Karl Rove's A-Team

In his four-decade career in politics, Karl Rove has trained a cadre to attack the opposition, bend every rule and try to win at all costs. Meet five of his top operators who learned the art of the kidney punch from the master of the political dirty trick

SEAN WOODS

Posted Oct 16, 2008 1:28 PM

• The Return of Rove

Photo: Wong/Getty

Steve Schmidt
Age: 38
Currently: John McCain's senior strategist
Dark Past: Rovian operator who directed George W. Bush's campaign war room in 2004, painting John Kerry as a flip-flopper. From a desk in Dick Cheney's office, shepherded the Supreme Court nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito.
Dark Present: Launched full-scale attack on "elite media" for trying to "destroy" Sarah Palin.
Actually Said: That The New York Times is a "Pro-Obama advovacy organization" and "150 percent in the tank for Obama."

Photo: Loeb/AFP/Getty

Dan Bartlett
Age: 37
Currently: Sitting out the '08 race and working as a CBS political analyst
Dark Past: Joined Rove's team right out of college and worked on the Texas gubernatorial campaign of George W. Bush. Followed Bush to the White House where Bartlett rose to the rank of chief counselor.
Dark Present: Spinning the political race on national TV, described Joe Biden as a "rhetorical train wreck" while saying that Sarah Palin should be held to a lower standard. "I do think the bar has been lowered and people will generally be surprised if she is able to string together several sentences on a topic," Bartlette said. But, he added, she "needs to have a couple moments where she demonstrates some knowledge that goes beyond the talking points."
Actually Said: On how the Bush team use of the blogoshere as propaganda: "Talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It's a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we've cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on."

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."

Photo: Amendola/AP Photo

Beth Myers
Age: 50
Currently: Advising Mitt Romney's Free and Strong America political action committee
Dark Past: Worked for Rove in Texas during the Eighties. Longtime Mitt Romney operator; his chief of staff as Governor of Massachusetts and his campaign manager for his failed presidential run.
Dark Present: Mitt Romney in 2012!
Actually Said: "We wanted to prove the point that when voters got to know Mitt Romney they liked him a lot." Umm hmm, Romney is as detestable a candidate as we have seen in a generation.

Photo: Sullivan/AP Photo

Ralph Marquez
Age: 70
Currently: Lobbyist
Dark Past: Life-long Monsanto executive; became Bush's top environmental officer in Texas. During his tenure, the state consistently ranked dead last in air quality. Marquez convened 11 major industry polluters to secretly adopt a plan for "voluntary pollution abatement" that was written by energy lobbyists.
Dark Present: Hired by Chevron as an "independent expert" to help fight a $10 billion lawsuit brought by indigenous tribes in Ecuador, who claim the oil giant dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic waste in the Amazon.
Actually Said: "Ozone is not poison or a carcinogen. It's a relatively benign pollutant compared to other environmental risks."

[From Issue 1063 — October 16, 2008]

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