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Karl Rove is a big, white whale of a reader

The Bush administration has long been noted for the high literary tone maintained by its most powerful denizens. The president’s own voracious reading habits are well known, as is his fondness for employing complex Oulipian constraints in many of his public remarks, which some of his lesser-read critics have misinterpreted as mere malapropisms.

This tradition continues with the departure of Bush’s closest advisor, Karl Rove. In reference to Congress’s current subpoena-mad mindset, Rove had this to say: “I’m realistic enough to understand that the subpoenas are going to keep flying my way. I’m Moby Dick and we’ve got three or four members of Congress who are trying to cast themselves in the part of Captain Ahab — so they’re going to keep coming.”

Rove went on to compare the Washington press corps to Eliot’s The Hollow Men, “Leaning together/ Headpiece(s) filled with straw,” the controversy over warrantless wire-tapping to Kafka’s The Trial, and the situation in Iraq to the final act of Macbeth.

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