The talk was politics, duty, disaster and “setting history right” when Karl Rove stepped before a microphone Thursday evening at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center of the George Bush Presidential Library in Bryan, Texas.
Rove, who served as former President George W. Bush’s senior adviser for seven years, and deputy chief of staff for four years, came to Aggieland to promote his newly published memoir, “Courage and Consequence.”
Among those in attendance was former First Lady Barbara Bush, who introduced Rove as an accomplished politician and long-time family friend.
“Few people have done more to help transform Texas politics to be sure, but Karl also did a masterful job helping President George W. Bush navigate his way all the way to the White House,” Bush said. “So suffice it to say, Karl’s place on the Bush family Christmas card list is firm.”
After thanking the First Lady for the introduction, Rove began his lecture by introducing his book and its controversial subject matter.
“I wanted to give people a sense of who it was laboring in the White House all those years,” Rove said. “I wanted to give them a sense of what actually happened there, because a lot of people have misconceptions about those things. A lot of people have misconceptions about the 43rd president of the United States.”
Rove spent much of the following hour discussing some of the details of his book. These included his beginnings as president of College Republicans, the attacks made by the media on his family in the 1990s and the “cynical attack on the credibility of the President of the United States in a time of war,” made by political opponents regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
As the evening progressed, Rove interspersed humorous stories among serious mattes, but there was no humor when he turned the attention to Sept. 11, 2001.
Throughout his address, Rove focused from time to time on what he observed of Bush while serving as the president’s chief advisor. Rove recalled his experience flying back to the White House on Marine One on that September day.
“We came over the very last ridge that separates Maryland from the Potomac River, and we made a hard right turn and at that moment the Pentagon came into view for the first time,” Rove said. “Nobody had said a word. And when the Pentagon came into view there was smoke coming out of the Pentagon and for the first time somebody spoke. It was the President. He said, ‘Take a look. You are looking at the face of war in the 21st century. ‘”
As Rove’s lecture drew to a close, the attention turned to current politics. Rove, who is a commentator for Fox News and a Wall Street Journal columnist, acknowledged he has disagreements with the current administration, but said he also has empathy for them “because they have to make tough decisions.”
“Sometimes it’s easy to say something … and then you get in there, and you have to deal with the consequences of that action and you try to figure out an alternative. It’s hard to do, so I have a great deal of empathy for them.” Rove said. “I’m a partisan, I admit it. But I also think its important to keep in mind that we have a more important obligation than just partisanship.”
Andy Black, Texas A&M U. freshman, said he was persuaded to purchase Rove’s book after getting a feel for Rove’s personality firsthand.
“He’s a genuine guy. I always thought he was sort of just all political and no realness to him,” Black said. “He’s a genuine guy and he has genuine concerns for what he does and genuinely wants to help the country.”