Research
Karl Rove's forthcoming memoir Courage and Consequence purports to respond to critics by "putting the record straight," but Media Matters has found that Rove's book is full of falsehoods. Below is an ongoing list of Rove's misinformation in the book, which Media Matters obtained in advance of its scheduled release.
1. Rove distorts Senate report to claim Bush didn't "lie us into the war"
3. Rove revives tired smear that Gore wrongly said "that he had created the Internet"
4. Rove revives Gore-Love Story smear
5. Rove falsehood: Gore said he had "discovered the Love Canal chemical disaster"
6. Rove pals around with falsehood that Ayers was "Obama's great friend"
7. Rove wrong on number of presidents who left office by "assassination or resignation"
1. Rove distorts Senate report to claim Bush didn't "lie us into war"
Rove claims Senate report said Bush statements were backed up by intelligence. From Pages 340-341 of Courage and Consequence:
So, then, did Bush lie us into war? Absolutely not.
[...]
From my perch inside the West Wing -- but outside the frantic activity in the Situation Room -- I could see the care everyone was taking to not overstate the case or exaggerate the danger. The president emphasized this when we reviewed his speeches, and this care was reflected everywhere else in the administration.
[...]
And what about Bush's claims about Saddam Hussein's ties to terrorism? Statements that Iraq provided safe haven for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other terrorists with ties to al-Qaeda and about Iraq's support for terrorist groups other than al-Qaeda "were substantiated by intelligence information," according to the Senate Intelligence Committee 2004 report.
Senate report actually found that Bush made some statements that were not substantiated -- or were "contradicted" -- by intelligence. Rove is presumably referring to a June 5, 2008, Senate Intelligence Committee report examining government officials' pre-war statements about Iraq. (Rove identifies it as a "2004" report in the excerpt above, but he cites the 2008 report in the relevant endnote.) Rove is correct that the committee found that some Bush claims -- specifically, "[s]tatements that Iraq provided safe haven for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other terrorists with ties to al-Qaeda and about Iraq's support for terrorist groups other than al-Qaeda" -- were substantiated by the intelligence at the time. But the committee also concluded that Bush's allegations suggesting "that Iraq and al-Qa'ida had a partnership" were "not substantiated by the intelligence"; and that Bush's statements indicating Saddam was prepared to give WMD to terrorists were "contradicted by available intelligence."
2. Rove falsehood: Obama claims "Obamacare would not add to the deficit ... evidence shows just the opposite"
From Page 513 of Courage and Consequence:
Another thing that has badly hurt President Obama is that his claims -- especially on health care -- are simply at odds with reality. He said ObamaCare would not add to the deficit, would bend the cost curve down, and would reduce premiums, while the evidence shows just the opposite.
CBO: Senate bill yields "a net reduction in federal deficits of $132 billion" over 10 years. On December 19, 2009, the Congressional Budget Office reported of the Senate bill incorporating the manager's amendment: "CBO and JCT [Joint Committee on Taxation] estimate that the direct spending and revenue effects of enacting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act incorporating the manager's amendment would yield a net reduction in federal deficits of $132 billion over the 2010-2019 period."
CBO also estimated on December 20, 2009, that the bill will continue to reduce the deficit beyond the 10-year budget window that ends in 2019 "with a total effect during that decade that is in a broad range between one-quarter percent and one-half percent of GDP."
CBO estimated the House bill will result in $138 billion in deficit reduction through 2019. On November 20, 2009, CBO reported of the House health care reform legislation, "CBO and JCT now estimate that the legislation would yield a net reduction in deficits of $138 billion over the 10-year period." CBO also stated in its November 6, 2009, estimate that "[i]n the subsequent decade, the collective effect of its provisions would probably be slight reductions in federal budget deficits. Those estimates are all subject to substantial uncertainty."
3. Rove revives tired smear that Gore wrongly said "he had created the Internet"
From Pages 161-162 of Courage and Consequence:
Over the past few decades, Gore had said that he had created the Internet, been the model for Love Story, led a crusade against tobacco, discovered the Love Canal chemical disaster, lived on a farm while vice president, never grew tobacco on his farm, didn't know that his visit to a Buddhist temple was a fund-raiser, faced enemy fire in Vietnam, and sent people to jail as a reporter. It was a compelling life story; unfortunately, none of it was true.
In fact, Gore said he "took the initiative in creating the Internet" while in Congress. During the March 9, 1999, interview on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer that gave rise to the myth -- Rove sources his false claim to the CNN interview -- Gore said, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." Blitzer set the record straight on the July 6, 2008, edition of CNN's Reliable Sources, stating that Gore "never said, 'I invented the Internet.' "
Gingrich also said Gore "most systematically worked to make sure that we got to an Internet.' " In a September 22, 2000, article, the Los Angeles Times reported: "Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House and a Republican who is no friend of the Gore campaign, said earlier this month, 'Gore is the person who, in the Congress, most systematically worked to make sure that we got to an Internet.' "
"Father of the Internet" Cerf wrote that Gore "deserves significant credit" for his efforts. On September 28, 2000, Vinton Cerf, considered to be a "father of the Internet," submitted an essay he and Robert Kahn wrote about Gore's contributions to the creation of the Internet. Cerf and Kahn, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush for their work designing the TCP/IP internet protocol, wrote that they "would like to acknowledge VP Gore's contributions as a Congressman, Senator and as Vice President. No other elected official, to our knowledge, has made a greater contribution over a longer period of time." They added that "there is no question in our minds that while serving as Senator, Gore's initiatives had a significant and beneficial effect on the still-evolving Internet."
4. Rove revives Gore-Love Story smear
From Pages 161-162 of Courage and Consequence:
Over the past few decades, Gore had said that he had created the Internet, been the model for Love Story, led a crusade against tobacco, discovered the Love Canal chemical disaster, lived on a farm while vice president, never grew tobacco on his farm, didn't know that his visit to a Buddhist temple was a fund-raiser, faced enemy fire in Vietnam, and sent people to jail as a reporter. It was a compelling life story; unfortunately, none of it was true.
In fact, Gore attributed the claim to a newspaper article he had read, and was misquoted. In a November 30, 2002, The American Prospect article about political "pseudo-scandals," Princeton history professor Sean Wilentz wrote that Gore "never made the claim." According to a December 14, 1997, New York Times article, [Love Story author Erich] Segal "knocked down" a report in Time magazine that asserted that Gore, while on the campaign trail, "spent two hours swapping opinions about movies and telling stories about old chums like Erich Segal, who, Gore said, used Al and Tipper as models for the uptight preppy and his free-spirited girlfriend in 'Love Story.' '' From the article:
The Time magazine article about the Vice President included this passage: ''Around midnight, after a three-city tour of Texas last month, the Vice President came wandering back to the press compartment of Air Force Two. Sliding behind a table with the two reporters covering him that day, he picked slices of fruit from their plates and spent two hours swapping opinions about movies and telling stories about old chums like Erich Segal, who, Gore said, used Al and Tipper as models for the uptight preppy and his free-spirited girlfriend in 'Love Story.' ''
[...]
In their phone conversation a few days ago, Mr. Gore reminded Mr. Segal that while Mr. Segal was on his book tour for ''Love Story,'' a reporter for The Nashville Tennessean who knew that Mr. Gore and the author were friends had asked if there was not a little bit of Al Gore in Oliver Barrett. Mr. Segal said yes, there was, but the reporter ''just exaggerated,'' Mr. Segal said. ''He made it to be the local-hero angle.''
Mr. Segal said the Vice President told him that all he had said on the plane was that the article had made the connection -- and got it wrong.
''Al said, 'I didn't say that' about being the model,'' Mr. Segal said.
''Al attributed it to the newspaper, he talked about the newspaper,'' Mr. Segal said at another point in the interview. ''They conveniently omitted that part. Time thought it was more piquant to leave that out. He was talking on the plane off the record, a drink with the boys after a tiring day. I don't think he will be reminiscing much anymore.''
5. Rove falsehood: Gore said he had "discovered the Love Canal chemical disaster"
From Pages 161-162 of Courage and Consequence:
Over the past few decades, Gore had said that he had created the Internet, been the model for Love Story, led a crusade against tobacco, discovered the Love Canal chemical disaster, lived on a farm while vice president, never grew tobacco on his farm, didn't know that his visit to a Buddhist temple was a fund-raiser, faced enemy fire in Vietnam, and sent people to jail as a reporter. It was a compelling life story; unfortunately, none of it was true.
In fact, Gore was misqoted by Wash. Post, NY Times. As Media Matters for America noted, Slate.com editor-at-large Jack Shafer wrote on February 17, 2000, that New York Times reporter Katharine Q. "Kit" Seelye and Washington Post staff writer Ceci Connolly were responsible for creating the false Love Canal story: "[I]t's Seelye's fault -- and the Washington Post's Ceci Connolly's -- that folks think Gore claimed credit for Love Canal in the first place. Which he didn't" [emphasis in original]. Indeed, in December 1 and December 2, 1999, Post articles, Connolly quoted Gore as saying of the Love Canal disaster, "I was the one that started it all." In fact, as a December 7, 1999, correction made clear, Gore actually said " 'That was the one that started it all,' referring to the congressional hearings on the subject that he called." Additionally, the Post's obmbudman wrote in a March 5, 2000, column that what Gore actually said about Love Canal was "a whole lot different from The Post's version ... which fits the role The Post seems to have assigned him in Campaign 2000." Similarly, Seelye quoted Gore as saying "I was the one that started it all" on a December 1, 1999, Times article, which was corrected by the Times on December 10, 1999.
6. Rove pals around with falsehood that Ayers was "Obama's great friend"
From Pages 515-516 of Courage and Consequence:
Though we didn't discuss it in our West Wing encounter, Obama also went on in his book to describe me and other conservatives as "eerily reminiscent of some of the New Left's leaders during the sixties," who "viewed politics as a contest not just between competing policy visions, but between good and evil." Now that's rich, isn't it? The last time I checked, I hadn't bombed any government buildings (like, say, Obama's great friend William Ayers); or asked that God "damn" America (like, say, Obama's former pastor and close friend Jeremiah Wright); or declared that I was proud of my country for the first time in my life only when I was in my forties (like, say, Obama's wife, Michelle).
NY Times: Obama and Ayers "do not appear to have been close." The New York Times reported on October 4, 2008, that Obama and Ayers "do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called 'somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.' "
McClatchy: "There is no evidence that Ayers is a close friend or an adviser to [Obama's] campaign." McClatchy reported on October 9, 2008, that "Obama has condemned the violent 1960s activities of the Weather Underground. There is no evidence that Ayers is a close friend or an adviser to his campaign." [accessed via the Nexis databse]
The AP: "[T]here is no evidence that they ever palled around." Reporting on then-Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's claim that Obama sees America as so imperfect "that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country," the Associated Press reported on October 5, 2008 that "there is no evidence that they [Obama and Ayers] ever palled around," and "it's simply wrong to suggest that they were associated while Ayers was committing terrorist acts."
FactCheck.org: Obama and Ayers were "never very close." In an October 10, 2008, article, FactCheck.org wrote of the 2008 presidential campaign: "What we object to are the McCain-Palin campaign's attempts to sway voters -- in ads and on the stump -- with false and misleading statements about the relationship [between Obama and Ayers], which was never very close.
7. Rove wrong on number of presidents who left office by "assassination or resignation"
Rove: Eight presidents "gained the Oval Office as a result of the assassination or resignation of their predecessor." From Page 518 of Courage and Consequence:
But others find themselves forced to face the unknowable. Eight presidents -- from John Tyler to Gerald Ford -- gained the Oval Office as a result of the assassination or resignation of their predecessor.
Five presidents have left office via "assassination or resignation." As detailed by Stanford University history professor David M. Kennedy, four presidents have been assassinated: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. The only president to resign from office was Richard Nixon. Four others -- William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren Harding, and Franklin Roosevelt -- died of natural causes while in office.
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