Rove's Influence Undiminished by Scandal

President Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, right, departs the White House with the president in this July 14, 2005, file photo. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File) (Ron Edmonds - AP)

Rove is an impressive fundraiser himself, bringing in $10.4 million in 75 events this cycle, more than any other Republican official besides the president, first lady and vice president.

"He came out clean," said Robert Pruger, one of the donors who recently paid $1,000 to hear Rove speak in Toledo. "When your opponent hits you and it doesn't stick, you end up stronger for it."

The fundraiser aided the campaign of Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell. Financial consultant Cleves Delp was told that if he helped stage the fundraiser, he could get any leading conservative he liked to attend.

Rove wasn't the first choice, but Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas couldn't raise money for the GOP, Delp learned.

Instead he got Rove, who mingled at Delp's home before the main event. Donors paid at least $10,000 each for the privilege of meeting Rove privately.

Delp was thrilled with the stories Rove told about what happened behind the scenes following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He said if more voters heard Rove's inside tales of the war on terror, Republicans might be in better shape.

"That's the problem," Delp said. "Maybe we're not feeling the sense of what happened that day. We need to be reminded of that more often."

As if on cue, Rove took to the podium and invoked the memory of Sept. 11, when his secretary called to tell him the news. "I walked five feet over and told the president of the United States that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center," Rove said. "They didn't know whether it was a big plane or a little plane, a commercial plane or a private plane."

If Rove experienced any pain from having his own reputation questioned, it hasn't stopped him from tearing down political opponents with attacks on their credibility.

Once again he's using the tactic that helped Bush win re-election in 2004 _ suggesting that Democrats cannot adequately protect the country from terrorists.

"The problem for these Democrats is that their policies would have consequences and their policies would make us more, not less, vulnerable," Rove said from a podium beneath the beamed, vaulted ceilings and brass chandeliers of the Inverness Country Club in Toledo. "And in war, weakness emboldens your enemies and it's an invitation for disaster."

He even targets those who are decorated military veterans like Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha.