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 recently said those Democrats "may be with you at the first shots, but they are not going to be there for the last tough battles."

He criticizes the media too. A favorite target is The New York Times and its role in revealing the administration's secret tracking of terrorist financing. He recently said journalists often criticize political professionals because they want to draw attention away from the "corrosive role their coverage has played focusing attention on process and not substance."

That might offer a clue to why Rove declined to be interviewed for this article and quickly left the Toledo fundraiser _ a rare public forum that attracted a media pack that chased him out to his car.

Asked about his recent weight loss, Rove, without mentioning the liquid-based diet supervised by Dr. Arthur Frank at George Washington University, smiled and told reporters he'd lost 22 pounds through "clean living."

The mischievous Rove stuck his head out of the car before it sped off to add gleefully: "And avoiding you guys."

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