To the Editor:





We fully agree with The News Editorial Board: Karl Rove is much too polarizing a figure for Commencement speaker. However, for the same reason, he will make an excellent academic speaker. Choate students will see first hand one of the most famous, or infamous, political figures of the last fifteen years. He has played a key role in so many important events, including the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court Case, the Global War on Terror, the Iraq War, the Republican takeover of Congress and the Presidency, and the recent Democratic Party backlash. It is difficult to overestimate his influence in national and international politics, and you therefore have an amazing opportunity to engage him in conversation.

This opportunity is all the more important, though, because Mr. Rove’s accomplishments embody the opposite of inclusion and collegiality. He is famous for hard-hitting campaign tactics and an extreme, my-way-or-the-highway, right wing agenda. To many, he is a devious political operative and direct mail guru, not a widely admired, honorable national political leader, and certainly not a unifier. He has never held elected office, nor a cabinet level post in the Executive Branch. He has been closely associated with the possible fabrication of CIA intelligence used to start a war, the illegal outing of a CIA operative for blatantly political purposes, the legitimating of torture by America’s security forces, accusing opponents of the Iraq War of being traitors, pushing for the Unitary Executive, politicizing the caseload of US Attorneys, and numerous campaign dirty tricks that resulted in the fall of local and national leaders, including the stolen election for President of the National College Republicans which launched his career; a rumor and flyer campaign against Governor Ann Richards that suggested she was a lesbian; another rumor and flyer campaign against Senator John McCain that suggested his adopted refugee daughter was actually his bastard mixed-race “love child”; and of course the extensive national advertizing and media campaign against Senator John Kerry by the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth. He coopted the Religious Right by promising that they could change the Constitution to include a ban on gay marriage and a ban on abortions; the former is hateful; the latter is just plain unrealistic and counterproductive.

Despite never being indicted, all of his career highlights are couched in controversy, political bullying, slander, and borderline illegal tactics. Plausible deniability is not criteria for honor and status. He is not a positive role model to Choate students. He is, however, a concrete example of the many issues that confront you as students, and future lawyers, scientists, teachers, leaders, advocates, soldiers, and voters. Like it or not, Mr. Rove has touched all of your lives in fundamental ways.

Free speech is tantamount at educational institutions. In our time at Choate, Mikhail Gorbachev and Dinesh D’Souza, both polarizing figures, spoke at Choate on separate occasions, and raucous and stimulating debate followed. We continue to learn from those experiences, so we encourage students to take advantage of the opportunity to delve deeply into substantive issues with Mr. Rove and each other.





Cathal Blake ’98

Editor Emeritus





Wesley J. Hansen ’98





Natalie Kitchen ’01