The Problem With Karl Rove

I'm disappointed in Karl Rove. I am disappointed because I think that Karl Rove could have an infinite amount of interesting and insightful things to say, but he can't force himself to do so because he is just such an unshakeable GOP operative and hack. Okay, stick with me here.

Today, Rove is a commentator on Fox News and he writes a fairly regular column for the Wall Street Journal. While he has some interesting things to say, it is hard to miss the partisan edge of just about every single utterance that leaves his lips. Take an article from today where he goes over the election results. While I do not dispute much of the factual info he throws out, Rove is clearly speaking as Karl Rove the Republican Strategist, and not Karl Rove the Political Observer. Why does this matter? Because Rove could and should do better.

I have no doubt that if I sat down with Rove for a Guinness, I could sit there for days straight picking his brain on politics, strategy and history. The man is one of the best strategists and stat heads ever. Love him or hate him, you cannot deny the man his due and and his brilliance. However, I feeling strongly that if I sat down at a tavern with Rove, the conversation would be boring (not boring in the sense that he would argue with you and be snide, but boring because he would "talk shop"). This is because Rove is clearly incapable of shedding his lifelong Republican stripes and becoming an independent observer of politics. An observer, vitally, who is capable of saying positive and negative things about both parties. As a result, everything out of his mouth has to be taken with a grain of salt because it is tainted by bias.

This is a shame because Rove could have so much more to say, and he would be the best, at least to me, a political junkie. I realize that longtime operatives who become commentators never really shed their biases: people like Paul Begala, Dick Morris, James Carville, and Alex Castellanos all still wear their affiliation proudly. But with all due respect to all of these men (except Morris, who I think is one of the slimiest people I've ever met), I think Rove is better than each of them (and he has the record to prove it) and I know he would have more fascinating stuff to explain to an audience if only he could drop the GOP angle.

Maybe he's trying. You get at least that sense. But his inability to do this simply disappoints me. All of this is why I love Tom Davis and I think a conversation with him would be more fun: Davis is a political mastermind, but he is blunt and willing to trash his own party (which he often does) and I think he would love talking shop with someone. Rove appears absolutely incapable of doing this, and I think that's a shame because he could be better than that as a commentator.