Mr. Unoriginal

Karl Rove is a faker.

He's supposed to be this big, bad, scary political strategist. A modern Machiavelli. The Texas political wunderkind. But he's not. He's just someone who reads books.

I've been reading Robert Caro's series on Lyndon Johnson. The second book, Means of Ascent, details how LBJ won the 1948 Senate race against Governor Coke Stevenson - the reigning champion of Texas politics. How did he do it? A combination of massive fundraising (through sweetheart deals with the oil and development industries), vicious attacks on his opponent that were the opposite of the truth, blatant misrepresentations about his own record and history, and rampant vote-stealing. The race ended in court, with a friendly Supreme Court giving the race to Bush...er... I mean Johnson.

Does any of this sound familiar?

One could argue that all of these features of the Johnson campaign are par for the course in American politics. And in saying so, you would be partly correct. Caro himself describes the 1948 race as the first truly modern campaign. But not all - maybe even not most - of contemporary campaigns engage in such practices. What distinguishes Johnson (and Rove) is their utter ruthlessness - their willingness to do everything short of political assassination - to gain their aim, which is power.

Rove certainly didn't invent this style of campaign. He's an almost slavish imitator of Johnson's strategy - going after the strengths of the opposition and all. So he is no innovator. What he is is a man totally unsuited to participate in the political life of a democratic country. He'd be far happier working as the henchman of some 3rd world dictator.