There he goes again

Looks like Karl Rove is up to his old tricks again.



First, some background for those unfamiliar with Rovian tactics:

In October of 1986, Rove was working for Republican Bill Clements in his race against then-Gov. Mark White. A few days before the candidates were to debate, Rove discovered a listening device that had been planted behind a needlepoint picture of an elephant hanging on his wall. The FBI investigated. Accusations and counteraccusations were made. But no charges were ever brought, and the matter slowly dissipated, amid general speculation that Rove had planted the bug himself.



The latest dirty trick took place earlier this month, when a videotape was apparently taken from the offices of Bush media advisor Mark McKinnon. The tape, along with copies of other debate briefing materials, was then mailed to the office of Gore ally, lobbyist, and former U.S. Rep. Thomas Downey, where it arrived on Sept. 13. Only a handful of Bush campaign staffers had access to the materials, including Rove, McKinnon, communications director Karen Hughes, campaign manager Joe Allbaugh, campaign chairman Don Evans, and policy director Josh Bolten.



Although no suspects have been named, the FBI, which is investigating the matter, has told several media outlets that it believes the tape was sent by someone inside the Bush camp, presumably in an attempt to entrap the Gore campaign. And given Rove's history, which includes more than a passing familiarity with dirty tricks, many pundits believe Rove is the chief suspect. Rove did not return calls from the Chronicle.

Given that Rove has a track record of wiretaps and thefts for his candidates that he then blames on the opposition party, you don't have to be a genius to do the math on this latest adventure, coming as it does on the heels of Bush's disastrous debate performance:

The Washington state headquarters for the president's re-election campaign was broken into last night, and police are investigating the theft of three computers from the Bellevue office.



Missing are laptop computers used by the campaign's executive director, the head of the get-out-the-vote effort and one that had been set for delivery to the campaign's Southwest Washington field director, said Jon Seaton, executive director of the state's George W. Bush campaign.



Seaton said data on the computers was backed up and available elsewhere. But, he said, the loss creates a potential security breach about the campaign's so-called 72-hour plan, the Bush get-out-the-vote effort.



"Obviously there's some stuff there we wouldn't want our opposition getting their hands on," Seaton said.



The campaign has spoken about the importance of the 72-hour plan in swing states across the country. Bush campaign officials say it could make the difference in a close election if Republicans are able to make sure their voters get to a polling place on election day and don't sit home as many did four years ago.



[snip]



State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance called it a "Watergate-style break in" and said he suspects Democrats are behind it.



[snip]



"To me there is some scary stuff going on from liberal radicals whose Bush hatred is out of control," Vance said.

"...whose Bush hatred is out of control", eh?



Wanna see hatred out of control? Here:







After first denying it, the Republican party admitted on September 23 that it sent this flyer accusing Democrats of planning to ban the Bible to Arkansas and West Virginia voters. It said the mailings were part of its effort to mobilize religious voters for President.



But back to Rove...The use of the expression "Watergate-style break-in" is interesting, because according to James Moore and Wayne Madsen's book Bush's Brain, the exact same spin was put on the bugging of Rove's office.



The FBI had their own investigation on the bugging and discovered that contrary to Rove's accusation that the Democrats bugged Roves office several weeks earlier, the FBI found that the battery in the so-called "planted wiretap" only had enough juice to power the thing for a much shorter period of time and that out of the 6 volts potential in the battery, 5.6 volts still remained. It was their conclusion that the bug had only been activated for a couple hours at most. Either the bug had been put in that office that morning, or someone turned it on only that morning -- or there was someone on the inside who kept changing the battery. Hardly the stuff of a "Watergate-style break-in", eh?



In the FBI's final conclusion, they concluded that either Karl Rove bugged his own office, or else the security firm he hired to detect it installed the bug themselves.



Do the math, folks. Bush bombs in the debate, and a day later computers are taken from one of his campaign offices in a swing state. Given Karl Rove's track record, who do YOU think did it?