The brains behind Bush

How did we get into this mess? "Boy Genius" succeeds at outlining Rove's odyssey from Utah dweeb to reigning Beltway champion, an interesting story, especially if you're not up to speed on the political history of the Lone Star state.

Dubose and Reid are the primary authors of the parts of the book that chart Rove's life up from childhood through Bush's campaign against Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the nasty South Carolina primary, and they are, fortunately, Texas political junkies. They introduce a cast of figures who end up as either successes because they hooked up with Rove or victims of Rove's ruthless, but apparently entirely legal, political hardball. Treasurer candidate Kay Bailey Hutchison and Supreme Court candidate John Cornyn hire Rove to lift them up the political ladder, rung by rung, to the U.S. Senate, where they now sit. An Ann Richards protégé named Lena Guerrero wins the primary nomination to the Texas Railroad Commission, whereupon the Dallas Morning News somehow learns that she lied about her college degree.

"Karl had Lena's transcript," an Austin political consultant tells the authors, "but he held it until the right moment. The perfect moment. Then he screwed her."

You don't have to be a Democrat to be a Rove victim. Former Texas Republican Party chairman Tom Pauken states that Rove "beat me. That's life. I'm in political exile, and Karl's running the country." Adds a Texas Democrat, "I always knew where I stood with Karl. I knew he was trying to kill me."

Nevertheless, "Boy Genius" falls short of expectations. I want two things from a Rove biography: confirmation of the rumors and suspicions about Rove's various dirty tricks (which requires that author expend some shoe leather), and a sense of what drives the man. Dubose, Reid and Cannon do not deliver.

During the 1986 Texas governor's race, on the morning before a debate, Rove, representing GOP candidate Bill Clements, called a press conference to announce that a bugging device had been found in his office. "Obviously I don't know who did this," Rove said. "But there is no doubt in my mind that the only ones who would benefit from this detailed, sensitive information would be the political opposition." Future Bush media maven Mark McKinnon, then working for Democratic Governor Mark White, insinuated that Rove had put the bug there himself, that the "whole things stinks and the wind is blowing from the Clements campaign."

But instead of turning up a smoking gun -- which, to be fair, may simply not be possible -- the authors lean quite heavily on a New York Times Magazine profile of Rove by Melinda Henneberger in which Rove suggests that Henneberger watch the movie "Power," released the year of the campaign. Henneberger is stunned to see that the plot of "Power" involves an office getting bugged. Did Rove, inspired by the movie, plant the device on himself to score a political point and then, years later, accidentally -- or subconsciously -- tip Henneberger off ? "I don't have any recollection of that [scene]," Rove told Henneberger, and the authors let that suffice.

In fact, two of the book's best nuggets come from Henneberger, who also relays a story told to her by Dallas Morning News reporter Anne Marie Kilday (and denied by Rove). According to Kilday, Rove warned her in 1994 that phone records showed that a state official reputed to be a lesbian frequently phoned Kilday at her home. "You've just got to be careful about your reputation and what people might think," he advised.

To have all this put in a compendium is fun, but little of it is new. The most damning Rove tidbits surfaced in September 2000, amid various spy-vs.-spy charges and countercharges between the Bush and Gore campaigns. Briefing books were mailed to Gore pal Tom Downey, and a young Gore aide boasted of a "mole" in the Bush ranks. The distinguished authors of "Boy Genius" ought to have delivered much more. For example, there is little new information about FBI agent Greg Rampton, long suspected by Democrats of being in cahoots with Rove. Rove routinely used Rampton's investigations of Democratic office holders against those officials in campaigns.

According to former Texas land commissioner Gary Mauro, then-comptroller Bob Bullock once told him that Rove and Rampton were working together -- Rampton investigating Democrats, Rove leaking the information. "Their sole job right now, their mission in life, is to figure out a way to indict you, me, Jim Mattox, Jim Hightower and Ann Richards," Bullock told Mauro. "They're out to get us all."

Next page: "Bush lied to my face"