Newsweek's Holly Bailey reports on Karl Rove's appearance at the RNC blogger function for the Alito confirmation hearings two weeks ago. Rove, as CQ readers know, met with us for an off-the-record chat but did allow us to mention his appearance at the Hay-Adams hotel where a number of White House policy managers had come to brief us on the administration's efforts for 2006. Baily reports:

The Republican National Committee organized a forum for conservative bloggers earlier this month, telling attendees they'd be briefed by RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman and other party operatives on the 2006 political outlook. But a surprise guest arrived. "Karl Rove is in the house!!!" wrote Matt Margolis, who was live-blogging the event for his site, Blogs for Bush. While Rove implored the group to keep the substance of his remarks off the record, some bloggers posted photos and snippets of their talk with the president's top political adviser, which included a discussion on the politics of the war and the upcoming midterm elections. Rove told the group that he regularly reads their blogs and spent more than a half hour answering questions. "I think we all found ourselves a little surprised to have received that kind of attention," Ed Morrissey, who wrote about Rove on his blog, Captain's Quarters, told NEWSWEEK. "I think he was taking our temperature a bit, which I found interesting."

Actually, he may have been there longer than a half-hour, but I wasn't timing it. Bailey only has a limited amount of space in which to work for Periscope items, and in truth I almost stiffed her by waiting until her deadline to answer her questions, as I got backed up on my e-mail and other tasks this week. Be sure to catch the entire item on this week's issue.

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry is