Thursday, August 16, 2007

In his Aug. 14 op-ed ["The Architect's Great Project"], a love letter to Karl Rove, Grover G. Norquist whitewashed the "dirty tricks" Mr. Rove used in the 2000 Republican primary campaign and the 2004 presidential campaign to get his candidate elected.

In both campaigns, Mr. Rove used the output of his own "527" groups and other forms of misinformation to assassinate the characters of Sens. John McCain and John F. Kerry.

There is no doubt that Mr. Rove is a political genius. How else could you explain the electorate believing that a man who safely sat out the Vietnam War was stronger on defense than two veterans of the same war, one of whom spent years in a prisoner-of-war camp and the other a volunteer who received commendations for bravery in battle?

Mr. Rove's impact on history should be considered in the context of whether his work bettered our country and not whether it bettered the Republican Party.

In the future, American historians will answer the former question with a resounding no.

MICHAEL G. LEVENTHAL

Gaithersburg