From Election Flack to War Flack and Back Again

White House advisor Karl Rove has selected Jim Wilkinson, the 33-year-old Texan who headed communications and press relations for the U.S. Central Command in Qatar during the Iraq invasion, as communications director for the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York. A profile of Wilkinson in the New York Observer notes that he previously worked for Republican Congressman Dick Armey under Ed Gillespie, now chairman of the Republican National Committee. During the last presidential election, Wilkinson helped package and promote the false notion that Al Gore claimed to have "invented the Internet," and later helped Republican protesters shut down the vote recount in Florida.