Subject: America’s Dark Ages: From polls that imply that a competing candidate has an illegitimate black child to the outing of an active CIA agent in order to discredit a critic, White House political advisor Karl Rove has fought dirtier than just about anyone in modern American politics. And won. As Americans grow increasingly disenchanted with the Bush administration's failures, Rove and his cynical tactics have been pushed into the spotlight. Given the sheer number of scandals involving so many different abuses of power, a comprehensive review of how this White House does business will serve as an important document in one of the darkest periods in the history of American presidential politics. Not only does President Bush continue to prove that he lives in a parallel universe not at all related to reality, his comments about Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales demonstrate that his low bar of expectations is not even off the ground. John