Chronology Karl Rove’s Life and Political Career (2005 article)

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1973 "Dirty tricks" for the College Republicans?

Rove leaves school to campaign for chair of the College Republicans and he gets help from a young Lee Atwater, who would later run George H. W. Bush's presidential campaign. The heated campaign splits the College Republicans into warring factions at the national convention where Rove and his team challenge the credentials of delegates who oppose them. Both Rove and his opponent claim victory and the matter is sent to Republican National Committee Chairman George H. W. Bush for resolution. In the meantime, one of Rove's opponents leaks a tape to The Washington Post of a Rove college seminar, in which Rove recounts a tale of dirty tricks. At Bush's request, an FBI agent questions Rove. Atwater signs an affidavit swearing that the dirty tricks story was told only in jest. A GOP investigating committee eventually clears Rove, and he takes the reins of the College Republicans. Politics has become his passion. But because of this, Rove never gets his college degree.

As the College Republicans' chairman in Washington, the 22-year old Rove also performs small tasks for Bush, who is becoming one of his mentors. In November, Bush asks Rove to take a set of car keys to his son George W. Bush, who is visiting home during a break from Harvard Business School. Rove is instantly taken with the young Bush's charisma. The two hit it off.

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1976-1979 Raising money -- and his profile

Rove moves to Virginia in 1976 to serve as finance director for the state GOP, which does not have a single fundraising event on its schedule. Within a year, Rove has pulled in more than $400,000 through direct mail.

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1987-1988 Rove helps remake the Texas Supreme Court

Rove finds a neglected issue, tort reform, and turns it into a campaign weapon. The state Supreme Court, dominated by Democrats, regularly issues rulings that reward plaintiffs with huge amounts of money. The story is pushed to "60 Minutes," which runs an expose probing the influence of campaign money, particularly from Democratic trial lawyers, on judicial decisions in Texas. The issue receives widespread attention. Aided by an aggressive grassroots campaign called "Clean Slate '88," Rove engineers the election of a Republican as the state's chief justice, and conservatives go on to win five of the six open seats on the court that year. The judicial wins also help Rove build up a group of donors in the business community, and it has the added benefit of shutting down the trial lawyers -- and cutting off their money to the Democrats.

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All roads lead to Rove

The White House political director was clearly at the center of the partisan plot to fire U.S. attorneys, despite the administration's clumsy attempts to pretend otherwise.

By Sidney Blumenthal

March 15, 2007 | The Bush administration's first instinct was to shield Karl Rove from scrutiny when Congress began inquiring about the unusual firings of eight U.S. attorneys. Among the replacements, the proposed new U.S. attorney for Arkansas happened to be one of Rove's most devoted underlings, his head of opposition research, Tim Griffin, who boasted during the 2000 presidential election about the effectiveness of the negative campaign against Al Gore: "We make the bullets!" Griffin also posted a sign in his department at Bush headquarters: "Rain hell on Al!" A letter written by the Department of Justice in late February informed Congress: "The department is not aware of Karl Rove playing any role in the decision to appoint Mr. Griffin." Despite this categorical disavowal, a sheaf of internal Justice Department e-mails released this week to Congress under subpoena revealed Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff, writing in mid-December 2006, "I know getting him appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc." Harriet, of course, was Harriet Miers, then the White House legal counsel.

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Exit Karl Rove, a Washington legend

1 hour, 25 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Karl Rove will leave President George Bush's side credited with near mystical and Machiavellian political powers, and reviled by Democrats who repeatedly fell victim to his shadowy genius.

But the man dubbed "Bush's brain" and celebrated by the president as the "architect" of his two election victories, also fell short of his cherished goal of forging a permanent, conservative Republican majority in Washington.

Rove, one of the most influential Washington players in decades, announced his resignation on Monday on the conservative editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, after six-and-a-half years at the epicenter of Bush's stormy presidency.

Officially deputy chief of staff at the White House, Rove's was the hidden hand on the hard-knuckle politics which drove Bush through a disputed election win in 2000 and the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Rove's legend was only slightly dimmed when Democrats grabbed power in both the House of Representatives and the Senate last year.

He also leaves office with Bush's presidency apparently mired in a lame duck twilight, after the spectacular failure of immigration reform, and with the entanglement of US troops in Iraq overshadowing the White House.

Rove will be remembered for putting an unyielding conservative imprint on Bush policy, from sweeping tax cuts, and Supreme Court nominees, to tapping the power of the religious right and social conservative voters.

Bush liked to call his chief political advisor his "boy genius", but opponents have preferred the Texas title "turd blossom".

Rove says he is leaving at the end of the month for family reasons but there have been Democratic calls for his head ever since he was investigated over the naming of an undercover CIA operative whose husband was a leading opponent of the Iraq war.

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