Karl Rove

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).


Activities since leaving the White House




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.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. His memoir, Courage and Consequence, was published in March 2010. One advance reviewer, Dana Milbank of The Washington Post, said of the book that Rove "revives claims discredited long ago". The controversial book has inspired a grassroots rock and roll compilation of a similar name Courage and Consequence 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. He instead made a private appearance at the school on February 11, 2008.
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."
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.
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."
Rove agreed to debate one-time presidential candidate and former Senator John Edwards on September 26, 2008, at the University at Buffalo. However, Edwards dropped out and was replaced with General Wesley Clark.
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.
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.
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. No conclusions were made public regarding Siegleman's prosecution. Siegleman's supporters have claimed that Rove was behind Siegleman's prosecution, 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. The 11th Circuit handed down its decision March 6, 2009.
In 2010, Rove became an advisor to American Crossroads, a Republican 527 organization raising money in competition with the Republican National Committee.
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 went and spoke at the young campus.
Rove was the guest host of The Rush Limbaugh Show on Monday, August 9, 2010.,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."


Personal life


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". Rove and Wainwright were divorced in early 1980; she was 26 and he 29. 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."

In January 1986, Rove married Darby Tara Hickson. 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. 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.".
Rove left Texas after Bush was elected President in late 2000. He currently resides in Washington, D.C.