Karl Rove Loves Teddy Roosevelt, but Roosevelt Would've Hated Rove

[Hissyspit]

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w060710&s=pfeiffer071006

ROOSEVELT V. ROVE.
History Bluff

by Eric Pfeiffer
Only at The New Republic Online | Post date 07.10.06

Last week's Time magazine carried a paean to the virtues of Theodore Roosevelt by Karl Rove. Titled "Lessons from a Larger-than-Life President," Rove's article offered such insights as "The United States, while not flawless, is a profound force for good in the world" (lesson three) and "Character matters" (lesson seven). Though our current president--and Rove's boss--isn't mentioned in the piece, the implication is clear: George W. Bush is a modern-day TR. Yet anyone familiar with TR's life and presidency should understand that not only would he have had serious differences with George Bush, he would have hated Karl Rove.

Bush and Roosevelt do share some similarities. Both were born of privilege but sought to redefine themselves as populists. Both rejected their northeastern roots in favor of a cowboy persona; Roosevelt's belief that one must understand the West to understand America is likely shared by the current president. Moreover, both were failures in the private sector before finding success in politics. After retiring from the New York State legislature, Roosevelt traveled to the western frontier and established a cattle ranch, which quickly proved unsuccessful. Bush, meanwhile, was a failed oilman before becoming governor of Texas.

But any significant personal similarities between the two men end there. Bush says his adult life began at age 40; by the time TR was 40, he was within two years of becoming our nation's youngest president. Bush says his life began at 40 because that's when he quit drinking. Getting drunk once was enough for Roosevelt, who by all accounts maintained his vow to avoid drinking to excess a second time. While both presidents came from wealthy and influential backgrounds, Roosevelt's family saw politics as beneath its lineage. By contrast, Bush has benefited from his family's political dynasty: He represents the third consecutive generation in his family to hold federal office. TR was intensely curious about the world. When he visited the still-under-construction Panama Canal in 1906, he became the first sitting president to visit a foreign land. Bush rarely ventured outside the country before 2000, and when he recently traveled to India he did not even visit the Taj Mahal.

On domestic politics, the two could not be more different. Roosevelt created the National Forest Service and preserved 16 million acres of trees with the stroke of a pen. He was close friends with Sierra Club founder John Muir and started his own conservation organization, the Boone and Crockett Club, in 1887. Bush, on the other hand, has accumulated a disastrous environmental record, refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol and promoting drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. The two men similarly part ways on economics. TR was known as a trust-buster, whereas Bush has aligned himself closely with big business. Perhaps most importantly, Roosevelt dedicated his entire political career to battling the forces of cronyism. Author Bram Stoker once described Roosevelt as "A man you can't cajole, can't frighten, can't buy"; he served as the nation's Civil Service Commissioner, battled corruption in the New York City police department, and, during his tenure as a state legislator, sought to replace political favoritism with meritocracy. Bush, on the other hand, appointed Mike Brown to direct FEMA.

- snip -

Yet despite his many differences with Bush, TR would likely reserve true contempt for Karl Rove. How do we know? Because Rove is the contemporary incarnation of one of TR's chief nemeses. In his youth, Rove repeatedly expressed an interest in becoming the GOP's next Mark Hanna. Hanna was a former Republican National Committee chairman and senator from Ohio who helped shepherd William McKinley to the presidency. As with Rove and Bush, many considered Hanna the "brain" behind McKinley. When Republican insiders wanted TR out as governor of New York, they pressured him into running as McKinley's running mate in 1900. The move was designed to politically emasculate Roosevelt, but it was Hanna who asked, "Don't any of you realize there's only one life between that madman and the presidency?" It didn't take TR long to sour on Hanna either. In his book, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Morris notes that after watching Hanna guide McKinley's first presidential campaign, TR became disillusioned with the GOP chairman's partisan style. "He has advertised McKinley as if he were a patent medicine," TR apparently said. Relations between the two men did not thaw after McKinley was assassinated and Roosevelt assumed the presidency. In fact, many of those same party insiders who had placed Roosevelt on the vice presidential ticket wanted Hanna to challenge him for the nomination in 1904. (Hanna died before he could run.)

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[liberalpragmatist]

1. True enough; pretty poorly written piece, however

I'm surprised TNR printed it. I'm also surprised it came from a writer for the Washington Times.

It's case is solid enough, however. Just poorly written.

[Hissyspit]

2. It's the only thing I've found that has addressed Rove's propaganda piece

in Time. I read that and was disgusted.

[Sherman A1]

3. TR is most likely

spinning in his grave at the abuses of this crowd.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. TR would have thoroughly thrashed Rove, *, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. and

then gone on a "spirited constitutional" thereafter.

TR's eldest daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longsworth (wife of the Speaker of the House, Nicholas Longsworth), would have been the one Rove would have watched out for. Her tongue-lashings were legend in D.C.