How Do You Write 50 Paragraphs About Steve Schmidt, and Not Mention Rove?

OK, Lois Romano's Style section puff piece on Schmidt does mention Rove twice, if you want to be technical.

Once in the 21st paragraph, where Rove is quoted as a knowledgeable but uninvolved observer.

And three paragraphs later, where Romano says, in passing that "it bothers [Schmidt] to be called a protege of Rove's."

Here's what the WaPo's Chris Cillizza reported back in December 2006:

[P]rior to [the 2006 campaign season, Schmidt] was a member of the Bush political inner circle. He handled the strategic communications efforts during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Samuel A. Alito Jr. and John G. Roberts Jr., and during the 2004 presidential election he was a member of the "breakfast club" -- a small gathering of top level Bush advisers who met regularly at the home of senior strategist Karl Rove.

'Rove protege' or not, Schmidt clearly worked closely with him on both the 2004 campaign and on 'strategic communications' for the Supreme Court appointments: it's not like Rove would have been only lightly involved in selling Roberts and Alito.

Romano adds this nugget:

Schmidt's sister, his only sibling, is gay, and he has made it clear that he is appalled by the party's hostile attitudes toward gay rights.

I can only respond that Schmidt is so "appalled by the party's hostile attitudes toward gay rights" that he was an integral part of the message machine for Bush's 2004 campaign that, in part, won by rallying conservative Christians against the specter of gay marriage.

And after that, he led the propagandizing for two new Justices who could be counted on to vote against gay rights in any decision that came before them.

In other words, Schmidt is a guy who would sell his own sister down the river to get his candidate elected. I guess there just wasn't room in that 50-paragraph puff piece to mention that.

But she does have room for:

Steve Schmidt has made a career out of not being a creature of Washington.

Yeah, I thought that was pretty funny, too. Washington state? Maybe. Washington, Virginia? Nah, I'll bet he's dined at the Inn. Washington County, Oklahoma? That's probably safe.

And she also has room for:

"The Internet has created a wave of venom that is very disturbing," he says of the e-mails and calls he receives. "People who run these campaigns have become targets very directly. Who needs it?"

Awwwwwwwww.

I think the phrase is, "what goes around, comes around." Or, "turnabout is fair play." Or "pot, meet kettle." Or "he who lives by the smear, whines at the smear (and then everybody makes fun of him)."

And:

He curtailed McCain's media availability because he found journalists were more interested in filing hour-to-hour for the Web, rather than reporting more in-depth looks at the day on the trail.

Yeh, riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Even by the standards of the Style section, this is an incredible display of taking a public figure at his word. If Lois Romano looks in the mirror, does she see Roland Burton Hedley?