Karl Rove’s Maneuvers

We thought he had disappeared, retired and packed up his belongings along with his creature, George W. Bush. The Democrats had celebrated his departure thinking that with Barack Obama’s victory his political career was over. Yet, the man who enabled Bush to come to power — with a lot of help from the Supreme Court when it was led by ultra-conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist — is back on the political scene. Karl Rove is back.

Last April, Rove summoned to his residence in Washington, D.C. some of those who had worked on Bush’s reelection in 2004. Among his loyal supporters there were: Mary Cheney, the daughter of ex-Vice President Dick Cheney; Fred Malek, the former Republican fundraiser; and some others. Obviously, Rove had not completely disappeared. He has been writing for The Wall Street Journal and working as an analyst for Fox News — two media entities that occupy the conservative center stage.

For months, Rove has been forming a sort of shadow Republican Party by creating a network of financiers and highly experienced, very powerful field experts in order to restore control of Congress to the Republican Party in November. More specifically, Karl Rove was joined again by some billionaires who had supported George W. Bush: for example, Harold C. Simmons — a Texas billionaire who owns of one the major companies in the waste management industry, which specializes in handling radioactive waste — who is against tight regulation; Carl Lindner Jr., the CEO of American Financial Group; and a few others.

Rove, who recently showed his opposition to some tea party representatives, has $32 million in funds that he uses to support outside groups. These groups perform the role that the GOP — which is weakened by the personality of its president, Michael Steele — should play. American Crossroads, one of the groups financed by Rove’s organization, is planning to broadcast several tens of thousands of anti-Democratic messages on TV, to send 40 million letters to backers to encourage them to vote and to launch 20 million automated phone calls.

Bush’s former advisor’s activism is not regarded with benevolence by everyone on the conservative side. Rove is the symbol of everything that activists of the tea party movement loathe: the Washington establishment. Sarah Palin has already attacked Rove several times by describing him as the representative of the “ruling class.” It is unsure whether the millions of dollars Rove spent will successfully make more “respectable” Republican candidates be elected at this time in American history when the anti-establishment sentiment — equally against both Republicans and Democrats — is so fierce.

Richard Viguerie, who has been one of the most important Republican fundraisers for decades, and who has allied with the tea party, recently claimed that after the November elections, “a massive, almost historic battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party begins.”

In other words: We will set things straight in November. This should guarantee us some interesting brawls.