Profile: Karl Rove

— -- In the age of politicians as celebrity or the boy next door, Karl Rove, George W. Bush’s chief campaign strategist, is a bit of an odd man out.

His passion for history, books and travel make him seem somewhat stodgy, compared to the likes of Jesse Ventura and to George W. Bush’s aw shucks attitude — one, by the way, that Rove helped cultivate.

“He is a guy for whom politics is a 24-hour-a-day conversation,” says Texas state Sen. Wayne Stenehjem, who met Rove when the two were in their early 20s. “I had never seen anything like him.”

Bush has been known to roll his eyes when Rove goes off on a historical tangent, but his loyalty is tested and deep. Rove, 50, is an old friend — a man who has devoted much of the last two decades to Bush’s political career.

“The thing I like most about Karl is that he cares about me as a person,” Bush said recently. “He’s got a single agenda when it comes to my campaigns, and that’s me.”

Long History in Texas

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Rove, who is expected to be named a top adviser in the new Bush administration, has a history in Texas of getting Republicans elected. But his greatest success is with Bush.

As top strategist for Bush, he emphasized the candidate’s role as a “uniter, not a divider” — a phrase that was echoed throughout the campaign. It was Rove who recognized the importance of the Latino vote, and he directed much of the Republican National Convention, which heavily featured Latino speakers and politicians.

Rove got his start when he was a student at the University of Utah, when he became the national leader of the College Republicans. He won the race for chairman of the group with the help of Lee Atwater, who later became famous as the political attack dog for the team of Ronald Reagan and the elder George Bush team.

In 1980, the senior Bush hired Rove to help him run for president. In 1981, when Bush became Reagan’s vice president, Rove started his own consulting business, Rove & Co. His first direct-mail client was Bill Clements — who with Rove’s help became the first Republican in a century to become governor of Texas.