Word: bushed
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...prospect of its being put into print. "There are a lot of people working on this campaign," he insists modestly. "I am just one of them." It is true that Rove is one of three fiercely loyal top aides, dubbed "the Iron Triangle," who have all been with Bush since his first campaign for Governor and who form the impenetrable nucleus of the presidential operation. And it is also true that Joe Allbaugh holds the title of campaign manager and that Karen Hughes, the communications director, is closer to Bush personally. But Rove is the intellectual and strategic heart...
...since 1973, when he was elected chairman of the College Republicans on a platform of inclusion against a more purist conservative. He won that race with the help of a young South Carolina operative named Lee Atwater, who went on to become the take-no-prisoners strategist behind George Bush's winning presidential campaign in 1988. When he became chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1989, Atwater advocated a "big tent" philosophy for the party. Rove pushed the same philosophy after he opened a political-consulting business in 1981 in Texas, where Republicans laud him as the key player...
Rove, who first met George W. in 1973, designed Bush's upset of Democratic Governor Ann Richards in 1994 and then got the political world's attention by making sure that Bush's re-election margin in 1998 was an overwhelming one. The Governor got 68% (with more than 40% of the Hispanic vote), which made Bush an automatic contender for the 2000 nomination. "Karl knew that a dramatic victory was the best way to launch the presidential campaign," says another Bush aide. "So he ran up the score." There is now a Republican holding each of the 29 statewide...
Once an artful practitioner of negative campaigning, Rove--at Bush's direction--has stayed positive in both of the Governor's Texas races. But Rove still plays hardball behind the scenes. When controversy arose recently over the fact that Bush's finance chairman in Maine was an assault-weapons manufacturer, Rove made sure he resigned his post swiftly, and quietly. And when the bitter rivalry in the New York G.O.P. between Governor George Pataki and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was looking like it might sabotage the mayor's chances in a Senate race against Hillary Clinton, Rove made it known through...
...Despite Bush's dependence on Rove, the Governor's patience with his guru can be strained. "The Governor's life with Karl is one of continually trying to control his exuberance," says a campaign source. Rove concedes that Bush likes to tease him for his pedantic enthusiasms. "I am a constant source of amusement to him," he says. And occasionally a source of embarrassment. In 1996 Rove dropped his $3,000-a-month consultant contract with the Philip Morris Cos. Inc. because Texas was engaged in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the tobacco companies...