A new book on Karl Rove, Machiavelli's Shadow by Paul Alexander, recalls a personal experience I had with George W. Bush's political guru. I had forgotten that I talked to the author until reading this excerpt from a review of the book on the Washington Examiner's web site:
"CQ's Craig Crawford recalls this moment from 1999, when Crawford was editing National Journal's Hotline: 'I thought Bush was called Bush Junior,' Crawford told Alexander.'So, at Hotline, because we needed a device in our headlines to delineate him from Bush Senior, we were just calling him Bush Junior. Well, one day I picked up the phone and there was this person screaming at me on the other end. It was just nonstop yelling. It was Karl Rove and I mean he tore my head off over our calling Bush Bush Junior.'"
All true. I haven't seen the book yet and don't know whether Alexander included this detail: It was the only time I ever talked to Rove. His rudeness in the conversation described above caused me to decide that life is too short to ever again waste time talking to such a jerk.
That was a lucky move. Had I courted Rove as a source, as so many of my colleagues did, I might have had to hire a lawyer, or worse -- as so many of my colleagues experienced in the CIA leak case.
Craig blogs daily at Trail Mix on CQ Politics.
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.