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Rove,
Architect Of Bush Anti-Gay
Measures,
Resigns White House
by
365Gay.com from the Web, August 13, 2007
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Washington -- Karl Rove,
President Bush's chief political strategist and the man regarded as the
architect of the use of LGBT civil rights as a wedge issue in campaigns, plans
to leave the White House at the end of August.
Rove is a person friend of Bush's and has been at his side for most of the
president's political life.
He is said to have been a master of political intrigue and dirty tricks.
A criminal investigation put Rove under scrutiny for months during the
investigation into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name. But he
was never charged with any crime.
He is reported to have first begun running anti-gay attacks for the Bush
gubernatorial campaign in Texas during the mid-1990s.
During the 2004 presidential campaign, it was Rove who closely coordinated White
House meetings with two leading anti-gay advocates -- the Family Research
Council and Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family on issues including a
constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
In the summer of 2004, Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican,
told reporters that the White House was encouraging Republicans in the state to
support an anti-marriage amendment to the Ohio state constitution.
According to Blackwell, White House political aides, including Rove, argued that
supporting such amendments would benefit turnout for the Republican ticket.
Shortly after the 2004 elections, Rove appeared on the television program "Fox
News Sunday" to discuss White House plans to push for a federal anti-marriage
amendment.
Appearing on the program on November 07, 2004, Rove enthusiastically backed the
measure, promising that the President would "absolutely" push for it. Rove
also noted that President Bush was committed to nominating individuals to the
federal judiciary that held similar views on the matter.
Rove joins a growing list of close aides leaving the White House as the bush
Administration slides into its final year-and-a-half.
"He's a great colleague, a good friend, and a brilliant mind," said White House
deputy press secretary Dana Perino. "He will be greatly missed."
A book on Rove published last year provides behind the scenes glimpses of the
man lengths he would go to win election.
In "The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power"
writers James Moore and Wayne Slater reveal that Rove has told insiders he does
not consider himself "a Christian", had a father who was gay, and regularly
dealt with openly gay Republicans as he worked publicly to have a constitutional
amendment passed that would ban same-sex marriage.
Rove's father, Louis, left the family and moved to California where he came out.
Louis Rove died in Palm Springs as "his son was in the midst of launching the
antigay issues campaign that was to lead to the re-election of George W. Bush."
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