A new generation of Karl Roves

[nam78_two]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14975867/site/newsweek/

:puke:

Oct. 2, 2006 issue - In a darkened edit room in downtown Dallas, admaker Scott Howell is tinkering with his latest political firebomb. The ad starts with illegal immigrants running across the border. It then cuts to images of Osama bin Laden and Zacarias Moussaoui. Finally comes the real target of Howell's attack: Harold Ford Jr., the Democrat locked in a close race for the Senate seat in Tennessee. Over an edgy hip-hop soundtrack, the ad castigates Ford for voting against border security and the Patriot Act. "No wonder Harold Ford has been rated the most liberal congressman from Tennessee," the narrator intones. The ad ends with the word "liberal" pulsing on the screen as a shadowy figure walks down a long hallway.


If that ad sounds familiar, it's not surprising—it's a classic in the Karl Rove genre. Howell is one of a group of admakers, strategists and direct-mailers who learned the craft from the architect of George W. Bush's White House—and are now shaping some of the hottest races of 2006. Some are in Texas, making money as consultants; some are in Washington, toiling inside the administration or the party. Most of them will be in contact with Rove as Election Day draws near. None can match their mentor's talent; armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of electoral history, Rove combines a strategic vision for his party with a ruthless will to win. But as his time in the West Wing draws to a close, Rove leaves a legacy well beyond the White House—in the next generation that he's nurtured, and the campaigning style they share.

[Dick Diver]

1. Like Rove,...

they are the inheritors of Lee Atwater.