Tuesdays with Karl

So Karl Rove, aka Bush's Brain, aka the Boy Genius, spoke on campus today. I, along with the other folks from my department, went along to deal with the media and be on top of any interesting things that developed, since protesters were expected. Sure enough, there were a couple dozen people picketing with signs in the free speech forum in front of the Fighting Mustangs statue, but overall it was a pretty sedate bunch.

The auditorium was close to capacity when Rove began his speech--I'd say about half were card-carrying Young Conservatives, a quarter indignant protesters, and the remainder curious third parties. One lone heckler stood up immediately and began shouting--incoherently for the most part--various queries about hanging Scooter Libby out to dry and general abuses of civil liberties. A group of students with him donned black hoods over their heads, in apparent reference to Guantanamo. Rove ignored him, although other people in the audience did not, and after some confused shouting for a few minutes the heckler just sort of petered out.

My boss said something I pretty much agreed with at this point: "I've never understood why some people feel that in order to exercise their First Amendment rights, they need to deny that right to others." Personally, I thought the heckler ended up looking pretty foolish, and was more than a little surprised the security present didn't escort him out.

As for the speech itself, Rove stayed surprisingly apolitical. It was a Communication Week event, after all, but still. To be frank, it was somewhat dull, a recitation of the history of media in the U.S. from 1776 to today. Your basic Journalism 101 introductory lecture. As Rove expounded on the patronage system prevalent in the early days of newspapers, where one would hook up with a particular politician and support them in favor of plum governmental contracts, I couldn't help but view this as some oblique justification for FOX News. But that's as close to controversy as he skirted, an affable, "Aw shucks" kind of speaker persona that belied the calculating Machiavellian soul that would just as soon slit your throat if it would further his cause.

The best line of the afternoon did come from a heckler, however. As Rove was talking about the rise of the Blogosphere and the 24-7 news cycle, he posed the hypothetical question of how a White House administration could deal with this voracious beast's insatiable appetite? "By outing a CIA operative!" came the punch line from the audience, with timing to make Jon Stewart proud. As laughter rolled through the auditorium, Rove paused, took a breath and acknowledged, "Good one."

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