Karl Rove Still Practices Blackmail

The secret to the Bush-Cheney-Rove administration was simple, but never reported. Karl Rove kept a file on everyone, and used it with quiet but deadly efficiency for one purpose: blackmail.

If you defied Bush or Cheney or Rove in any way, Rove leaked the contents of the file to his favorite journalists to splash all over the news. Just ask Joe Wilson how his wife Valerie Plame was outed after Wilson published his NY Times op-ed about Bush's Iraq-Niger lie entitled, "What I Didn't Find in Africa." Rove and his White House cronies told every reporter they knew that Wilson was sent to Niger not by Cheney, but by an anti-Bush CIA cabal led by his wife who wanted to sabotage Bush's Iraq policy. As Karl Rove told Chris Matthews at the time, she was "fair game."

I'm sure there are a thousand stories just like it. Remember when former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill publicly criticized Bush in Ron Suskind's book "The Price of Loyalty"? O'Neill did one TV interview and said he had absolutely nothing to fear from criticizing Bush. The next day, he clammed up completely. Did Rove get to him? I have no doubt, but the story was never told.

I also believe the whole NSA wiretap program was designed to let Rove "investigate" perceived enemies to find blackmail material he could put in "his file." And I believe the purpose of the Abu Ghraib photos was to let CIA operatives blackmail the Iraqi prisoners after they left prison.

If I ever write a book about the Bush Administration, it will be called "Blackmail: How George Bush Terrorized the World and Silenced His Critics."

Today we get fresh evidence of Rove's blackmail M.O., courtesy of Politico's Anne Schroeder Mullins. Even now, if you dare to challenge Rove, the first words out of his mouth are: "I Have A File."

Roe walked over to the table, "I'm Jason Roe."

Rove: "Oh, the famous Jason Roe."

Roe: "I don't know that I'm famous, but I'm Tom Feeney's former chief of staff, and I'm offended by your comments on Fox about Tom. You guys wouldn't be in the White House without Tom. And you made these really degrading comments about him that offended a lot of people."

(Sidenote: Tom Feeney was the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives during the whole Bush/Gore 2000 recount.)

Rove: "Well, I have a file on the things Tom Feeney said about George Bush."

Roe: "That says more about you than me that you kept a file on Tom Feeney. This guy was so restrained in his desire to criticize the president — even against this staff's advice." 

Rove: "I have a file."

Roe: "I'm right here. Tell me to my face what's in that file."

Rove: "I'll send you the file."

Roe: "Well, I hope the file is the beginning of the conversation and not the end. I would love to disabuse you of whatever you think of Tom Feeney's loyalty from this file."

Rove: "If you keep talking over me, this conversation's going to end right now."

Then a lady came over to fill up Rove's water glass, breaking up Roe and Rove, and Roe returned to the bar. Rumor has it Rove was waiting to have dinner with former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman.

No surprise there - Mehlman is another blackmail expert.

Update 1: Marcy Wheeler wonders whether Rove will "Do Dallas" with George Bush and his dead-enders. Clearly there's a split between Bush and Cheney and their respective consiglieri - but which one is Rove's daddy?