Rove Laments Early Start To '08 Race

By The Politico's Mike Allen and John F. Harris.

"I think it is going to mean that people develop a persona earlier and wear out their welcome earlier than they would," he told The Politico in an interview. "I think there's going to come some point this year where people are going to basically be saying: 'I'm largely disinterested in the contest.' "

But Rove doubts that will slow the campaign. "There's going to be so much momentum from everybody feeling like they need to continue to move around the country and do things and to engage each other," he said.

In the wide-ranging half-hour interview in his West Wing office late last week, Rove also remarked on a shift in relations between the administration and Congress since the Democrats gained power.

"The entire White House is spending a lot more time talking to the Hill and a lot more time seeking feedback and giving them the time that they want," Rove said. He said his own outreach efforts including following up on "a letter to me from a Democrat member" who asked him "to look into a specific issue" that he did not reveal.

"Why this member feels comfortable saying, 'Here's something that I want you to look into,' I can't speak to," Rove said. "But I'm glad that she feels that she can say: 'I'd like you to look into this. I think we can find a way to work together.' "

One of three White House deputy chiefs of staff, Rove is in the unaccustomed position of spectator for a national campaign. Candidates and their aides quietly seek his advice as the reigning GOP strategist, and he is likely to serve as the liaison between the Republican nominee and the White House in the fall of 2008.

During the interview late Friday afternoon, Rove was cheery as ever, teasing his underlings and spooning peanut butter on green apple slices as he spoke clinically about the drubbing Republicans took in November, when they lost the House and Senate.

Since the election, Rove has kept a low public profile but has agreed to a series of speeches that began last night with an appearance at a Lincoln Day Dinner — a staple for local Republican groups — in Springfield, Ill. Asked why he's not in the fetal position after a rebuke like the last election, Rove said that when he started in Texas politics, Republicans had 13 of 150 seats in the Texas House. They now have a comfortable majority.

"I am by nature an optimist," he said. "And, look, I know this is an opportunity. I know why we lost. I know we lost the Congress in part because of Iraq, in part because of the sense of entitlement, in part because of the scandals and in part because of beliefs about congressional earmarks and spending.

"I went out there and made speeches about how we've kept discretionary domestic spending underneath inflation, but the average cat out there saw high-profile things about spending that just sunk in," he said. "All those bad things they thought about Washington came back up."

Lamenting the lightning trajectory of the race to succeed his boss, Rove recalled that Bush had a quiet, productive period after his re-election as Texas governor in November 1998 until he started campaigning the following June. Rove said the current contenders may pay a price for being lured into a shooting war four months earlier.

Rove recalled that Bush and his Austin brain trust had the ability to think about the message for a number of months, while this year's candidates are "being driven by the calendar and by the competition to move into the fray earlier — less prepared, and focused more on the tactical, short-term advantages."

"Is anyone talking about their agenda for America?" Rove asked, noting the possible exception of former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who has been out of office since 2005.

He added that of necessity, candidates are thinking about fund-raising and giving the impression of aggressiveness as they carve out the niche they hope to occupy. "But as far as saying a lot of really interesting things that are going to be compelling enough and durable enough to serve as the means to get to the nomination, let alone the general election," he continued, "I don't see anybody at that place yet."

Rove added that the early start is "going to mean that people are going to spend, ironically enough, more time raising money, because it's going to give them opportunities to spend more money."

Looking to the immediate political horizon, Rove said Bush is confident that seeking common ground with Democrats will allow him to shape the debate for years to come, and perhaps even score some legislative accomplishments — as President Ronald Reagan and others have done when they were lame ducks heading a divided government.

"In one way, things are bad," he said. "We had the majority, and now we don't. On the other hand, that happens with frequency in American politics. What the American people want to know is: Are you going to take the time that you have and turn it to good purpose? Are you going to pick yourself up off of the mat, are you going to go get back into the game, and are you going to do so in a way that gets me to applaud you? If we pick ourselves up off of the mat and get back in the game, as we are, then this'll be a good thing for us."

Rove, a master of the minutiae of political demographics, has singled out four voter groups that he thinks the Republican Party needs to focus on:

Suburbanites: "The heart of our party is married couples with children, but they are also those that are most prone to be mobile in our society and hence less linked into politics."

Younger voters: "That's where you set in motion things that come to pass not in a matter of an election or two, but a matter of a decade or two."

African-Americans: "You can't claim to be a great political party if you're getting 9 or 10 or 11 percent. One of the interesting things about the 2006 election is that we appeared to make gains in the African-American community even while we were losing a national election."

Latinos: "This group is rapidly growing. We do well among them in some elections and not well in others."

Rove has a special interest in the group that demographers call "some college" — people who, like him, attended college but did not graduate. The concerns of this group dovetail with one of his current policy passions: income distribution and education.

"Income is increasingly correlated to more education," he said. "The challenge for our society is how do we prepare every child to be ready for college if he or she decided to go to college? Our problem today is not that we don't have enough higher education opportunities. It's that we don't have enough people who are prepared to take advantage of it."

By Mike Allen and John F. Harris
TM & © 2007 The Politico & Politico.com, a division of Allbritton Communications Company