Andrew Sullivan had two newsworthy nuggets about Karl Rove today.First, according to a new biography on Rove, he performed an exorcism of sorts on his office which was used by Hillary:
Soon after Rove moved into his new office in the West Wing, previously occupied by Hillary Clinton, he invited three top Catholic priests to conduct a ceremony to purge the room of evil spirits. “It was an actual liturgical ceremony,” says participant Deal Hudson. “We sat at the table, we prayed. A priest said a series of prayers, including a blessing.”
Second, via the Washington Times, Lieberman may have made a deal with the devil by getting money agreeing to let Rove urge pro-Bush donors divert their contributions to Lieberman’s campaign:
The White House funneled millions of dollars through major Republican Party contributors to Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s primary campaign in a failed effort to ensure the support of the former Democrat for the Bush administration.A senior GOP source said the money was part of Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove’s strategy to maintain a Republican majority in the Senate in November. The source said Mr. Rove, together with Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, directed leading pro-Bush contributors to donate millions of dollars to Mr. Lieberman’s campaign for re-election in Connecticut in an attempt that he would be a “Republican-leaning” senator.”Joe [Lieberman] took the money but said he would not play ball,” the source said. “That doesn’t mean that this was a wasted investment.”
I have no clue whether the first story is true. Rove and his crew probably hate Hillary enough to do it. The second story doesn’t seem to add up to me. Lieberman was never at a financial disadvantage and taking money from Rove would be a kiss of death. Sullivan quotes a reader who rationalizes the story, but it still doesn’t add up.PS I hate it when people liken Rove to Machiavelli. Machiavelli’s philosophy is far from simple. He wasn’t someone who just said do whatever you want to do for your own self gain. But the fact that he is so misunderstood might be one of the reasons I like him so much.
