As the Obama administration prepares to dispatch U.S. Census Bureau head counters on their decennial door-to-door rounds, right-wing Web sites are feverish with conspiracy theories about how the census is the first step toward communism, totalitarianism, and other isms. But today the census received a strong endorsement from one of the Obama administration's most outspoken critics: Karl Rove.
In a "public service"TV spot airing today on local TV stations around the country, Rove talks about how the census was created by one of the presidents he most admires: "James Madison, principal author of the Constitution. He created an instrument of democracy by writing into the Constitution a requirement for a census every 10 years to ensure fair representation in Congress."
Rove continues: "If you've not yet mailed back your 2010 census form, it's not too late. Please, answer the 10 easy questions. They are almost the same ones Madison helped write for the first census in 1790."
Steve Jost, the Census Bureau's chief spokesman, tells Declassified that it was Rove's admiration for James Madison that led the Census Bureau to persuade George Bush's political guru to tape the pro-census ad.
According to Jost, a few weeks ago the current head of the Census Bureau, Robert Groves, went to an event at Montpelier, Madison's family estate in Orange, Va. In discussions with executives of the foundation that runs the Madison Estate, Jost said, Grove learned that Rove was a big admirer and student of Madison's.
The foundation offered to put the census director's office in touch with Rove. Over the last two weeks, U.S. census officials and Rove discussed his possible appearance in a census public-service spot. Jost said that census officials wrote the script, Rove edited it with a few tweaks, and it was taped a few days ago.
Rove's office did not immediately respond to an e-mail from Declassified requesting comment.
The roll-out of Rove's pro-census spot came just as conservative talk-show kingpin Rush Limbaugh propounded the latest in what seem to be an increasingly outlandish set of conspiracy theories about alleged attempts by the Obama administration to misuse the census.
In hisMonday broadcast, Limbaugh charged that the Census Bureau is deliberately undercounting Republican voters by skipping neighborhoods where they live. "I haven't seen a census form since I left home in 1970," Limbaugh declared.
He concluded, somewhat conspiratorially: "I wonder how widespread this is, that areas thought to be Republican are either not getting forms or not being visited by the census workers. Nothing would surprise me."
Census spokesman Jost retorted: "We have a mandate to count everyone. We wouldn't know how to skip anyone."
Limbaugh is only the latest in a series of right-wing provocateurs to suggest the Obama administration had some sinister intent for the 2010 census. Fox News hosts have been among the most strident critics, with Glenn Beck suggesting that by asking for information about a person's race, the census somehow was promoting slavery.
Another prominent conservative personality, Michelle Malkin, suggested that the census was some kind of brainwashing exercise designed to create a permanent Democratic Party majority.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
