Rove's politics rooted in Utah experiences

Some describe Karl Rove as President Bush's Svengali, Rasputin or even his Lord Voldemort. Nicer folks say he is Bush's political brains. Rove says he discovered such skills while living in Utah and, ironically, with the help and nurturing of key local Democrats.

Rove said Monday that he is leaving Bush — after helping him twice win the presidency and win the governorship of Texas. Rove has guided Bush for years in strategy on how to win elections and implement policy goals.

Rove told the Deseret Morning News in 2002 that his time in Utah — where he attended Olympus High School and the University of Utah — taught him basic political strategy that helped take him and Bush to the top of the political world.

At Olympus, Rove said, teacher Pat Ferrell persuaded him to run for student-body president despite his image at the school, where he spent most of his free time in the library preparing for the debate team.

"I was the complete nerd," Rove said. "I had the briefcase. I had the pocket protector. I wore Hush Puppies."

But he said Ferrell helped him recruit "the popular captain of the basketball team and an incredibly attractive senior girl to be chairmen of my campaign." Rove said they recruited the school's most talented artist to make witty campaign posters.

And for the school elections assembly, they sneaked a Volkswagen into the hallways by removing some doors. "I made my entrance into the auditorium in a Volkswagen Bug filled with incredibly attractive girls. Two girls on each arm delivered me to the podium."

He won the race and said he learned that an underdog can win an "unwinnable" race by finding new ways to spread his message, doing the unexpected and having some luck.

Rove also said another mentor at Olympus was teacher Eldon Tolman. "He was everything I am not. He was a liberal Democrat. He loved labor unions," Rove said. But Tolman pushed Rove to work on the 1968 re-election campaign of former Sen. Wallace Bennett, R-Utah, solidifying Rove's taste for politics and building key contacts.

Ironically, Bennett that year defeated University of Utah political science professor J.D. Williams, who Rove said later became another mentor during the two years that Rove studied political science at the U.

Rove said that Democrats Williams and Tolman "taught me that no matter where you are in the political spectrum, you can love this country," and he said they helped him see how to appeal to both Democrats and Republicans.