Karl Rove's A-Team

Scott Howell
Age: 49
Currently: GOP media hit man
Dark Past: Worked for the GOP grandmaster of dirty tricks Lee Atwater, before moving onto Rove's office in Texas. In the 2006 election, helped defeat African-American Democrat Harold Ford's Senate bid through a series of racist ads that even the Republican candidate denounced. In the 2002 Georgia Senate race, Howell crafted an attack ad comparing triple amputee Vietnam vet Max Cleland to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Cleland lost. Howell's firm created the swift boat veterans for truth TV ads.
Dark Present: Led Rudolph Giuliani's failed presidential bid. Running ads in political races around the country that have, naturally, taken a vicious turn since Howell's hiring.
Actually Said: "We are telling a story over a series of ads that allows the voters to draw the proper conclusions. We're successful in taking that whole compassion playbook and shoving it back in Democrats' faces. We are successful in getting people to like and believe our candidates."