Life and Death of a GOP Genius
Before there was Karl Rove, his mentor Lee Atwater was the top Republican strategist in the land. In "Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story," producer Stefan Forbes documents Atwater's rise as a brilliant, charming and sometimes vicious strategist who orchestrated George H.W. Bush's march to the White House but later regretted many of his actions when he learned he was dying of brain cancer. The PBS Frontline special includes intriguing footage of Atwater spinning reporters, the attack ads he masterminded as well as interviews with the journalists and GOP operatives who worked with him. Unfortunately, the Frontline Web site doesn't include all of the footage from Forbes' documentary, but the clips it does feature are well worth watching. www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/atwater/