Blessed debate over Rove rite

BY GLENN THRUSH | Newsday Washington Bureau

September 8, 2006

WASHINGTON - A spirited debate is raging over whether Hillary Rodham Clinton was the subject of a religious rite held in Karl Rove's West Wing office in 2001.

A conservative Catholic activist quoted in a new Rove biography says the political guru never authorized a ceremony to purge Clinton's liberal demons from his office, as the authors claim.

Rove also denies the story.

"Hillary, Rove joked, was a reason the place needed to be purged of evil spirits," write James Moore and Wayne Slater in "The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power."

"That's why he invited his ... right-hand man for Catholic outreach in the 2000 presidential campaign, to arrange a Catholic blessing."

Deal Hudson - the aforementioned "right-hand man" - acknowledges he ushered a suburban Virginia priest into Rove's office but says Rove never even joked about expelling Clinton's spirit: His host simply wanted his work space blessed.

"It certainly came up that it was Hillary Clinton's office, but Karl didn't joke that way to me," said Hudson, who spoke with the authors two years ago. "It was a sober 5- to 10-minute ceremony ... the fact that Karl Rove was in Hillary Clinton's office was definitely not the reason for it."

Slater said Hudson was backtracking. "A formal exorcism didn't happen, that's true," Slater said. "But it was a real religious ceremony. Rove made more than a passing reference to Hillary Clinton. They talked about the fact, in a joking way, that this had been her office and Hillary was still in there."

Slater and Hudson both say they're stumped over why Rove, known to be agnostic, wanted any blessing at all.

"I was surprised, yes," said Hudson. "But remember this was shortly after the hanging chads in Florida. ... There was a lot of praying going on during that recount."