GOP kingmaker and former presidential adviser Karl Rove alternated between blasting Democrats and stumping for longtime friend Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, Friday at a breakfast event in downtown Salt Lake.
Rove, an Olympus High School graduate in town for his 40th reunion, has ties to the Bennett family that go back to the 1968 campaign of U.S. Sen. Wallace Bennett, the current senator's father. On Friday, Rove threw his support behind Bob Bennett.
"I like him a lot and got to know him really well when I was in the White House," Rove said. "I saw a lot of these guys on Capitol Hill, a lot of good conservatives, people who vote right, speak right, do right like Bennett. But there are few that have Bennett's thoughtfulness, temperament and work ethic."
Rove lambasted President Barack Obama's health-care plan, calling it an attempt to "give us government-run health care" and said blocking the effort is a top GOP agenda item. He then praised Bennett's alternative Healthy Americans Act, crafted with Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden.
"It's a good bill," Rove said. "It's revolutionary in its approach. It says the individual, not this company, ought to get the tax advantage. … We ought to put the individual in charge."
Bennett reiterated a position he has taken recently in response to criticism of his plan, insisting that it is not a bargaining ploy.
"The one thing I want to make clear is … the Healthy Americans Act is not a negotiating tool," Bennett said. "It's to be there after Obamacare has collapsed and people say, 'Well, now what do we do?' "
Rove took multiple shots at the Democrat-controlled Congress, laying the blame for the mortgage industry debacle at its feet and saying he was "furious" with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for his handling of the federal investigation into CIA interrogation tactics.
Bennett's son and campaign manager, Jim Bennett, said the event, which drew about 500 attendees, was not a fundraiser and was organized at the last minute after they heard that Rove was coming to Salt Lake.
Bennett told the Deseret News earlier this week that he is embarking on his most difficult campaign since his first run for the U.S. Senate in 1992, as he is facing multiple intraparty challenges for his 2010 re-election bid.
Rove, who worked briefly for the Utah Republican Party in the late 1960s, has made a career of putting GOP candidates into office and stirring controversy with his tactics. After working on the '92 presidential campaign of George H.W. Bush — and getting fired — Rove began a long relationship with George W. Bush, acting as a campaign adviser in two successful Texas gubernatorial campaigns and victories in back-to-back presidential races. Rove was a part of President George W. Bush's inner sanctum as a senior adviser until his resignation in 2007.
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