Apple Slices: Stalking Rove

NEW YORK, Aug. 31--I gave Karl Rove a chance to puncture the Karl Rove myth, and he declined.

He said, in the friendliest possible way, that he wasn't allowed to talk to me.

What? The most powerful political operative on the planet, the trusted White House lieutenant, the man one book dubbed Bush's brain, has to raise his hand and ask permission before having a casual chat with a reporter?

Yup.

He said the Bush-Cheney communications staff had to clear any utterance he might make to the press.

Now there was a time when if you happened upon an Important Person at a political convention, you could ask a couple of quick questions and make some news. Shoe-leather reporting, I believe they called it. But not now, not at this convention.

I had bumped into the White House senior adviser as he was getting ready to do an NBC interview. He was slated for the other networks later in the week. He had recently spoken to the New York Times about his larger-than-life persona, saying: "It's just weird, the stuff I get credit for or blamed for that I just have nothing to do with. The things that people suggest I am saying or advocating, it's just absurd. . . . I read about myself in the newspaper and I say they must be talking about someone else."

That seemed like a safe topic, so I asked whether Rove wasn't fostering the impression that his fingerprints were on everything by keeping such a low media profile. He agreed and started to elaborate, but then stopped himself. This was an unauthorized media opportunity.

Couldn't he break free of the message-control machine?

"I'm just a cog," Rove said.

Weirdest thing I've seen on the street here: A local Fox reporter telling his cameraman to shoot a table full of umbrellas outside one of the Garden's security entrances. Journalists are not allowed to bring in these potentially dangerous weapons, if even it's raining. On the other hand, the guards let us carry in our bottled water -- unlike in Boston -- as long as we take a swig and demonstrate it's not diabolically toxic.

Rudy was the star last night -- once again, the broadcast networks missed what was likely to be the convention's most talked-about speech, as they did with Barack Obama in Boston -- but this is John McCain's convention. McCain is not a great orator and kept his trademark humor under wraps, but media folks are swooning nonetheless.

Just look at the list of Fourth Estate heavyweights who attended his birthday party at a Madison Avenue restaurant: Dan, Tom and Peter. Koppel, Russert and Stephanopoulos. Schieffer, Matthews, Zuckerman, Safire, Don Graham, Gloria Borger, Judy Woodruff, Charlie Rose, and on and on.

Dan Kennedy says McCain stayed true to himself:

"As for McCain's failure to rip into Kerry . . . well, everyone who follows politics knows that McCain likes and respects Kerry on a personal level and detests Bush. Would anyone have found it even remotely credible if McCain had suddenly gone after Kerry as a flip-flopping weasel?

"Rather than coming off as a Republican partisan, McCain projected an image as a truly independent politician who's chosen a man he dislikes over one he likes strictly as a matter of principle. Just as Giuliani thanked God for Bush, Bush ought to thank God for McCain. If McCain managed to help himself in the process, well, what of it?"

I pick up The Post's op-ed page and David Broder and Richard Cohen are both writing about McCain. First, Broder:

"The McCain phenomenon is remarkable. Rarely in modern political history has a man who failed to win the nomination of his party in one election loomed so large on the national stage in the next election. . . .

"How to explain this phenomenon? The answer has to lie in McCain's success in satisfying the widespread public hunger for authenticity and candor in political leaders. The name he gave his campaign bus in 2000, 'The Straight Talk Express,' perfectly captured what voters now see in him -- the rare Washington official who says what he thinks and lets the chips fall where they may.

"The current political situation puts a severe strain on McCain's ability to do that. But he is struggling manfully to keep various overlapping and conflicting roles straight -- without contradicting himself."

Cohen says Kerry should be more like . . . McCain.

"The irrepressible blurting out of the obvious, a McCain trait for many years, not only stood in marked contrast to what I had been watching before he came on -- George Pataki and Rudy Giuliani in full insincerity about the marvels of the Bush presidency -- but to politicians in general. It is a magical thing McCain does: Tell the truth, tell it simply and get on with life. The formula is so obvious, you'd think more politicians would adopt it, if only because it works -- never mind any silliness about truth being its own reward. Bluntness is, bluntly speaking, what Kerry could use in abundance."

A far cry from the 2000 convention, when I stumbled on the information that McCain felt so unwanted by Bush that he went to the Amtrak station and took the train from Philly back to D.C. (He was lured back for the finale.)

Wait! What's this? Some actual negative words about McCain?

"John McCain is beloved among certain segments of independents and Democrats for his vaunted ability to cut through the political crap and give it to you straight," says the Washington Monthly's Amy Sullivan. "But it is exactly that skill that makes him ill-equipped to serve as a partisan shill. McCain sounded flat and uninspired this evening, with the exception of his passionate closing. Given the task of defending Bush's policy in Iraq, it was McCain's duty to preview the Administration's latest rationale: no longer 'weapons of mass destruction' or even 'weapons of mass destruction-related program activities,' apparently the latest justification for war is 'whether or not [Saddam] had the weapons, he would have acquired them.'

"Well, then. If that's all it takes. . . .

"McCain's image took a bruising tonight, particularly because his performance suffered in comparison to the genial attack dog Rudy Giuliani, who at least projected the image of a straight talker while slapping John Kerry up one side and down the other."

She must not have been invited to the birthday bash.

Some more First Night reaction. Andrew Sullivan likes what he saw:

"Giuliani was on fire. He spoke so easily, so amusingly, and so emotionally that for long passages, you forgot he was giving a speech and felt he was talking with you. His iconic status is oddly a problem for him, because it has tended to obscure his street-smart, clear-eyed chattiness -- the kind of thing a New York mayor can use from time to time. But it was on display last night to great effect.

"Again, Giuliani spoke to Bush's emotional intelligence after 9/11, his genuine attempt to do what he believed was best for the country at a time of terror, and to Bush's personable nature. You just cannot imagine a story in which a huge, ham-handed construction worker would ever give John Kerry a big, warm bear-hug. Or that John Kerry would answer a long disquisition from a man in a hard-hat and feel satisfied to respond with two simple words: 'I agree.' Again, Giuliani reminded us of why we tend to like George W. Bush. (Personally, I'd rather have pins stuck in my eyes than endure a conversation with John Kerry, but I'd love to hang with Bush.) All of this matters. A president in wartime needs to be able to connect with people. Bush can. Kerry can't."

National Review's Richard Brookhiser is in full Giuliani swoon:

"He saved my city, and when it couldn't be saved, he succored it.

"The hall is filled with people who think they will [be] president in 2008. Governors of square states; senators from states with smaller populations than the five boroughs; permanent wannabes; future has-beens. Alan Keyes is also forever available. Standing out from the pack is Giuliani, who has more negatives and more potent positives than any other Republican.

"Giuliani does not have obvious advantages as a speaker. His bald head, and small glasses recall Werner Klemperer as Col. Klink; his numerous New York hand gestures are stiff and jerky. Do not be deceived: He plays an audience like a maestro, shifting emotions, building climaxes, and not letting applause derail him."

Ryan Lizza blasts the Swift boat folks in his New Republic column:

"Never in a campaign has a more disreputable group of people, whose accusations have been repeatedly contradicted by official records and reliable eyewitness accounts, had their claims taken so seriously. John Kerry's accounts of his military service are supported by U.S. Navy documents, his crewmates, and -- in the case of the engagement for which Kerry won the Silver Star -- the only other living officer who witnessed the event...

"But, as much as the press bears responsibility for the last few weeks of wall-to-wall Swiftee coverage, many Democrats, who have been tearing their hair out as they have watched this story unfold like a slow-motion car wreck, aren't just angry at the media. They are also blaming the Kerry campaign for allowing the accusations to metastasize into a clear threat to a Democratic victory."

Before we got to New York, there was some chatter about whether the Swift boat controversy would fade as the media became preoccupied with the convention. The answer is a resounding no, and not just because the swifties have launched another anti-Kerry ad. The correspondents just keep sticking microphones in Republicans' faces, including Rudy and McCain, and saying, "So, what do you think of the swift boat ads?"