Rove has vast influence within Republican Party

NEW YORK -- Sometimes it's hard to tell where Karl Rove ends and the Republican Party begins.

As the GOP plans to re-elect President Bush and pad its congressional majorities, as it did last month at a meeting of the Republican National Committee, Rove's fingerprints are on all its plans.

The Republicans hope to expand a get-out-the vote program they used in 2002; coordinate Bush's campaign with state and local races; and stage a successful convention just miles from the spot where a bullhorn-wielding Bush addressed Sept. 11 rescue workers at ground zero.

These and other ideas can be traced to Rove, a White House senior adviser whose team also has a hand in recruiting candidates, courting constituencies, developing campaign themes, and coordinating actions among Republicans across the country. And while the extent of Rove's role in policymaking is hotly debated, his goal -- an expanded and enduring Republican majority -- is not.

"It's the most integrated political operation I've ever seen between the Republican National Committee and the White House," said Tom Rath, a veteran party member from New Hampshire.

How much of that is due to Rove?

"It all starts with him," Rath said. And while Rove is best known as a political guru, his influence extends far beyond the planning of campaigns and political strategy. Republicans describe him as a policy wonk with influence on administration actions ranging from steel tariffs to creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

Bush's Democratic critics put something of a sinister cast on the scope of Rove's activities, saying the bare-knuckle Texas political consultant has become a modern Machiavelli.

"He's the quarterback calling the plays," said Robert Gibbs, spokesman for Sen. John Kerry, a Democratic presidential candidate. "I don't think there are many decisions in that White House not run by Karl Rove."

Rove, who plans to keep his role as senior White House adviser during the campaign, declined to comment for this article. But he has repeatedly downplayed the extent of his influence with Bush. Earlier this year, he told reporters: "I am one voice among many around the senior staff table in the morning."

White House officials and other Republicans scoff at some of the legends surrounding Rove. They describe him as a key member of a team that stresses consensus, and not the most important player.

"This is President Bush's party," said Ed Gillespie, the newly elected RNC chairman. "President Bush has galvanized Republican voters in a way I haven't seen in a long time."

One of Rove's tasks is to meld those voters into a winning combination, for Bush and Republicans nationwide. To Democrats, that means Rove tends to influence government action in the service of political aims.

They point to steel tariffs for steel-producing swing states like Pennsylvania and West Virginia; a farm bill for Iowa and other Midwestern states; a pro-Israel foreign policy designed to attract normally Democratic Jewish voters; tax cuts and restrictions on lawsuits for corporate backers.

"You can clearly see that his political strategy and the administration's policy agenda often mirror one another," said Brad Woodhouse, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Some critics even see Rove's hand behind the decision to invade Iraq, though White House officials said he is not involved in developing national security policy.

Republicans noted that some of these decisions angered conservatives; the steel decision, for example, upset the GOP's many free trade advocates, as did the farm bill.

In terms of how things get done, Republicans said the critics have it backward. Bush sets the policy and Rove develops a political strategy around it -- with an eye toward the long view.

"This guy is remaking the party," one official said. "His goal is not just to get George Bush re-elected. His goal is to transform the Republican Party into a majority party for generations."

So Rove and others are lining up candidates for the 2004 congressional elections, just as he did in 2002, when the White House backed successful Senate candidates such as Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina, Lamar Alexander in Tennessee, and Norm Coleman in Minnesota.

While Rove is not officially part of Bush's re-election campaign - - he'll stay in his White House job for 2004 -- Democrats say they have little doubt about who will be calling the strategic shots.

"He appears to be the most political person in the White House, in a very political White House," said Erik Smith, a spokesman for Rep. Dick Gephardt, a presidential candidate. "That makes him a natural topic of concern among Democrats."

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