Little Rock, Ark. — Here was a sight for cynical eyes: Karl Rove–yes, the Karl Rove–was delivering a speech in Bill Clinton’s Little Rock, courtesy of the Clinton School of Public Service and Bill’s presidential library. It gets better. Rove, officially the deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, but unofficially the Left’s Public Enemy No. 2 (Bush and Dick Cheney are Nos. 1 and 1A, natch), gave his talk in front of a big, blue banner that practically shouted “Clinton School of Public Service” while standing behind yet another blue sign on the rostrum that said the same. As if to reinforce the man-bites-dog theme of the day, introducing Rove was Skip Rutherford, dean of the Clinton School and aboriginal FOB. (That stands for Friend of Bill, though it’s understandable if you’ve forgotten. Or erased it from your brain. The Nineties were a couple of wars and frivolous lifetimes ago.) But wait. It gets even better. Rove’s speech was held in a convention ballroom in the bowels of the Peabody Hotel, which happened to be the Excelsior Hotel in a former life–which just so happened to be the notorious hotel where Bill allegedly met Paula. Even Karl Rove had to chuckle at where Karl Rove was standing and what Karl Rove was doing on this Thursday afternoon–which, oh by the way, was just days removed from I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s conviction in a federal courtroom. And nobody in this room had forgotten that Rove played a starring role in the Scooter Scandal. “You have to admit, it’s pretty strange,” Rove said to a crowd that filled most of the 600 seats in the convention hall. “It’s a bit like an atheist preaching to Southern Baptists. . . . It’s a little weird.” Not even the die-hardest, Clinton-lovingest, Bush-hatingest yellow-dog doggiest liberal in the crowd would disagree with Rove about that. Bipartisan agreement at long last! Once the weird wore off–a little–Rove launched into his lecture. And get this: Politics stayed out of it. He sounded nothing like Karl Rove. Or, at least, the cartoon caricature of the Karl Rove. Instead, he could have been a presidential historian, scholar, or future dean of his own presidential library’s school of public service. And you’re reminded that no matter what you think of these high-profile lightning rods–of Bush’s Brains and Clinton’s take-no-prisoners war-roomers–they got where they got for good reasons: They’re smart, they’re engaged in the present and the past, and they know what they believe–and, frankly, don’t care if you agree a little or disagree a lot. You’re also reminded that what makes the headlines may not be what really interests or drives a Karl Rove. He spends much of his talk waxing giddy about the creation of . . . the National Security Council, the Domestic Policy Council and the National Economic Council. Karl Rove, policy geek? Say it ain’t so, Joe Scarborough. But enough about economic councils. It’s true of almost any lecture that the most interesting part comes after, during the questions-and-answers. And Rutherford, the veteran FOB and politico, did a pretty fair imitation of Tim Russert. Question: Will history judge that Iraq is to George Bush what Vietnam is to LBJ? Rove: “No. It’s an easy but incorrect comparison. It’s the right thing. . . and it will be concluded in the right way. And it better be.” In case anybody’s forgotten what the terrorists have in mind, Rove suggested that folks get thee to their local bookstore and buy a copy of Messages to the World, the collected writings of Osama bin Laden. It’s “crystal clear,” Rove said, that bin Laden’s plan is to seize the Middle East, expel the United States, destroy Israel, and conduct unremitting war on the West. Or have we all forgotten that? “We kid ourselves,” Rove said, “if we think we can withdraw [from Iraq] and come home and suffer no consequences.” Question: Can you explain the controversial firing of the seven United States attorneys? Rove: “The attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president. Traditionally, they’re given four-year terms. . . . Clinton replaced all 93 when he took office. We’ve appointed 128 [so far]. Clinton did 123. Because seven were [replaced] all at once, people wanted to play politics with it.” All of which is exactly how this administration should be responding to the Great U.S. Attorneys Purge, instead of insisting that politics had nothing to do with it. Politics had everything to do with it. These are political appointments. These folks serve at the pleasure of the president. End of story. Hearing Rove answer questions this way, you wonder if the main problem with this White House of late isn’t that it listens to Karl Rove too much but that it doesn’t listen to him enough. Anyway, it’s not until he tells a story about Hillary–yes, the Hillary–that you’re reminded why Rove drives the Left to distraction. Asked about Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chances in the ’08 presidential campaign, Rove ducked the question and landed this uppercut on Ms. Frontrunner. “I inherited her office in the West Wing,” he said, “which irritated her.” Not long after he moved in, he told the press that he liked Hillary’s old office because it had a full-length vanity mirror hidden behind the filing cabinet. A few days later, Rove ran into Hillary, who told him that she didn’t put that mirror there. But Rove never said she did; he just said there was a vanity mirror in her old office. So he told the story again. The press reported it again. A few days later, Rove ran into Hillary again. “‘I told you I didn’t put that mirror there,’” he said she said, with her Hillary-esque conviction. “But I didn’t say she did. So I’m going to tell that story again. I guess I just did.” Sure enough. And to lots of laughter here at the lecture sponsored by the Clinton School of Public Service in Bill Clinton’s Little Rock. It was just a little weird. – Kane Webb, former assistant editorial-page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, lives in Little Rock.