In an email to the Choate community, on Tuesday, January 15, Headmaster Ed Shanahan announced that Karl Rove will replace Senator John Warner as the commencement speaker on June 8th, 2008.

Mr. Rove served as the former Deputy White House Chief of Staff under George W. Bush’s administration, and was a key player in Bush’s election as president. Before Rove worked for the current Bush administration, he spent much of his career as a political advisor for primarily Republican candidates, such as Senator John Ashcroft.

Mr. Rove will join a long list of Commencement speakers that have included journalists such as Peter Jennings, politicians from both parties such as Dick Cheney (when he was Secretary of Defense) and Senator Chris Dodd. “We select speakers from all walks of life, with different points of view. That is what we should be doing as an educational institution. We should be putting in front of students and faculty a wide spectrum of ideas,” commented Headmaster Shanahan, “We have commencement speakers from outside of the school community so that someone comes in with a message for graduating students about the world that they are about to engage in. Karl Rove is somebody who has dedicated a significant portion of his life to service, and has been an extremely influential person.”

Despite this, the decision to invite Rove to be the graduation speaker has been met with much controversy on the Choate campus and among alumni and students. Karl Rove is widely believed to have been instrumental in the current administration’s decision to go to war with Iraq. He chaired the White House Iraq Group, which, according to CNN and Newsweek, was created with the objective of publicizing the threat posed to the U.S. by Saddam Hussein prior to the Iraq War.

Additionally, Mr. Rove has been accused of leaking the identity of undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plume, in retaliation for her husband’s op-ed piece in The New York Times that criticized the evidence that the Bush Administration cited as justification for the War in Iraq. Rove has also been accused of corruption and conflicts of interest in cases where he helped shape administration policies on energy while holding stock in energy companies such as Enron.

Although Rove was never formally indicted on any charge, there is widespread anger towards the school administration’s decision to invite Karl Rove to speak on campus. “Beyond the fact that his being a widely believed Federal criminal stands against most of the principles that we claim have on campus, it is more than disappointing that the decision was made with so little consultation of other members of the Choate community and that Mr. Shanahan chose to invite such a divisive figure to say the least,” observed an angry Alessio Manti ‘08, a member of the graduating class.

However, to truly understand the controversy surrounding Karl Rove, one must venture into the most frequented forum of student activity: Facebook. Two groups, “Choate Doesn’t Want Karl Rove,” and “Choate Students for Karl Rove,” have sprung up and include Choate community members, past and present. “Choate Doesn’t Want Karl Rove” claims as its description “we do not doubt that he is an interesting person, and an excellent politician, but he has no place at Choate. He is an American traitor, leaking the name of a CIA agent, discrediting many veterans, calling people unpatriotic, etc.”

Some people do not oppose Rove as a graduation speaker because they completely disagree with his policies, but rather feel that the speaker should not be an alienating person. “I think that they should invite a writer or an artist, someone who has seen the world, but is not as controversial” stated Spanish teacher Marta Escartin – Arias.

After already a controversial year of selections for the role, the choice of Karl Rove, simply augments speculation about proposed speaker. An anonymous student remarked “What will [Dr.] Shanahan do if Rove gets indicted? Will he still be the ‘key figure in shaping history’ that the headmaster wants for the role?” Certainly, only the future holds the answers of these pressing questions.