In a New York Times interview in August, Rove denied any involvement in the Swift Boat group and said charges of dirty politics lodged against him over the years were false.

"It's just weird, the stuff I get credit for or blamed for that I just have nothing to do with," Rove said. "The things that people suggest I am saying or advocating, it's just absurd."

Charlie Black, a longtime Republican strategist and informal Bush adviser who has worked alongside Rove, said Rove is "willing to play tough and hard on issues."

Black, who worked with Rove in the 2000 South Carolina primary, where the allegations about McCain surfaced, said Rove "never did anything out of bounds."

Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist who ran Al Gore's campaign in 2000, said Rove has proven himself the most formidable strategist on the scene today. But she vowed her party would figure out how to beat him.

"Democrats are wise to look at his battle plan, not necessarily adopting it but understanding it," she said. She added that Rove and other Republicans have contributed to a cultural divide in the country by using religion and faith to win votes.

"Karl understands the cultural divide, and how to use it," Brazile said. And today, she said, "you have an electorate that is openly hostile to one another."

As early as 1998, Rove was tapping the brains of strategists who ran the campaigns of Ronald Reagan and of Bush's father, telling them he wanted help drawing up plans to make the younger Bush president.

Rove bursts with energy and political knowledge, poking fun at himself for knowing every last detail — such as who Wisconsin residents of Nordic descent tend to vote for. And he doesn't hide his shrewdness.

"We've succeeded in sucking them in," he recently said of the Kerry campaign, saying it was a waste for them to spend money in Arkansas but that he was glad they were shelling out cash in a state Bush had sewed up. (Bush won Arkansas handily).

Author James Moore, the co-author of "Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential," a book that examines Rove's career, said in a documentary based on the book that "the politics and the policies, and the power of Karl Rove is a threat to our republic."

Rove responded in kind in an August interview with Fox News. "I'd find out what swamp that guy was drinking water out of," he said. "He's a far left-winger. I mean, it's laughable."

Dan Schnur, a Republican political consultant who worked on McCain's 2000 campaign, said he "doesn't agree with everything (Rove) has done," but no matter what critics say, Rove has "completely redefined" how campaigns in both parties will operate in the future.