Karl Rove rocks the house in hip-hop debut
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Presidential adviser by day, rapper by night: Karl Rove rocked the house in his hip-hop debut on an evening of rare levity for an administration under fire.
The balding, bespectacled Rove was given a standing ovation at an annual broadcast journalists' awards dinner on Wednesday night when he danced and posed with his Blackberry during an improvised rap skit.
As boss President George W. Bush looked on, Rove gamely flapped about the stage as comedian Brad Sherwood described his favorite pastimes: "Listen up suckas, don't get the jitters, but MC Rove tears the heads off of critters."
Rove had told Sherwood that he liked to hunt, collect stamps and "tear the heads off of small animals."
Rove, 56, is the architect of Bush's two presidential election wins and often decried by critics as a ruthless political operative.
But Snoop Dogg and other rappers don't have to worry. Rove appeared far less threatening on stage, his rapping limited to occasional outbursts of "I'm MC Rove" -- slang for "master of ceremonies."
Footage from the Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner was featured on morning news television shows and available at the YouTube Web site.
Rove is in the firing line as Democrats pursue his role in the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors, which they say was motivated by partisan politics. He eluded indictment last year in a case involving the leak of the name of a CIA operative.
Bush drew a laugh at the dinner with a joke touching on the prosecutors' firing.
"We really blew the way we let those attorneys go. You know you botched it when people pity lawyers," said Bush, who traditionally has used such occasions to make self-deprecating comments.
When asked by the comedian Bush declined to share Rove's nickname around the White House -- "turd blossom," a reference to the flowers that grow from Texas cow dung.
