Bush's Brain
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Actor: Chelle Lieseke Pokorney, James C. Moore (III), Mark White (XII), Rick Perry (II), Robert EdgeworthDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 80 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-10-12
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Tartan Video
DVD Reviews of Bush's Brain
DVD Review: A depressing but important portrait of the man who gives Bush his ideas
Summary: 5 Stars
I got a copy of BUSH'S BRAIN about a year ago, but have only now gotten around to watching it. Partly this is because at a certain point, if one has followed the Bush White House very closely, one can become oversaturated by the unceasing depressing accounts of acts that offend conscience and sense of decency. But the conjunction of someone else wanting to see it who had not and the impending possible announcement by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald of indictments in following the investigation of White House leaks of the identity of an FBI Field agent Virginia Plame (contrary to the film she was no longer a field agent, but the protocol is to not reveal the identity of a field agent for five years, because knowing her identity could aide other secret service agencies in figuring out who her fellow agents might be-the threat in this case was not to Plame but to her colleagues), wife of former Bush 41 ambassador Joseph Wilson.
If one has, like I have, read thirty or forty books on Bush or Republican policies in the past decade, this documentary, based on the book by the same name by James Moore and Wayne Slater, will contain little or nothing that is new. If one has not followed the Bush White House closely, it can serve as a useful introduction to the man many people regard as the real president of the United States. So complete is his control of activities in the White House that little is done or undertaken without his involvement. It is not, I suggest, a mere coincidence that Bush's outrageous recent reaction to Hurricane Katrina--which hit the Gulf Coast on a Monday creating a breach in the levy on Tuesday, but of which he was largely unaware (despite a flyover in Air Fore One) until Friday morning, when he watched a DVD put together by aides of CNN and other telecasts-occurred when Rove was in bed and out of action with severe kidney stones.
I believe Karl Rove is emblematic of much of what is wrong with contemporary politics. The ideal of political discourse and debate is two contenders for office putting forth their views and their reasons for holding such views. It has degenerated to Karl Rove starting whispering campaigns that John McCain's dark-skinned daughter might be the result of an extramarital affair with a woman of color. Even if Rove did not start those rumors, as is almost universally believed, it is inconceivable that he would denounce them. Although this is not dealt with in the film, Rove had a myriad of connections with the absurd Swiftboat Veterans sliming of John Kerry. All of this points to Rove's strategy: forget serious political debate, just attack, attack, and attack. In fact, the point of attacking is in part to mask real political positions. For instance, one of Rove's fondest dreams is dismantling social security, a massively popular program. The is a culture of deception and mislabeling rampant in Washington right now, especially in the GOP, and most intensely in the Bush White House. How many administrations would label an initiative to gut Environmental clean air standards the "Clear Skies Initiative"? It is a culture that Rove has done more than anyone to foster.
Most of the documentary is focused on Rove career before his ascendance to the White House. A large number of people who knew both Rove and Bush in Texas provide a great deal of insight into several incidents, including Rove's famous bugging of his own office and then absurdly accusing political opponents of doing it, the strategies employed in getting Rick Perry elected head of the Texas Agriculture Board, and the whispering campaigns against Ann Richards.
Of course, rarely in political history has anyone of Rove's ilk been able to get away with such nonsense forever. His great mistake came in talking with members of the press about Valerie Plame. When George W. Bush inexplicably named one of the most tenacious prosecutors in the United States to investigate the White House leak, Rove's fate was probably sealed. His career as a top level GOP operative is probably close to an end. But the kind of political trickery and misadventures that he espouses and practices are still very much part and parcel of the GOP political landscape. Ironically, the man credited with starting this kind of slash and burn politics, Lee Atwater, after striving to overcome a brain tumor in the early 1990s, repented of this style of politics and cautioned everyone, both in his party and without, to return to a more genteel, issue-oriented style of politics. It remains important, as long as there are Karl Roves polluting and obstructing the democratic process to know where they come from and how they operate. So, seeing films like this or reading the books they are based upon will remain crucial for those concerned with the kind of popular democracy espoused by people like Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, and his cousin Franklin.
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