Father Geek here Deep in the Heart of Texas with another report from our girl out in the deep blue Pacific, Moon Yun... This time she has sent a timely review from her #1 beach-boy reporter on a film everyone should see...

EXAMINING "BUSH'S BRAIN"

by Albert Lanier

Aloha and welcome to Hawaii-land of three network tv shows!

And all of them suck.

Actually, I should note that I have not seen LOST, the ABC drama from ALIAS creator J.J. Abrams but I won't get a chance to see the pilot as I am currently gorging myself on the all-you-can-eat cinematic salad bar that is the Cinema Paradise film festival in Honolulu.

The first night of third year of Cinema Paradise was a success by any measure. Packed to near packed screenings of THE LAND HAS EYES and one of the official opening night films POINT AND SHOOT and festival passes have already been snapped largely due to internet sales.

Saturday, September 18th-the second day of the fest-started out strong with a packed to the gills screening of BUSH'S BRAIN, a documentary about the man currently serving as President Bush's Senior Advisor in the White House, Karl Rove.

Based on the book of the same name written by Dallas Morning News reporters James Moore and Wayne Slater (both of whom appear in the film), the film's directors Joseph Mealey & Michael Paradies Shoob examine Rove's past primarily as a political advisor and consultant and interview a number of persons who has worked, observed or been impacted by Karl Rove including past associates such as John Weaver (who wound up working in 2000 on the John McCain Presidential campaign which as the film notes was derailed by the South Carolina primary) and reporters and columnists such as Molly Ivins to help paint a portrait of the man largely responsible for molding George W. Bush into a Presidential contender and ultimately, the Chef Executive of the United States.

How did Rove do this? First, by "tutoring" young George for his 1994 campaign against incumbant Ann Richards largely by flying in legislators or lobbyists to homestead who would explain various aspects of policy creating and law making in Texas and the specific and overall contours of legislatve politics in the state (like I suppose teaching him that Sine Die is a way to adjourn a house of the Legsilature as opposed to the title of an action film).

Secondly, by keeping Bush rigidly on message throughout. If, say, reporters talked about education, Bush would talk about tax relief. If journalists mentioned health care, Bush would bring up tax relief. If writers wanted to discuss agriculture, W would probably respond "Agriculture is important but I really think we need to talk about tax relief" or vice versa on any talking point or issue that Bush (and Rove) felt he needed to bring up.

Though reporters such as Moore, Slater and Ivins call Rove "brilliant" and a "genius" as a politicla consultant, they also feel compelled to discuss the darker side of Rove as a master political manipulator and dirty tricks operative par excellence.

Examples cited in the film:

1) The printing of intensionally fraudulent flyers announcing free food and drink offered at the opening of Democratic Illinois State Treasurer Alan Dixon' then new office and handed out to homeless and indigent individuals thus creating a bit of havoc to say the least said persons came down to pick up their goodies. This was done during Rove's tenure with the College Republicans in the early 70's.

2) A bug found in Rove's office during the 1986 Texas Gubernatorial Race which essentially hijacked press attention from the televised debate between Democratic incumbant Mark White and Rove's client, Republican challenger Bill Clements. Oddly, the bug was taken away from Rove's office by investigators instead of being allowed to remain to feed it false information in order to smoke out the party that planted it. It was later found the bug has hardly been used and its operation life was good for only a few hours. This tactic worked by Rove. In what was a close Governor race upto this point, Clements' campaign began to catch some fire and he eventually defeated White thus becoming Texas Governor. Rove is believed by many to have planted the office bug himself.

3) The South Carolina Presidential Primary in 2000 where Bush defeated Arizona Senator John McCain and started his chain of victories which secured the delegates needed to wrap up the Republican nomination for President. The McCain campaign was bedeviled by a whisper campaign targeting voters which alleged among other things that he had a black love child from an African-American hooker, that he was mentally unstable perhaps as a result of his tenure as Naval pilot shot down, captured and kept in POW camps in Vietnam during the 1960's and talk about his wife's past drug use (which she had been open about with the media). This whisper offensive is strongly believed to be the work of Rove (though the Bush campaign denied any affliation with the rumors being consumed by the media).

Those are just a couple of examples found in BUSH'S BRAIN. Rove is seen in BUSH'S BRAIN as a dangerous though exceptional operator especially due to his current access to President Bush. The filmmakers and some of those they interviewed in the film clearly believe that Rove is "Co-President" with Bush (just as he was "Co-Governor" in Texas).

This seems a reasonable enough assessment and BUSH'S BRAIN is a watchable and informative doc overall but the film works largely at a look at Rove as a politico and not as a human being which I believe to be a major flaw.

The film largely deletes his childhood (only mentioning his stellar debate career at Olympia High School in Utah where he would intimidate opponents with boxes and boxes of index cards which turned out to be mostly empty) and provides no basic personality profile, no inherent schematic of personal emotions or feelings. We get Rove the political consultant but not Rove the man.

Also, the filmmakers include interviews with the wife and adopted father of a Marine officer killed in the current Iraq conflict in effort to show the heartache caused by the Middle Eastern war called "Mr. Rove's War" by the New York Times.

I found these scenes inappropriate and an obvious tug at heartstrings especially targeted to Liberal audiences. Yes, Rove was most likely heavily involved in advising Bush on invading Iraq but instead of trying to dump some the current foreign policy probems on Rove's doorstep, it would be a better idea to indict Rove on what he has done not what he might be involved in that can't be verified or proven yet.

Still, BUSH'S BRAIN is a fine, talking head doc well worth viewing especially for politically active and motivated filmgoers. The interviews are fairly enlightening and the filmmakers try to adopt a fairminded tone in at least acknowledging Rove's greatness as a strategist and consultant but uncovering his win-at-all-costs highly partisan mentality.

By the way, this review was not approved, or planted by Karl Rove. "

This is the END my friend..."