Rove says Bush focused on delivering his campaign promises

WASHINGTON — The architect of President Bush's re-election said Tuesday that Republicans "need to focus on delivering" on campaign promises, including tax reform, Social Security preservation and winning the war in Iraq.

Karl Rove also told reporters that voters fired a warning shot at politicians who ignored public desire to retain marriage as a union between a man and a woman. An amendment prohibiting gay marriage passed by wide margins in all 11 states where it was on the ballot.

Americans don't like the idea of marriage between a woman and a man "being uprooted or overturned by a few activist judges or a couple of activist local elected officials, who assume under themselves the right to do so," Rove told reporters at a lunch sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. "(Citizens) want to participate in the process, they want to be heard. It is a sign of how important this issue is to a lot of Americans."

The usually press-shy Rove was jovial and expansive in spreading credit for Bush's 3-percentage-point victory last week over Sen. John Kerry. Rove had high praise for the turnout machine built by campaign manager Ken Mehlman and gave Bush plaudits for having "clarity of mind as to what we needed to do, and he needed to do."

But Rove also said he was surprised at the voracious appetite for media coverage and overwhelmed by the amount of money raised by the so-called "527" organizations that popped up on both sides.

Rove said the 527s — named for the section of the tax code they are formed under — potentially undermine democracy by allowing a few wealthy individuals to spend tens of millions of dollars under less stringent disclosure requirements than before campaign laws were overhauled more than two years ago. These groups, first exploited by Democrats and later joined by Republicans, existed because of a huge loophole in the new law.

Democratic donors, led by at least $27 million from billionaire George Soros, funded such anti-Bush groups as America Coming Together and the Media Fund. Republican leaders originally thought these groups would be prohibited by the Federal Election Commission, but when they were not, GOP activists joined the 527 parade late in the campaign. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which ran ads attacking Kerry's Vietnam War service and anti-war activities, were the most notable of these groups on Bush's side.

Rove condemned them all.

"I am a firm believer in strong (political) parties, and things that weaken the parties and place the outcome of elections in the hands of billionaires who can write checks and political consultants who can get themselves hired by billionaires who write the checks, give me some concern," Rove said.

Campaign finance reformers are asking federal courts to close the loophole that allow these groups to exist.