'Architect' Rove to be Washington Day speaker
- Details
- Published on Friday, 30 November 2012 12:54
- Written by Paul Gordon
GOP campaign leader and former Bush advisor will speak at Creve Coeur Club event on Feb. 22
Karl Rove, credited with leading George W. Bush to back-to-back presidential election victories in 2000 and 2004, will speak at the Creve Coeur Club's George Washington Day Banquet in February.
Rove, who earned the nickname "the architect" for those Bush victories, also spent time in the White House as a senior advisor to President Bush, as well.
The Creve Coeur Club is accepting reservations for the dinner, scheduled for Feb. 22 but ticket prices have not yet been set.
Karl Rove has been one of the top names in the Republican party the last dozen years or so, but it hasn't always been smooth sailing for the former advisor to President George W. Bush.
Rove has taken a lot of heat in recent weeks for his perceived failure to put Mitt Romney in the White House and and other GOP losses on election night and now the Grand Old Party seems in disarray.
What does Rove, credited for delivering the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections to the Republicans, have to say about it? How does he view the GOP now and where does he see it going in the future?
The Creve Coeur Club hopes he will answer those and other questions when Rove speaks Feb. 22, 2013 at the organization's annual Washington Day Banquet.
"We believed he would be a very interesting speaker and that people would enjoy getting his insights on the election, the Republican party and politics in general," said Dennis Bailey, president of the Creve Coeur Club.
"We'd like to see if he thinks there will be or has been a fundamental shift in what people expect from their government," Bailey said.
This will be at least the second time Rove has been in Peoria. He accompanied President Bush here in early 2007, even chatting briefly with reporters covering the event before the president began speaking.
Rove's work in getting Bush elected earned him the nickname "the architect" and he stayed on the president's staff as a senior advisor. He was Deputy Chief of Staff for three years during Bush's second term and oversaw several White House operations, including strategic initiatives, political affairs and intergovernmental affairs.
His knowledge and influence was why the Super PACs known as Crossroads GPS and American Crossroads, which he controlled, were entrusted with hundreds of millions of dollars to engineer a Romney victory over President Obama as well as gain more seats in the U.S. House and Senate.
However, Romney and every Senate candidate backed by Crossroad lost.
Bailey of the Creve Coeur Club said that while the organization is interested in Rove's insights about that, the heat he has taken from fellow Republicans, including heavy hitters such as Donald Trump, was not considered a drawback to Rove's selection as Washington Day Banquet speaker.
In its news release announcing Rove as the speaker the Creve Coeur Club noted his accomplishments in politics, including the praises he has received in the past for his political acumen.
"Rove has been described by respected author and columnist Michael Barone in U.S. News &World Report as '...unique...no Presidential appointee has ever had such a strong influence on politics and
policy, and none is likely to do so again anytime soon.' Washington Post columnist David Broder has called Rove a master political strategist whose 'game has always been long term...and he plays it with an intensity and attention to detail that few can match,'" the release said.
"Fred Barnes, elecutive editor of TheWeekly Standard, has called him 'the greatest political mind of his generation and probably of any generation...He knows history, understands the moods of the public, and is a visionary on matters of public policy,'" it added.
Rove now is a regular contribute to Fox News, the decidedly right-leaning channel, and he writes a regular column for the Wall Street Journal. He has written articles for other publications as well and recently authored the bestselling book "Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight."
According to the Creve Coeur Club news release Rove is a Colorado native and attended the University of Utah, the University of Maryland-College Park, George Mason University, and the University of Texas at Austin. Rove has taught graduate students at UT Austin's Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and undergraduates in a joint appointment from the Journalism and Government departments at the university. He was also a faculty member at the Salzburg Seminar.
He was previously a member of the Board of International Broadcasting, which oversaw the operations of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty and served on the White House Fellows regional selection panel. He was also a member of the Boards of Regents at Texas Women's Union and East Texas State University.
Rove now serves on the University of Texas Chancellor's Council Executive Committee and on the Board of Trustees for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation and the Texas State History Museum Foundation. He is a member of the McDonald Observatory Board of Visitors and the Texas Philosophical Society, the release said.
Bailey said ticket prices for the banquet, which will be at the Par-A-Dice Hotel in East Peoria, have not been set as yet. However, he added, the organization is taking rservations, which can be made by calling Wendy Mitchell, general manager of the Creve Coeur Club of Peoria, at 672-2267.
Paul Gordon is editor of The Peorian. He can be reached at 692-7880 or editor@thepeorian.com
