http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:H4xRVrd9HDsJ:www.texasmonthly.com/mag/issues/2003-03-01/feature2-2.php+Mosbacher+Rove+Novak&hl=en&ie=UTF-8excerpt -
BUT IT WASN'T ONLY BRILLIANCE that defined Karl Rove's reputation. As he rose in power and influence, the conviction grew among Democratic opponents and competing consultants that Rove was playing dirty, that his power was rooted in sleazy politics, that there was a dark side to his genius. The legend of Rove as "evil genius" dates all the way back to 1973, with a Washington Post story that appeared after the Watergate break-in, reporting that Rove had taught "dirty tricks" to college Republicans. According to Bad Boy, a biography of Lee Atwater, these included sifting through opponents' garbage to gather intelligence. The RNC chairman, the elder George Bush, conducted a month-long investigation and cleared Rove, which helps to explain Rove's career-long loyalty to the family. Another story in Bad Boy—Rove acknowledges that this one is true—tells how Rove had once stolen an Illinois state treasurer candidate's letterhead and put out flyers for a party that offered "free beer, free food, girls, and a good time."
But these were mere preludes to the real stuff of Texas political legend. During Clements' 1986 race against White, a bug was discovered in Rove's office. Democrats believed that it had been planted by Rove himself to discredit the opposition. The story made the national news. There was never any proof that he had done it, the culprit was never found, and Rove roundly denied having anything to do with it. Clements' campaign manager, George Bayoud, Jr., says, "The FBI told us that the company that had installed Rove's security system put it there. That's what they told us, and that's what we believed."
The campaign that permanently established Rove's reputation for foul play was Rick Perry's race against Jim Hightower for agriculture commissioner, in 1990. Rove and media consultant David Weeks persuaded Perry, an obscure Democratic legislator from Haskell who had co-chaired Al Gore's 1988 Democratic presidential primary campaign in Texas, to switch parties for the election. West Texas was swinging Republican anyway, and Perry, who was discouraged by his failure to advance in the House leadership and thinking of becoming a lobbyist, had nothing to lose. Hightower was the darling of the liberals, a wisecracking and outspoken populist who had been a big vote-getter for the Democrats in 1986. With Rove and the collective financial muscle of the Texas Republican community behind him, Perry ran a tough, negative campaign, charging that the agriculture commissioner's office was rife with scandal and abuse and using photos of Hightower with Jesse Jackson to paint Hightower as a left-wing activist. Perry even tried to link Willie Nelson's support of Hightower to a Kentucky candidate, also endorsed by Willie, who favored the legalization of marijuana.
A month before the election, Perry alleged that the FBI was investigating Hightower and his department. In the last days of the race, Perry claimed, in TV spots designed by Rove and Weeks, that "there will be people in the Department of Agriculture, going up to possibly its highest levels, who will be indicted." Not only did the negative ads work—Perry narrowly won, 4948—but the information turned out to be eerily accurate. As a result of the FBI's investigation, three high-ranking officials in Hightower's administration were eventually indicted and convicted. But Hightower believes to this day that the FBI agent who investigated his department was really a pawn of Karl Rove's. He also thinks that Rove sent the FBI to investigate the offices of Democratic land commissioner Garry Mauro and Democratic state comptroller Bob Bullock. In other words, he is convinced that Rove had his own personal FBI agent he could use as he pleased.
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