If Only I'd Known...
My freshman year at the University of Illinois, I lived in the dorms. Two doors down from me lived a guy named Bob Kjellander, a senior and president of the College Republicans. In the spring of 1970 he mentioned that the national Republican organization was sending a few "experts" around the country to help mobilize and organize campaigning efforts on college campuses.
One night I was chatting in the lounge on our floor when these two clean-cut guys [I don't recall what they looked like and they didn't give their names] stopped by looking for Bob K. - we showed them to his room. A couple days later we were talking politics and Bob K. mentioned that two guys from the Republican organization had been by the other night and that they were quite bright, full of lots of good ideas, although one of them was kind of a dirty trickster.
The other night I'm reading "Bush's Brain" and find this passage on page 129:
During the antiwar years, there was no tougher place to practice Republican politics than on a college campus. Rove had come to the attention of the hierarchy of the College Republicans, who dispatched him in 1970 to Illinois to organize campuses for Senator Ralph Smith, an old-line conservative who had been appointed to the job upon the death of the venerable Everett Dirksen. His opponent was Adlai Stevenson III.
"It was at the height of the Vietnam War. Ralph was an extremely conservative guy. It was, shall we say, an uphill climb," said Bob Kjellander, then president of the College Republican chapter at the University of Illinois.
Rove had all kinds of ideas, according to Kjellander. Dormitory canvasses. Precinct organizations on campus. Dorm chairmen. Floor chairmen. Rove traveled from school to school, from Champaign to Bloomington to Springfield. He formed a willing and ready alliance with the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), the shock troops of the new right on college campuses. The YAFers saw themselves as a counterbalance to the long-haired, drug-using Students for Democratic Society on the left. The YAFers wore ties, revered William F. Buckley, and relished the reaction they got to lapel buttons designed to look like a peace symbol but, upon closer inspection, were actually a B-52 bomber. They were a swaggering, prankster truth squad on the right, up for anything - even dirty tricks.
The Democratic candidate for state treasurer in 1970 was Alan Dixon, a likable Illinois politician who was climbing the political ladder that was eventually to lead him to a seat in the US Senate. The Dixon For Treasurer campaign planned to formally open its Chicago headquarters with a flourish, inviting party officials, the press, and supporters.
Rove had an idea: Disrupt the opening.
He assumed a false name, and posed as a Dixon supporter to get into campaign headquarters, where he stole some Dixon campaign stationary.
Rove used the stationary to make a fake invitation to the opening, giving the correct time and place, but adding, "Free beer, free food, girls, and a good time for nothing." He made 1,000 copies and distributed them at a hippie commune, a rock concert, soup kitchens, and among the drunks on Chicago's bowery. And it worked. On the day of the opening, hundreds of the city's dissolute showed up. Vans arrived with freeloaders attracted by the promise of liquor and food.
"It was funny," Kjellander remembered. "He had all these winos showing up at a fancy party with an open bar."
Dixon had a decidedly different view.
"It was a little upsetting."
Still, Dixon won and he has subsequently dismissed the episode as a minor inconvenience. Although Kjellander recalled that Rove was eventually directed by George Herbert Walker Bush to apologize, Dixon has no memory of receiving an apology.
Karl Rove was 19 at the time.
Bob Kjellander has continued to be involved with Republican politics - he has been a Republican National Committeeman since 1996, and was the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign chairman for the Great Lakes region.
Last year he received a curious $809,000 consulting fee from bond underwriter Bear Stearns after Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich got a $10 billion borrowing package through Springfield.
Last month, he was revealed to have collected $4.5 million in additional consulting fees from the Carlyle Group to help them win contracts from the state teachers pension fund. He was also elected treasurer of the Republican National Committee.
He remains good friends with Karl Rove. Who, if only had I known, I could have pushed down the stairs; we were on the fourth floor.
One night I was chatting in the lounge on our floor when these two clean-cut guys [I don't recall what they looked like and they didn't give their names] stopped by looking for Bob K. - we showed them to his room. A couple days later we were talking politics and Bob K. mentioned that two guys from the Republican organization had been by the other night and that they were quite bright, full of lots of good ideas, although one of them was kind of a dirty trickster.
The other night I'm reading "Bush's Brain" and find this passage on page 129:
During the antiwar years, there was no tougher place to practice Republican politics than on a college campus. Rove had come to the attention of the hierarchy of the College Republicans, who dispatched him in 1970 to Illinois to organize campuses for Senator Ralph Smith, an old-line conservative who had been appointed to the job upon the death of the venerable Everett Dirksen. His opponent was Adlai Stevenson III.
"It was at the height of the Vietnam War. Ralph was an extremely conservative guy. It was, shall we say, an uphill climb," said Bob Kjellander, then president of the College Republican chapter at the University of Illinois.
Rove had all kinds of ideas, according to Kjellander. Dormitory canvasses. Precinct organizations on campus. Dorm chairmen. Floor chairmen. Rove traveled from school to school, from Champaign to Bloomington to Springfield. He formed a willing and ready alliance with the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), the shock troops of the new right on college campuses. The YAFers saw themselves as a counterbalance to the long-haired, drug-using Students for Democratic Society on the left. The YAFers wore ties, revered William F. Buckley, and relished the reaction they got to lapel buttons designed to look like a peace symbol but, upon closer inspection, were actually a B-52 bomber. They were a swaggering, prankster truth squad on the right, up for anything - even dirty tricks.
The Democratic candidate for state treasurer in 1970 was Alan Dixon, a likable Illinois politician who was climbing the political ladder that was eventually to lead him to a seat in the US Senate. The Dixon For Treasurer campaign planned to formally open its Chicago headquarters with a flourish, inviting party officials, the press, and supporters.
Rove had an idea: Disrupt the opening.
He assumed a false name, and posed as a Dixon supporter to get into campaign headquarters, where he stole some Dixon campaign stationary.
Rove used the stationary to make a fake invitation to the opening, giving the correct time and place, but adding, "Free beer, free food, girls, and a good time for nothing." He made 1,000 copies and distributed them at a hippie commune, a rock concert, soup kitchens, and among the drunks on Chicago's bowery. And it worked. On the day of the opening, hundreds of the city's dissolute showed up. Vans arrived with freeloaders attracted by the promise of liquor and food.
"It was funny," Kjellander remembered. "He had all these winos showing up at a fancy party with an open bar."
Dixon had a decidedly different view.
"It was a little upsetting."
Still, Dixon won and he has subsequently dismissed the episode as a minor inconvenience. Although Kjellander recalled that Rove was eventually directed by George Herbert Walker Bush to apologize, Dixon has no memory of receiving an apology.
Karl Rove was 19 at the time.
Bob Kjellander has continued to be involved with Republican politics - he has been a Republican National Committeeman since 1996, and was the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign chairman for the Great Lakes region.
Last year he received a curious $809,000 consulting fee from bond underwriter Bear Stearns after Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich got a $10 billion borrowing package through Springfield.
Last month, he was revealed to have collected $4.5 million in additional consulting fees from the Carlyle Group to help them win contracts from the state teachers pension fund. He was also elected treasurer of the Republican National Committee.
He remains good friends with Karl Rove. Who, if only had I known, I could have pushed down the stairs; we were on the fourth floor.
posted by Addison Clark at 11:54 AM
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