# Karl Rove having a gay affair?! With an Arabic-named criminal?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 28, 2012, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553 "2012-06-28T06:15:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/1 "2012-06-28T06:15:01Z")
[No, seriously.](http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2012/06/karl-roves-bisexual-affair-might-have.html) > [@](#): > > Karl Rove is having a bisexual affair with the president of a conservative bloggers’ group, and concern about being outed sparked Rove’s falsehood-filled diatribe last week on Greta Van Susteren’s Fox News program. > > Rove’s lover is Ali Akbar, president of the National Bloggers Club, an umbrella group that grew from the activism of the late right-wing publisher and pundit Andrew Breitbart. A left-leaning Web site called Breitbart Unmasked recently disclosed that Akbar has a criminal record that includes convictions for credit-card fraud, theft, and burglary. > > The stunning allegations about Rove and Akbar are included in a letter sent yesterday from Alabama attorney Dana Jill Simpson to Robert Bauer, counsel for President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. The letter also includes an appeal for a presidential pardon on behalf of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. > > Rove, appearing with Van Susteren on the June 20 edition of On the Record, took a question about the tax-exempt status of certain PACs and turned it into an attack on Simpson, Bauer, and Siegelman–who was the target of perhaps the most notorious political prosecution in U.S. history. > > Simpson, a former GOP operative, is best known as a whistleblower in the Siegelman case. She has stated under oath and testified before Congress that she participated in a telephone conference call with prominent Alabama Republicans who discussed plans to bring bogus criminal charges against Siegelman, apparently with Rove’s approval. > > Rove told Van Susteren that Bauer represented Simpson in her 2007 testimony before Congress and that Simpson did not testify under oath. It’s a matter of public record that Simpson made sworn statements about the Siegelman prosecution on multiple occasions. And Simpson included in her letter to Bauer yesterday an affidavit stating that he has never represented her, and the two have never met. (See the affidavit and letter at the end of this post.) Bauer has sent a letter to Rove demanding a retraction, according to a report in Huffington Post. > > Why would Rove become so wildly disengaged from the truth, on a national television program where he was asked a question that had nothing to do with Jill Simpson? The Alabama lawyer says in her letter to Bauer that Rove became unhinged because he knew she had damaging information about his personal life–and it soon might become public knowledge. Now, this story is not from a major media outlet, it’s from a website called Legal Schnauzer. But the story seems pretty well documented – there’s even a scanned copy of Simpson’s letter to Bauer. So I guess it all comes down to how trustworthy Simpson is. More on [Rove’s rant on Fox.](http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-prompted-karl-rove-to-go-off-on.html) And the story about [Akbar’s criminal record.](http://www.breitbartunmasked.com/rogues-gallery/national-bloggers-club-founder-ali-akbar-convicted-felon/) There’s a mugshot of him – dude’s young and not too hideous. The most amazing thing about this story is, how did Rove manage it?! Gay/bi dudes of the Dope – come on, be honest, would **you** touch him?! Even if you’re a chubby-chaser?! Beyond whether Dana Jill Simpson is telling the truth, I guess the debate here is whether this will finally drive Rove out of public life. Wasn’t even sure whether to put this in GD, or IMHO or MPSIMS or the Pit, but I figure it would end up here if I put it anywhere else; it **does** have implications for national politics, Rove being such a high-profile political figure and all. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/2 "2012-06-28T06:24:30Z")
How do two men have “bisexual sex”? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/3 "2012-06-28T06:27:48Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > How do two men have “bisexual sex”? I dunno. Money is involved? ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/4 "2012-06-28T06:30:37Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I dunno. Money is involved? I see what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/5 "2012-06-28T06:41:28Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > The most amazing thing about this story is, how did Rove manage it?! Gay/bi dudes of the Dope – come on, be honest, would **you** touch him?! Even if you’re a chubby-chaser?! Rich and powerful men and women don’t tend to have problems finding lovers. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/6 "2012-06-28T06:49:04Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Rich and powerful men and women don’t tend to have problems finding lovers. Ah, yes. Post #3. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/7 "2012-06-28T07:25:06Z")
Not money. Power. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/8 "2012-06-28T13:19:20Z")
Sounds like a dog of a story. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/9 "2012-06-28T13:24:02Z")
I’ve got no horse in this fight, but it’s setting off my ground hog shit detector. For all I know, though, it’s the gold fishes meow…and wouldn’t THAT be iconic? -XT ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/10 "2012-06-28T13:43:32Z")
Karl Rove has poor taste in men. That isn’t news. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/11 "2012-06-28T15:00:35Z")
Is the name “Ali Akbar” kind of a joke, or are people really named that? “I’d like you to meet my son God is Great. We call him GG for short”. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/12 "2012-06-28T15:01:49Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Karl Rove has poor taste in men. That isn’t news. He used to prefer bush. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/13 "2012-06-28T15:08:56Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > Is the name “Ali Akbar” kind of a joke, or are people really named that? “I’d like you to meet my son God is Great. We call him GG for short”. Ali is not the same word as Allah which means god. Ali is a very common name. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/14 "2012-06-28T15:16:38Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > Is the name “Ali Akbar” kind of a joke, or are people really named that? “I’d like you to meet my son God is Great. We call him GG for short”. I knew someone named Precious Angel Grace. No joke. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/15 "2012-06-28T15:17:03Z")
Haven’t rumors about Rove’s sexual orientation been around for years? [http://www.pensitoreview.com/2009/12/31/did-karl-rove-leave-his-wife-for-jeff-gannon/](http://www.pensitoreview.com/2009/12/31/did-karl-rove-leave-his-wife-for-jeff-gannon/) From December 31, 2009: > [@](#): > > Last week Karl Rove, George W. Bush’s former brain, did just that. He got divorced practically in secret: > > No one reported on the divorce until it had already been granted, which indicates the court file must have been sealed for some reason. I’ve seen no indication that anyone in the press has even seen the divorce complaint. It isn’t even clear who filed for divorce — Rove or his wife, Darby? > > But why would Rove be so desperate to deflect coverage of his divorce? > > Gawker suggests that with Darby out of the way, Rove “can finally gay marry Jeff Gannon, in Argentina.” > > Gannon was the fake reporter who was mysteriously given a pass to sit in on White House press briefings and ask right-wing softball questions for two years. He was eventually unmasked as a Republican plant — which would have been filed away as business as usual for the Bushies, except that this plant had a second career as a male prostitute whose nom de ho was Bulldog. > **[Karl Rove's Pierced Family Jewels, part 2: Jim Ward interview (audio)](https://boingboing.net/2007/08/21/karl-roves-pierced-f.html)** > > Following up on a previous BoingBoing post (Essay: I'm the proud owner of Karl Rove's father's solid gold cock ring): Piercing pioneer Jim Ward (image above), who in 1975 launched… > [@](#): > > Following up on a previous BoingBoing post (Essay: I’m the proud owner of Karl Rove’s father’s solid gold cock ring): > > Piercing pioneer Jim Ward (image above), who in 1975 launched what is now considered America’s first contemporary body piercing business (The Gauntlet), remembers Louis “Indy” Rove, an early body modification enthusiast who is identified as the adoptive father of Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove. The elder Mr. Rove had (at least) 37 piercings, most of which were in his genitals, all performed by Mr. Ward. No solid proof. And it’s pretty amazing that a switch hitter would be so rabidly anti-gay. Self-loathing? Maybe. There is a $100,000 reward that has been offered for proof of Rove’s gayness. So far, no one has collected. [http://www.choice101.com/666-carl-rove.html](http://www.choice101.com/666-carl-rove.html) ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/16 "2012-06-28T15:21:59Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > Is the name “Ali Akbar” kind of a joke, or are people really named that? “I’d like you to meet my son God is Great. We call him GG for short”. Yea, why can’t he have a good Hebrew name like “Gabriel” or “Michael”? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/17 "2012-06-28T15:25:03Z")
This seems pretty unlikely to me. I’ll be surprised if it turns out to be true. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/18 "2012-06-28T15:35:09Z")
I’m wondering why we’re supposed to care about any of this. I’m trying to figure out which part I _least_ care about. So far “Arabic-named” is in the lead since it’s so badly shoehorned into the story. Why would Rove go away over this? A lot of people already despise the guy and conservatives will still appreciate if he’s trying to win elections for them. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/19 "2012-06-28T15:42:08Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m wondering why we’re supposed to care about any of this. I’m trying to figure out which part I _least_ care about. So far “Arabic-named” is in the lead since it’s so badly shoehorned into the story. Why would Rove go away over this? A lot of people already despise the guy and conservatives will still appreciate if he’s trying to win elections for them. Yea, its kinda sad that in a story about him conspiring to bring false charges against a governor, the lead is that Rove might’ve slept with an arab. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553/20 "2012-06-28T16:26:13Z")
So, can we start calling him Karl “Jeff” Rove? 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karl-rove-having-a-gay-affair-with-an-arabic-named-criminal/626553.md?page=2)