The thesis of "Bush's Brain" is evident in its title: that Karl Rove, the president's key political advisor, is the power behind the throne, the devious man whose fine Machiavellian hand can be found directing every move the chief executive makes.
Given that Americans of all political convictions have a weakness for simple answers to troubling situations, it's awfully convenient to believe, to quote the man himself, that "Karl Rove thinks it and George Bush does it, that the president is not smart enough to be president without a Svengali." Convenient yes, but as seen in this new documentary, only partially convincing.
The film, co-directed by Joseph Mealey and Michael Paradies Shoob, takes its title from the bestselling book by James C. Moore and Wayne Slater, veteran Texas journalists who knew both Bush and Rove before they made their mark on the national stage. With Moore and Slater having more screen time than any other of the film's nearly three-dozen talking heads, it's not surprising that the strongest segments of "Bush's Brain" are the Texas years, where the coauthors know firsthand where the bodies are buried and who best to have on camera to talk about how the deeds were done.
What "Bush's Brain" is most convincing about is the man's key role in the political education of the current president, as well as Rove's zest for what someone calls "the junkyard dog approach" to politics. It's not just Democrats who noticed the savagery of Rove's bite; Republican consultant Bill Miller admiringly testifies that when Rove is done, "his opponents are dog meat."
Rove apparently was interested in politics from an early age, having a "Wake Up, America" poster on his wall in lieu of the usual juvenile pinups. He came out on top in a bruising battle to be head of the College Republicans that still has his opponent shaking his head in disbelief, and he attached himself to the Bush family in 1973, when one of his first jobs was to hand the family car keys to George W. when the son visited the father in Washington, D.C.
Perhaps the most flabbergasting story "Bush's Brain" tells involves the 1986 Texas gubernatorial race between Republican Bill Clements, whose campaign Rove was co-chairman of, and Democrat Mark White. At a crucial juncture in the campaign, Rove announced that a hidden wireless microphone had been found behind some needlepoint in his office.
