Fox News has some GOP thumping in its past

One of the overlooked details of the forever-fight over the widely debated conservative leanings of the Fox News Channel (besides that a third of its viewers are Democrats) is that it was Fox that broke the then-shocking story in 2000 of candidate George W. Bush’s 24-year-old DUI charges.

Why, you wonder, would an old Maine story matter, regardless of the source?

The breaking story of Bush’s unrevealed 1976 DUI charges in Maine came just four days before the 2000 election. The Bush-Cheney ticket was tied then in national polls with the Democrats’ Gore-Lieberman ticket and was, in fact, ahead in Maine.

Bush ended up losing Maine to the Democrats, and several other states by narrow margins. Had the Republicans won those electoral votes, there never would have been a Florida recount, hanging-chad controversy or Supreme Court case. Florida’s electoral votes wouldn’t have changed anything.

Mike Allen over at Politico reported Thursday that in an upcoming memoir -- “Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight” -- Bush’s chief strategist Karl Rove writes that getting that bad news out earlier in that political season is the single biggest thing he would do differently about that controversial campaign.

No kidding. Controlling the timing of bad news is campaign strategy rule No. 1. Knowledge of the old arrest was so closely held among a few senior Bush aides that campaign representatives had no idea how to reply when the initial Fox News call came in.

The story knocked the Bush and Cheney team off-message for days, much as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright revelations did to the Obama crew during the Democratic primaries of 2008.

In the new book, due out Tuesday, Rove speculates that the Fox News story prompted enough changed votes or disappointed social conservatives not to vote that it cost the GOP ticket other states such as New Mexico and Iowa.

Romney chats with Letterman

If there is a politician on late-night TV, there must be a new book somewhere.

Sure enough, Republican Mitt Romney was on David Letterman’s CBS show Tuesday, talking about his new book, “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness.”

New books are pretty good signs of candidate-positioning for a possible run in 2012. And, sure enough, the former businessman-governor-Olympics-rescuer wisely says he’s keeping the door open for a 2012 bid.

“He’s running,” quipped Letterman. “Of course, he’s running. I can tell by the cologne.”

Then, speaking of “of course,” Letterman asked the Republican the required question about fellow Republican Sarah Palin, who happened to be on the Jay Leno show over on NBC. And had her own book out before Christmas.

“Now what about that Sarah Palin,” said Letterman, who had to apologize for an off-color joke about the former Alaska governor’s daughter last year. “She’s not ready to be president, is she?”

“She’s terrific,” Romney rapidly replied to derisive audience laughter. “She really is! She’s terrific. She’s got energy, passion -- by the way, you know, be careful what you say about her.”

Letterman said he knows.

Romney added with a smile, “She has a rifle, you know.”

andrew.malcolm@ latimes.com

Top of the Ticket, The Times’ blog on national politics ( www.latimes.com/ ticket), is a blend of commentary, analysis and news. These are selections from the last week.