aggressive political science professor at the University of Utah, J.D. Williams."^[7] Bennett was reelected to a third six-year term in November 1968. Through Rove's campaign involvement, Bennett's son, Bob Bennett — a future United States Senator from Utah — would become a friend. Williams would later become a mentor to Rove.

In December 1969, the man Rove had known as his father left the family, and divorced Rove's mother soon afterwards.^[8][9] After his parents' divorce, Rove learned from his aunt and uncle that the man who had raised him was not his biological father; both he and his older brother Eric were the children of another man. Rove has expressed great love and admiration for his adoptive father and for "how selfless" his love had been.^[10] On September 11, 1981, Rove's mother committed suicide in Reno, Nevada.^[11]

College and the Dixon campaign incident[link]

In the fall of 1969, Rove entered the University of Utah, on a $1,000 scholarship,^[12] as a political science major and joined the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. Through the University's Hinckley Institute of Politics, he got an internship with the Utah Republican Party. That position, and contacts from the 1968 Bennett campaign, helped him land a job in 1970 on Ralph Tyler Smith's unsuccessful re-election campaign for Senate from Illinois against Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson III.

In the fall of 1970, Rove used a false identity to enter the campaign office of Democrat Alan J. Dixon, who was running for Treasurer of Illinois. He stole 1000 sheets of paper with campaign letterhead, printed fake campaign rally fliers promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing", and distributed them at rock concerts and homeless shelters, with the effect of disrupting Dixon's rally. (Dixon eventually won the election). Rove's role would not become publicly known until August 1973. Rove told the Dallas Morning News in 1999, "It was a youthful prank at the age of 19 and I regret it."^[13] In his memoir, Rove wrote that when he was later nominated to the Board for International Broadcasting by President George H.W. Bush, Senator Dixon did not kill his nomination. In Rove's account, "Dixon displayed more grace than I had shown and kindly excused this youthful prank."^[14]

College Republicans, Watergate, and the Bushes[link]

In June 1971, after the end of the semester, Rove dropped out of the University of Utah to take a paid position as the Executive Director of the College Republican National Committee. Joe Abate, who was National Chairman of the College Republicans at the time, became a mentor to Rove.^[10] He enrolled at the University of Maryland in College Park in the Fall of 1971, but withdrew from classes during the first half of the semester.^[15]

Rove traveled extensively, participating as an instructor at weekend seminars for campus conservatives across the country. He was an active participant in Richard Nixon's 1972 Presidential campaign. A CBS report on the organization of the Nixon campaign from June 1972 includes an interview with a young Rove working for the College Republican National Committee.^{[citation needed]}

Rove held the position of executive director of the College Republicans until early 1973. He left the job to spend five months, without pay, campaigning full time for the position of national chairman of the organization, for the 1973-1975 term in the same years he attended George Mason University.^[10] Lee Atwater, the group's Southern regional coordinator, who was two months younger than Rove, managed Rove's campaign. The two spent the spring of 1973 crisscrossing the country in a Ford Pinto, lining up the support of Republican state chairs.

The College Republicans summer 1973 convention at the Lake of the Ozarks resort in Missouri was quite contentious. Rove's opponent was Robert Edgeworth of Michigan (the other major candidate, Terry Dolan of California, dropped out, supporting Edgeworth). A number of states had sent two competing delegates, because Rove and his supporters had made credentials challenges at state and regional conventions. For example, after the Midwest regional convention, Rove forces had produced a version of the Midwestern College Republicans constitution which differed significantly from the constitution that the Edgeworth forces were using, in order to justify the unseating of the Edgeworth delegates on procedural grounds,^[10] including delegations, such as Ohio and Missouri, which had been certified earlier by Rove himself. In the end, there were two votes, conducted by two convention chairs, and two winners — Rove and Edgeworth, each of whom delivered an acceptance speech. After the convention, both Edgeworth and Rove appealed to Republican National Committee Chairman George H. W. Bush, each contending that he was the new College Republican chairman.

While resolution was pending, Dolan went (anonymously) to the Washington Post with recordings of several training seminars for young Republicans where a co-presenter of Rove's, Bernie Robinson, cautioned against doing the same thing he had done: rooting through opponents' garbage cans. The tape with this story on it, as well as Rove's admonition not to copy similar tricks as Rove's against Dixon, was secretly recorded and edited by Rich Evans, who had hoped to receive an appointment from Rove's competitor in CRNC chairmanship race.^[16] On August 10, 1973, in the midst of the Watergate scandal, the Post broke the story in article titled "GOP Party Probes Official as Teacher of Tricks".^[17]

In response, then RNC Chairman George H.W. Bush had an FBI agent question Rove. As part of the investigation, Atwater signed an affidavit, dated August 13, 1973, stating that he had heard a "20 minute anecdote similar to the one described in the Washington Post" in July 1972, but that "it was a funny story during a coffee break".^[18] Former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean, who was implicated in the Watergate break-in and became the star witness for the prosecution, has been quoted as saying "based on my review of the files, it appears the Watergate prosecutors were interested in Rove's activities in 1972, but because they had bigger fish to fry they did not aggressively investigate him."^[19]

On September 6, 1973, three weeks after announcing his intent to investigate the allegations against Rove, George H.W. Bush chose Rove to be chairman of the College Republicans. Bush then wrote Edgeworth a letter saying that he had concluded that Rove had fairly won the vote at the convention. Edgeworth wrote back, asking about the basis of that conclusion. Not long after that, Edgeworth stated "Bush sent me back the angriest letter I have ever received in my life. I had leaked to the Washington Post, and now I was out of the Party forever."

As National Chairman, Rove introduced Bush to Atwater, who had taken Rove's job as the College Republican's executive director, and who would become Bush's main campaign strategist in future years. Bush hired Rove as a special assistant in the Republican National Committee, a job Rove left in 1974 to become executive assistant to the co-chair of the RNC, Richard D. Obenshain.

As special assistant, Rove also performed small personal tasks for Bush. In November 1973, Bush asked Rove to take a set of car keys to his son George W. Bush, who was visiting home during a break from Harvard Business School. It was the first time the two met. "Huge amounts of charisma, swagger, cowboy boots, flight jacket, wonderful smile, just charisma - you know, wow", Rove recalled years later.^[17]

The Texas years and notable political campaigns[link]

1977–1991[link]

Rove's initial job in Texas was as a legislative aide for Fred Agnich, a Texas state representative, in Agnich's Dallas office. Later in 1977, Rove got a job as executive director of the Fund for Limited Government, a political action committee (PAC) in Houston headed by James A. Baker, a Houston lawyer (later President George H.W. Bush's Secretary of State). The PAC eventually became the genesis of the Bush-for-President campaign of 1979–1980.

His work for William Clements during the Texas gubernatorial election of 1978 helped Clements become the first Republican Governor of Texas in over 100 years. Clements was elected to a four-year term, succeeding Democrat Dolph Briscoe. Rove was deputy director of the Governor William P. Clements Junior Committee in 1979 and 1980, and deputy executive assistant to the governor of Texas (roughly, Deputy Chief of Staff) in 1980 and 1981.^[20]

In 1981, Rove founded a direct mail consulting firm, Karl Rove & Co., in Austin. The firm's first clients included Texas Governor Bill Clements and Democratic congressman Phil Gramm, who later became a Republican congressman and United States Senator. Rove operated his consulting business until 1999, when he sold the firm to take a full-time position in George W. Bush's presidential campaign.

Between 1981 and 1999, Rove worked on hundreds of races. Most were in a supporting role, doing direct mail fundraising. A November 2004 Atlantic Monthly article estimated that he was the primary strategist for 41 statewide, congressional, and national races, and Rove's candidates won 34 races.^[21]

Rove also did work during those years for non-political clients. From 1991 to 1996, Rove advised tobacco giant Philip Morris, and ultimately earned $3,000 a month via a consulting contract. In a deposition, Rove testified that he severed the tie in 1996 because he felt awkward "about balancing that responsibility with his role as Bush's top political advisor" while Bush was governor of Texas and Texas was suing the tobacco industry.^[22]

1978 George W. Bush congressional campaign[link]

Rove advised the younger Bush during his unsuccessful Texas congressional campaign in 1978.

1980 George H. W. Bush presidential campaign[link]

In 1977, Rove was the first person hired by George H. W. Bush for his unsuccessful 1980 presidential campaign, which ended with Bush as the vice-presidential nominee.

1982 William Clements, Jr. gubernatorial campaign[link]

In 1982, Bill Clements ran for reelection, but was defeated by Democrat Mark White.

1982 Phil Gramm congressional campaign[link]

In 1982, Phil Gramm was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a conservative Texas Democrat.

1984 Phil Gramm senatorial campaign[link]

In 1984, Rove helped Gramm, who had become a Republican in 1983, defeat Republican Ron Paul in the primary and Democrat Lloyd Doggett in the race for U.S. Senate.

1984 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign[link]

Rove handled direct-mail for the Reagan-Bush campaign.

1986 William Clements, Jr. gubernatorial campaign[link]

In 1986, Rove helped Clements become governor a second time. In a strategy memo Rove wrote for his client prior to the race, now among Clements's papers in the Texas A&M University library, Rove quoted Napoleon: "The whole art of war consists in a well-reasoned and extremely circumspect defensive, followed by rapid and audacious attack."

In 1986, just before a crucial debate in campaign, Rove claimed that his office had been bugged by Democrats. The police and FBI investigated and discovered that the bug's battery was so small that it needed to be changed every few hours, and the investigation was dropped.^[23] Critics, including other Republican operatives, suspected Rove had bugged his own office to garner sympathy votes in the close governor's race.^[24]

1988 Texas Supreme Court races[link]

In 1988, Rove helped Thomas R. Phillips become the first Republican elected as Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Phillips had been appointed to the position in November 1987 by Clements. Phillips was re-elected in 1990, 1996 and 2002.

Phillips' election in 1988 was part of an aggressive grassroots campaign called "Clean Slate '88", a conservative effort that was successful in getting five of its six candidates elected. (Ordinarily there were three justices on the ballot each year, on a nine-justice court, but, because of resignations, there were six races for the Supreme Court on the ballot in November 1988.) By 1998, Republicans held all nine seats on the Court.

1990 Texas gubernatorial campaign[link]

In 1989, Rove encouraged George W. Bush to run for Texas governor, brought in experts to tutor him on policy, and introduced him to local reporters. Eventually, Bush decided not to run, and Rove backed another Republican for governor who lost in the primary.

Other 1990 Texas statewide races[link]

In 1990, two other Rove candidates won: Rick Perry, the future governor of the state, became agricultural commissioner, and Kay Bailey Hutchison became state treasurer.

One notable aspect of the 1990 election was the charge that Rove had asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigated major Democratic officeholders in Texas. In his autobiography, Rove called the whole thing a "myth", saying:

• The FBI did investigate Texas officials during that span, but I had nothing to do with it. The investigation was called "Brilab" and was part of a broad anticorruption probe that looked at officials in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Los Angelele, and Washington, D.C., as well as Texas. ... An official for the U.S. Department of Agriculture spotted expenses claimed by Hightower's shop that raised red flags ... enough to indict some of Hightower's top aides; they were later found guilty and sent to prison.
• The myth that I had something to do both with spurring the investigation and with airing all of this has stuck around because it is convenient for some to blame me rather than those aides who ran afoul of the law. [1]

1991 Richard L. Thornburgh senatorial campaign and lawsuit[link]

In 1991, United States Attorney General Dick Thornburgh resigned to run for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania, one made vacant by John Heinz's death in a helicopter crash. Rove's company worked for the campaign, but it ended with an upset loss to Democrat Harris Wofford. Rove subsequently sued Thornburgh alleging non-payment for services rendered. The Republican National Committee, worried that the suit would make it hard to recruit good candidates, urged Rove to back off. When Rove refused, the RNC hired Kenneth Starr to write an amicus brief on Thornburgh's behalf. After a trial in Austin, Rove prevailed.^[10] Karl Rove & Co. v. Thornburgh was heard by U.S. Federal Judge Sam Sparks (who had been appointed by George H.W. Bush in 1991).

1992 George H. W. Bush presidential campaign[link]

Rove was fired from the 1992 Bush presidential campaign after he planted a negative story with columnist Robert Novak about dissatisfaction with campaign fundraising chief Robert Mosbacher Jr. (Esquire Magazine, January 2003). Novak provided some evidence of motive in his column describing the firing of Mosbacher by former Senator Phil Gramm: "Also attending the session was political consultant Karl Rove, who had been shoved aside by Mosbacher." Novak and Rove deny that Rove was the leaker, but Mosbacher maintained that "Rove is the only one with a motive to leak this. We let him go. I still believe he did it."^[25] During testimony before the CIA leak grand jury, Rove apparently confirmed his prior involvement with Novak in the 1992 campaign leak, according to National Journal reporter Murray Waas.^[26]

1993–2000[link]

1993 Kay Bailey Hutchison senatorial campaign Rove helped Hutchison win a special Senate election in June 1993. Hutchison defeated Democrat Bob Krueger to fill the last two years of Lloyd Bentsen's term. Bentsen resigned to become Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration.

1994 Alabama Supreme Court races In 1994, a group called the Business Council of Alabama hired Rove to help run a slate of Republican candidates for the state supreme court. No Republican had been elected to that court in more than a century. The campaign by the Republicans was unprecedented in the state, which had previously only seen low-key contests. After the election, a court battle over absentee and other ballots followed that lasted more than 11 months. It ended when a federal appeals court judge ruled that disputed absentee ballots could not be counted, and ordered the Alabama Secretary of State to certify the Republican candidate for Chief Justice, Perry Hooper, as the winner. An appeal to the Supreme Court by the Democratic candidate was turned down within a few days, making the ruling final. Hooper won by 262 votes.

Another candidate, Harold See, ran against Mark Kennedy, an incumbent Democratic justice and the son-in-law of George Wallace. The race included charges that Kennedy was mingling campaign funds with those of a non-profit children's foundation he was involved with. A former Rove staffer reported that some within the See camp initiated a whisper campaign that Kennedy was a pedophile.^[21] Kennedy won by less than one percentage point.

1994 John Ashcroft senatorial campaign In 1993, according to the New York Times, Karl Rove & Company was paid $300,000 in consulting fees by Ashcroft's successful 1994 Senate campaign. Ashcroft paid Rove's company more than $700,000 over the course of three campaigns.

1994 George W. Bush gubernatorial campaign In 1993, Rove began advising George W. Bush in his successful campaign to become governor of Texas. Bush announced his candidacy in November 1993. By January 1994, Bush had spent more than $600,000 on the race against incumbent Democrat Ann Richards, with $340,000 of that paid to Rove's firm.

Rove has been accused of using the push poll technique to call voters to ask such things as whether people would be "more or less likely to vote for Governor Richards if [they] knew her staff is dominated by lesbians". Rove has denied having been involved in circulating these rumors about Richards during the campaign,^[27] although many critics nonetheless identify this technique, particularly as utilized in this instance against Richards, as a hallmark of his career.^[28][29][30]

1996 Harold See's campaign for Associate Justice, Alabama Supreme Court A former campaign worker charged that, at Rove's behest, he distributed flyers that anonymously attacked Harold See, their own client. This put the opponent's campaign in an awkward position; public denials of responsibility for the scurrilous flyers would be implausible. Rove's client was elected.^{[citation needed]}

1998 George W. Bush gubernatorial campaign Rove was an adviser for Bush's 1998 reelection campaign. From July through December 1998, Bush's reelection committee paid Rove & Co. nearly $2.5 million, and also paid the Rove-owned Praxis List Company $267,000 for use of mailing lists. Rove says his work for the Bush campaign included direct mail, voter contact, phone banks, computer services, and travel expenses. Of the $2.5 million, Rove said, "[a]bout 30 percent of that is postage". In all, Bush (primarily through Rove's efforts) raised $17.7 million, with $3.4 million unspent as of March 1999.^[31] During the course of this campaign Rove's much-reported feud with Rick Perry began, with Perry's strategists believing Rove gave Perry bad advice in order to help Bush get a larger share of the Hispanic vote.^[32]

2000 Harold See campaign for Chief Justice For the race to succeed Perry Hooper, who was retiring as Alabama's chief justice, Rove lined up support for See from a majority of the state's important Republicans.^[21]

2000 George W. Bush presidential campaign and the sale of Karl Rove & Co.[link]

In early 1999, Rove sold his 20-year-old direct-mail business, Karl Rove & Co., which provided campaign services to candidates, along with Praxis List Company (in whole or part) to Ted Delisi and Todd Olsen, two young political operatives who had worked on campaigns of some other Rove candidates. Rove helped finance the sale of the company, which had 11 employees. Selling Karl Rove & Co. was a condition that George W. Bush had insisted on before Rove took the job of chief strategist for Bush's presidential bid.^[22]

George W. Bush Administration[link]

Rove with George W. and Laura Bush

When George W. Bush was first inaugurated in January 2001, Rove accepted an appointment as Senior Advisor. He was later given the title Deputy Chief of Staff to the President after the successful 2004 Presidential election. In a November 2004 speech, Bush publicly thanked Rove, calling him "the architect" of his victory over John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.^[33]

In April 2006, Rove was reassigned from his policy development role to one focusing on strategic and tactical planning in anticipation of the November 2006 congressional elections.^[34]

Rove resigned from his position effective August 31, 2007. Bush hugged his old friend saying, "Karl Rove is moving on down the road ... I'll be on the road behind you here in a little bit."^[35]

Activities since leaving the White House[link]

This article or section may be slanted towards recent events. Please try to keep recent events in historical perspective. (October 2010)

Shortly after leaving the White House, Rove was hired to write about the 2008 Presidential Election for Newsweek.^[36] He was also later hired as a contributor for the Wall Street Journal and a political analyst for Fox News. Rove was an informal advisor to 2008 Republican Presidential candidate John McCain, and donated $2,300 to his campaign.^[37] His memoir, Courage and Consequence, was published in March 2010.^[38] One advance reviewer, Dana Milbank of The Washington Post, said of the book that Rove "revives claims discredited long ago".^[39] The controversial book has inspired a grassroots rock and roll compilation of a similar name Courage and Consequence^[40] that was released a week before the memoir.

Rove has also spent significant time on the road giving speeches to schools and other groups. Rove was scheduled to give the commencement address at Choate Rosemary Hall, a New England boarding school, but canceled after protests from students and faculty.^[41] He instead made a private appearance at the school on February 11, 2008.^[42]

On March 9, 2008, Rove appeared at the University of Iowa as a paid speaker to a crowd of approximately 1,000. He was met with hostility and two students were removed by police after attempting a citizen's arrest for alleged crimes committed during his time with the Bush administration. Near the end of the speech, a member of the audience asked, "Can we have our $40,000 back?" Rove replied, "No, you can't."^[43]

On May 22, 2008, Rove was subpoenaed by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers to testify on the politicization of the Department of Justice. However, on July 10, Rove refused to acknowledge his congressional subpoena citing executive privilege as his reason.^[44][45]

On June 24, 2008, Rove said of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, "Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone."^[46]

Rove agreed to debate one-time presidential candidate and former Senator John Edwards on September 26, 2008, at the University at Buffalo.^[47] However, Edwards dropped out and was replaced with General Wesley Clark.^[48]

Rove, who was hired by Fox News to provide analysis for the network's election coverage, defended his role on the news team to the Television Critics Association.^[49]

On November 3, 2008, Rove spoke on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis on the eve of Election Day.

On February 23, 2009, Rove was again required by Congressional subpoena to testify before the House Judiciary Committee concerning his knowledge of the U.S. Attorney firings and the alleged political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman but did not appear on this date. He and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers later agreed to testify under oath before Congress about these matters.^[50]

On July 7 and July 30, 2009, Rove testified before the House Judiciary Committee regarding questions about the dismissal of seven U.S. Attorneys under the Bush Administration. Rove was also questioned regarding the federal prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegleman, who was convicted of fraud. The Committee concluded that Rove had played a significant role in the attorney firings.^{[citation needed]} No conclusions were made public regarding Siegleman's prosecution.^[51][52] Siegleman's supporters have claimed that Rove was behind Siegleman's prosecution,^[53] although Siegleman's defense made no such claim either at his original trial, or at his appeal before the 11th Circuit Court which upheld his conviction on the bribery and fraud counts, but dismissed two counts of mail fraud.^[54] The 11th Circuit handed down its decision March 6, 2009.^[52]

In 2010, Rove became an advisor to American Crossroads, a Republican 527 organization raising money in competition with the Republican National Committee.^[55]

Also, Rove made appearances at a number of campuses, including UC Merced on October 8 as conservatives students, in the College Republicans at UC Merced, sought to provide an alternative perspective since First Lady Michelle Obama and Former President Jimmy Carter spoke at the young campus.^[56]

Rove was the guest host of The Rush Limbaugh Show on Monday, August 9, 2010.,^[57] marking his first time hosting a radio talk show.

In a profile which appeared in the December 15, 2011 issue of The New Republic, Rove, with his hands-on involvement with American Crossroads, is described as one of the shrewdest navigators of the political climate after the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision which exempted political broadcasts funded by corporations and unions from campaign finance limits. "Rove had no role in creating this new legal environment...but if Rove and his allies did not invent it, they certainly were adroit at exploiting it."^[58]

Personal life[link]

Rove married Houston socialite Valerie Mather Wainwright, on July 10, 1976. He moved to Texas in January 1977. His sister and father still remembered "the wedding [that] was so extravagant that [we] ... still recall it with awe".^[59] Rove and Wainwright were divorced in early 1980; she was 26 and he 29.^[60] He attended the University of Texas at Austin in 1977; he still lacked a degree. In July 1999 he told The Washington Post that he did not have a degree because "I lack at this point one math class, which I can take by exam, and my foreign language requirement."^[13]

In January 1986, Rove married Darby Tara Hickson.^[13] She is a breast cancer survivor, a graphic designer, and former employee of Karl Rove & Co. Their son, Andrew Madison Rove (b. 1989), is an undergraduate at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

In December 2009 it was reported that Rove and Hickson had been granted a divorce in Texas.^[61] Dana Perino, Rove's spokesperson, said: "Karl Rove and his wife, Darby, were granted a divorce last week. The couple came to the decision mutually and amicably, and they maintain a close relationship and a strong friendship. There will be no further comment and the family requests that its privacy be respected."^[61].

Rove left Texas after Bush was elected President in late 2000. He currently resides in Washington, D.C.

References[link]

External links[link]

Find more about Karl Rove on Wikipedia's sister projects:
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• Official website
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Karl Rove at the Internet Movie Database
• Karl Rove on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Karl Rove in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Karl Rove collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Karl Rove collected news and commentary at The Wall Street Journal
• Karl Rove -- The Architect, Frontline documentary on PBS
• Karl Rove at the Open Directory Project

Don Eugene Siegelman
Siegelman at Netroots Nation 2008
51st Governor of Alabama
In office January 18, 1999 – January 20, 2003
Lieutenant	Steve Windom
Preceded by	Fob James
Succeeded by	Bob Riley
26th Lieutenant Governor of Alabama
In office January 16, 1995 – January 18, 1999
Governor	Fob James
Preceded by	Jim Folsom, Jr.
Succeeded by	Steve Windom
43rd Alabama Attorney General
In office January 19, 1987 – January 21, 1991
Governor	H. Guy Hunt
Preceded by	Charles Graddick
Succeeded by	Jimmy Evans
44th Secretary of State of Alabama
In office January 15, 1979 – January 17, 1987
Governor	Fob James George Wallace
Preceded by	Agnes Baggett
Succeeded by	Glen Browder
Personal details
Born	( 1946-02-24) February 24, 1946 (age 66) Mobile, Alabama
Political party	Democrat.
Spouse(s)	Lori Allen
Alma mater	University of Alabama (B.A.), Georgetown University Law Center (J.D.), University of Oxford
Profession	Politician
Religion	Roman Catholic

Don Eugene Siegelman (born February 24, 1946) is an American Democratic Party politician who held numerous offices in Alabama. He was the 51st Governor of Alabama for one term from 1999 to 2003. Siegelman is the only person in the history of Alabama to be elected to serve in all four of the top statewide elected offices: Secretary of State, Attorney General, 26th Lieutenant Governor and Governor. He served in Alabama politics for 26 years.

After the expiration of his governorship, two of Alabama's United States Attorneys began a criminal investigation against him on accusations of corruption while in office. Indictments came in 2004 and again in 2005, and in 2006 he was convicted on corruption charges.^[1] Since then there have been counter-accusations by various former attorneys general and officials that his prosecution was intentionally wrongful, engineered by presidential advisor Karl Rove and officials of the U.S. Department of Justice to gain political advantage.^[2][3] On March 6, 2009, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld key bribery, conspiracy and obstruction counts against Siegelman and refused his request for a new trial, finding no evidence that the conviction was unjust. The Court struck down two of the seven original charges and ordered a new sentencing hearing, opening the possibility that Siegelman's seven-year prison sentence might be reduced.

Personal life and earlier career[link]

Don Siegelman was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama. Siegelman is married to Lori Allen, and they have two children, Dana and Joseph. Siegelman is Catholic,^[4] and his wife Lori is Jewish; they raised their children in the Jewish Faith. He has studied martial arts for decades and holds a black belt in Kyokushin-style karate.

He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama, where he was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Psi chapter), in 1968, and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1972. He was then a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford from 1972–1973 studying international law[1][2]. While at the University of Alabama, Siegelman served as the President of the Student Government Association. While in law school, Siegelman worked as an officer in the United States Capitol Police to meet his expenses.

In 1979, Siegelman was elected Secretary of State of Alabama. He served as Secretary of State from 1979 to 1987, then as state Attorney General from 1987 to 1991, then as Lieutenant Governor from 1995 to 1999. In 1998, he won election to governor on his first attempt with 57% of the vote, including over 90% of the African-American electorate.

Governorship[link]

Siegelman's term as governor took place in the midst of explosive growth in Alabama's automotive manufacturing industry. The first new major plant, for Mercedes-Benz, had come to Alabama in the administration of Governor Jim Folsom, Jr. During Siegelman's administration, Mercedes agreed to double the size of that plant. Siegelman became an energetic industrial recruiter, visiting several countries and securing commitments from Toyota, Honda,^[5] and Hyundai^[6][7] to build major assembly plants in Alabama.

Governor Siegelman presided over eight executions (seven by electric chair, one by lethal injection), including that of Lynda Lyon Block, the first female executed in the state since 1957. He also oversaw the transition from electrocution as a sole method to lethal injection as the primary method.

Siegelman was the first native Mobilian to be elected to the state's highest office. Siegelman was also the first governor to have a non-Christian wife, his wife Lori being Jewish.

State lottery and universal education[link]

Siegelman attempted to capitalize early in his administration on what had been the keystone issue of his campaign: a state lottery, with the proceeds funding free tuition at state universities for most high school graduates. Disregarding the advice of some supporters, Siegelman supported a bill that placed the lottery on a free-standing referendum ballot in 1999. The measure was defeated.^[8] Some advisers had suggested that Siegelman wait until the regular 2000 elections, when anti-gambling interests would command a smaller percentage of the electorate.^{[citation needed]}

After the defeat of the lottery, Siegelman struggled to deal with serious state budget problems. Alabama's tax system is historically sensitive to economic downturns, and tax revenues were down during most of his administration. Despite this, observers felt that Siegelman did a decent job of managing the limited revenue produced by this system during a national economic downturn.^{[citation needed]}

Siegelman launched the "Alabama Reading Initiative", an early education literacy program that was praised by both Democratic and Republican officials, and emulated by several other states.

2002 election controversy[link]

Representative Bob Riley defeated Siegelman's November 2002 reelection bid by the narrowest margin in Alabama history: approximately 3,000 votes. The result was controversial, as on the night of the election, Siegelman was initially declared the winner by the Associated Press. Later, a voting machine malfunction in a single county, Baldwin County, was claimed to have produced the votes needed to give Siegelman the election. When the malfunction was corrected, Riley emerged the winner. Democratic Party officials objected, stating that the recount had been performed by local Republican election officials after Democratic observers had left the site of the vote counting, thus rendering verification of the recount results impossible.^[9] The state's Attorney General, Republican Bill Pryor, affirmed the recounted vote totals, securing Riley's election. Largely as a result of this controversy, the Alabama Legislature amended the election code to provide for automatic, supervised recounts in close races.^[10]

Federal prosecution[link]

The 2004 trial[link]

On May 27, 2004, Siegelman was served an indictment on federal charges, but the day after his trial began, prosecutors abruptly dropped all charges. The judge threw out much of the prosecution's evidence and stated that that no new charges could be refiled based on the disallowed evidence.^[11]

The 2006 conviction[link]

On October 26, 2005, Siegelman was indicted on new charges of bribery and mail fraud in connection with Richard M. Scrushy, founder and former CEO of HealthSouth. Two former Siegelman aides were charged in the indictment as well. Siegelman was accused of trading government favors for campaign donations when he was governor from 1999 to 2003 and lieutenant governor from 1995 to 1999. Scrushy was accused of arranging $500,000 in donations to Siegelman's campaign for a state lottery fund for universal education in exchange for a seat on a state hospital regulatory board, a non-paying position. Scrushy, who had served on the state hospital regulatory board over the past three Republican administrations, had recently been investigated for his part in the HealthSouth Corporation fraud scandal which cost shareholders billions.^[12]

During his trial, Siegelman continued his campaign for reelection, running in the Democratic primary against Lt. Governor Lucy Baxley and minor candidates. On June 6, despite Baxley's relatively low-profile campaign, she easily defeated Siegelman with almost 60% of the vote compared to Siegelman's 36%.^[13] Baxley went on to lose to incumbent Bob Riley in the general election by a large margin.

On June 29, 2006, just three weeks after losing the primary, a federal jury found both Siegelman and Scrushy guilty on seven of the 33 counts in the indictment. Two codefendants, his former chief of staff, Paul Hamrick and his transportation director, Mack Roberts, were acquitted of all charges. Siegelman was convicted on one count of bribery, one count of conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud, four counts of honest services mail fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice.^[14] Siegelman was acquitted on 25 counts, including the indictment's allegations of a widespread RICO conspiracy.^[15] Siegelman was represented by Mobile attorneys Vince Kilborn and David McDonald, along with Greenwood attorney Hiram Eastland and Notre Dame law professor G. Robert Blakey, who is an authority on RICO. Siegelman was sentenced by Judge Mark Everett Fuller to more than seven years in federal prison and a $50,000 fine.^[1]

Siegelman has said in his defense that Scrushy had been on the board of the state hospital regulatory board during several preceding governorships and that his contribution towards the state lottery fund for universal education was unrelated. He says that such charges, in addition to being unfounded, are without precedent. Scrushy remains in federal prison.^[16]

Release from federal prison[link]

On Thursday, March 27, 2008, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals approved the release of former Governor Siegelman from federal prison while he appeals his conviction in the corruption case. He was released on Friday the 28th.^[17] Siegelman has stated that he wants to see Karl Rove held in contempt for refusing to testify before a House committee that is investigating Siegelman's conviction.^[18]

The 2009 appeal[link]

On March 6, 2009, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld key bribery, conspiracy and obstruction counts against Siegelman and refused his request for a new trial, finding no evidence that the conviction was unjust. The Court did strike down two of the seven charges on which Siegelman was convicted, and it ordered a new sentencing hearing. That means Siegelman's seven-year sentence could be reduced.^[19]

Objections raised against the prosecutors and the court proceedings[link]

Testimony of the star witness[link]

Witness Nick Bailey, who provided the cornerstone testimony upon which the conviction was based, was subsequently convicted of extortion; upon being given 10 years in prison Bailey cooperated with prosecutors to lighten his own sentence. Although he engaged in over 70 interviews with the prosecution against Siegelman, none of the notes detailing these interviews were shared with the defense. In addition, after the case was tried it was confirmed that the check he testified he saw Scrushy write for Siegelman was actually written days later, when he was not actually present.^[20][21]

Partiality of the jury[link]

Documents indicated that prosecutors interviewed two jurors while the court was reviewing charges of juror misconduct, in violation of the judge's instruction that no contact with jurors should occur without his permission.

Karl Rove connection[link]

Allegations that Siegelman was prosecuted at the insistence of Bush-appointed officials at the Justice Department, as well as the insistence of Leura Canary, a U.S. Attorney in Montgomery whose husband was Alabama's top Republican operative and who had for years worked closely with Karl Rove, led federal courts to release the accused on bail.^[22] In June 2007, a Republican lawyer, Dana Jill Simpson of Rainsville, Alabama, signed a sworn statement that, five years earlier, she had heard that Karl Rove was preparing to neutralize Siegelman politically with an investigation headed by the U.S. Department of Justice.^[23] Simpson later told The Birmingham News that her affidavit's wording could be interpreted in two ways, and stated that she had written her affidavit herself, whereas in her Congressional testimony she had admitted to having help from a Siegelman supporter.^[24]

According to Simpson's statement, she was on a Republican campaign conference call in 2002 when she heard Bill Canary tell other campaign workers not to worry about Siegelman because Canary's "girls" and "Karl" would make sure the Justice Department pursued the Democrat so he was not a political threat in the future.^[23] "Canary's girls" supposedly included his wife, Leura Canary, who is United States Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, and United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Alice Martin.^[23] Leura Canary did not submit voluntary recusal paperwork until two months after Siegelman attorney David Cromwell Johnson's press conference in March 2002.^[25][26][27]

In interviews with the press, Simpson has emphasized that she heard Rove's name mentioned in a phone conversation in which the discussion turned to Siegelman, clarified that she heard someone involved in a 2002 conference call refer to a meeting between Mr. Rove and Justice Department officials on the subject of Siegelman, and revealed that Karl Rove ordered her to "catch Siegelman cheating on his wife."^[20] The Anniston Star published an editorial stating that, "If that's his story, then Rove should not hesitate to go under oath and answer questions before a congressional committee."^[28]

Despite claims to 60 Minutes about having met and spoken with Rove repeatedly over the previous several years, in her sworn testimony to Congress in 2007 Simpson did not mention having spoken with him or met with him.^{[citation needed]} Nor has she produced any phone records, pay stubs, receipts or other documentation to prove that she worked for either Karl Rove or the Republican Party. On the other hand, Raw Story reports that Karl Rove advised Bill Canary on managing Republican Bob Riley's gubernatorial campaign against Siegelman in the election fraud controversy of 2002, based on the testimony of "two Republican lawyers who have asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation," one of whom is close to Alabama's Republican National Committee.^[29]

Simpson's house burned down soon after she began whistleblowing, and Simpson's car was driven off the road by a private investigator^[30] and wrecked. As a result of the timing of these incidents, Simpson said, "Anytime you speak truth to power, there are great risks. I've been attacked," explaining she felt a "moral obligation" to speak up.^[31]

Alleged Misconduct by Attorney General[link]

In November 2008, new documents revealed alleged misconduct by the Bush-appointed U.S. attorney and other prosecutors in the case. Extensive and unusual contact between the prosecution and the jury were alleged to have occurred.^[22] According to Time, a Department of Justice Staffer furnished the new documents at the risk of losing her job. The documents included e-mails written by Canary, long after her recusal, offering legal advice to subordinates handling the case. At the time Canary wrote the e-mails, her husband was publicly supporting the state's Republican governor, Bob Riley. In one of Leura Canary's e-mails made public by Time, dated September 19, 2005, she forwarded senior prosecutors on the Siegelman case a three-page political commentary by Siegelman. Canary highlighted a single passage which, she told her subordinates, "Ya'll need to read, because he refers to a 'survey' which allegedly shows that 67% of Alabamans believe the investigation of him to be politically motivated ... Perhaps [this is] grounds not to let [Siegelman] discuss court activities in the media!" At Siegleman's sentencing, the prosecutors urged the judge to use these public statements by Siegelman as grounds for increasing his prison sentence.^[22]

Confinement and sentencing[link]

A petition from 44 former State Attorneys General noted that Governor Siegelman was "denied 45 days to report to prison to give him time to put his affairs in order, an opportunity which is commonly granted" and observed that "because Governor Siegelman is not in any way a flight risk, the denial of a bond pending appeal appears inappropriate, and the shackling of the Governor in handcuffs and leg irons as he was taken out of the courtroom was shocking." The petition noted in contrast that when "another former Governor of Alabama was convicted of corruption charges a few years ago in a case where he personally benefited from his action," unlike Siegelman, he was merely sentenced to probation and that case "was handled by the same lead prosecutor." The petition from the former state attorneys general then noted that "The sentence sought by the prosecutor in Governor Siegelman's case – 30 years – was excessively disproportionate."^[32]

Public reaction[link]

Government officials[link]

In July 2007, 44 former State Attorneys General, both Democrats and Republicans, filed a petition to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees requesting further investigation of the Siegelman prosecution.^[32][33]

On July 17, 2007, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D, MI-14) and Reps. Linda Sánchez (D, CA-39), Artur Davis (D, AL-07), and Tammy Baldwin (D, WI-02) sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, asking him to provide documents and information about former Alabama Democratic Governor Don Siegelman's recent conviction, among others, that may have been part of a pattern of selective political prosecutions by a number of U.S. Attorneys across the country. The deadline for the Attorney General's office to provide the information to Congress was July 27, 2007. The documents had not been produced by August 28, 2007, the date that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced that he would resign.^[34] In an editorial that day, The New York Times said that despite Gonzales' departure, "[M]any questions remain to be answered. High on the list: what role politics played in dubious prosecutions, like those of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, and Georgia Thompson, a Wisconsin civil servant."^[35] Press reports have suggested that perhaps U.S. Attorney Leura Canary did not follow proper Department of Justice procedures in recusing herself from the Siegelman matter, since there were no filings to that effect made in court and Justice refused to disclose her recusal form under the Freedom of Information Act.^[36]

On October 10, 2007, the House Judiciary Committee released testimony in which Dana Jill Simpson alleged Rove "had spoken with the Department of Justice" about "pursuing" Siegelman with help from two of Alabama's U.S. attorneys and that Rob Riley had named the judge who would eventually be assigned to the case. She also claimed Rob Riley told her the judge would "hang Don Siegelman." In contrast with what she told 60 Minutes, in her sworn testimony she never mentioned having met or spoken with Karl Rove.^[37][38]

Wider public[link]

Siegelman defenders point out that over 100 charges were thrown out by three different judges. Further, they argue that there was a conflict of interest in the prosecution against Siegelman, since the investigating U.S. Attorney was married to his political opponent's campaign manager.^[23] Siegelman defenders argue that the sentence is unprecedented and the punishment excessive because, for example, former Alabama Governor H. Guy Hunt, a Republican, was found guilty in state court of personally pocketing $200,000, and state prosecutors sought probation, not jail time, in the Hunt case.^[23]

Federal Communications Commission investigation[link]

60 Minutes aired an investigative segment on the case called "The Prosecution of Governor Siegelman" on February 24, 2008.^[39] During the broadcast, CBS affiliate WHNT-TV in Huntsville, Alabama, did not air this segment of the program but claimed technical issues with the signal.^[40] Scott Horton of Harper's Magazine has stated that he contacted CBS News in New York regarding the issue and claims that he was told that there were no transmission issues, and that WHNT had functioning transmitters at the time.^[3] Horton also accused the station of a history of political hostility toward Siegelman. Horton, a longtime proponent of charges that Siegelman's prosecution was politically motivated, offered no evidence to support his claims.^[3] The station responded to the controversy by rebroadcasting the report later that night, and again the next day.^[41] In March 2008, the Federal Communications Commission began an investigation into why the north Alabama television station went dark during a February 24 broadcast of the "60 Minutes" installment.^[42] The investigation resulted in no action.

References[link]

External links[link]

• DonSiegelman.org A website in support of Don Siegelman
• Alabama Department of Archives & History – Alabama Governor Don Siegelman profile
• National Governors Association – Alabama Governor Don Siegelman profile
• On the Issues – Don Siegelman issue positions and quotes
• Follow the Money – Don Siegelman
  • 2006 2002 1998
• The New York Times – Topics: Donald Siegelman collection of news stories
• locustfork.net: The first interview with Jill Simpson
• The Nation: A Whistleblower's Tale
• Siegelman archive, Harper's Scott Horton's ongoing investigation
• The New York Times – "Strange Case of An Imprisoned Alabama Governor" September 10, 2007
• Caylor, John "The Dixie Mafia's Contract on America"
• The Raw Story – "The permanent Republican majority:Part One: How a coterie of Republican heavyweights sent a governor to jail" November 26, 2007
• The Raw Story – "The permanent Republican majority:Part Two: Daughter of jailed governor sees White House hand in her father's fall" November 27, 2007
• The Raw Story – "The permanent Republican majority:Part Three: Running elections from the White House" December 16, 2007
• CBS News 60 Minutes – GOP Operative: Rove Sought To Smear Dem February 21, 2008
• Harper's Magazine – "More Prosecutorial Misconduct in Siegelman Case"
• Video of Karl Rove holding "Free Don Siegelman" banner February 25, 2008