So I get this email from a Norwegian domain:
Karl Rove has nothing to do with Norway...It was his adoptive father who had some Norwegian ancestry. KRs mother was, reportedly, Jewish. I do not know what his father was. Norwegians take pride in being honest. Please stop labelling KR Norwegian.
This is presumably in reference to this article. Now let's parse what this reader is trying to say.
Apparently, he's upset by the fact that Karl Rove's Norwegian roots aren't genetic; it was his adoptive father's grandfather who immigrated from Norway. Rove consistently refers to himself as "Norwegian," meaning "Norwegian-American." His justification presumably is his cultural, not his genetic heritage.
As well it should be. Does the writer actually believe that Norwegian genes conveys upon their carrier a greater sense of honesty than other genes?
(I was mistaken in one sense, though. Rove is not actually from Texas. He, like Bush, is an immigrant to the Lone Star State. Whatever that means).
Rove's mother committed suicide in 1981, alone somewhere in Nevada. Rove's (adoptive) father died in 2004. Rove apparently speaks with great affection and reverence about his adoptive father and clearly considers him the only father figure in his life.
Whatever one may think of Rove's morals, actions, outlook, politics, whatever, it would be petty to discount the relationship he had with his father, whether or not he was genetically related to him.
I see no reports at all - credible or otherwise - that Rove's mother was Jewish. I'm not sure what relevance the piece of information has.
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