Return of The Architect

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Well before the Citizens United decision, big money flowed through the back doors of the political system--including when liberal billionaires like George Soros funded a massive ad campaign against Bush in 2004. But many wealthy donors had reservations about such efforts, fretting that campaign law was too murky to protect them from legal jeopardy. For instance, before Citizens United, political groups could register as nonprofit "social welfare" organizations, running issue-oriented advertising (usually thinly veiled political attacks), so long as they didn't explicitly urge voting for or against specific candidates. That was too cute a distinction for some donors, especially as watchdog groups mounted legal challenges. Citizens United expanded and clarified the law, making clear that nonprofit political groups are free to bash candidates as they please, while loosening donor-disclosure requirements. The overall thrust of the court's 5-4 ruling was to affirm that political money is free speech that should be lightly regulated. And that seems to have reassured enough wealthy conservatives--already burning with frustration with Obama--to throw open their wallets like never before. (Little evidence exists thus far that corporations are rushing into the fray.)

As you might expect, the result has not been a flurry of uplifting ads calling to our better angels. In fact, the 2012 campaign is shaping up to be the most negative on record. A May study by the Wesleyan Media Project found that negative ads were already above 2008's level--and that was before midsummer brought a barrage of attacks from the Obama campaign on Romney's Bain Capital record and a conservative fusillade against Obama's economic record. And no one is more responsible for this massive money machine than Karl Christian Rove.

The Flavors of His Life

"I'm having an enormous amount of fun," Rove says, sitting in his small office near Washington's Dupont Circle. It's a sparsely furnished space, with a roller suitcase in the corner signifying a man on the go. These days, Rove splits his time among Washington, Austin and the road. (Last year it was 110 days in Texas, 77 in Washington "and the rest on the road," he says.) Over his desk are busts of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Bach. Nearby is a scale model of Air Force One. Down the hall, Rove has a small staff that includes his chief of staff, Sheena Tahilramani, plus a full-time researcher affectionately known as Data Girl. ("It's capitalized, like a superhero's name," Rove says.) Data Girl feeds Rove's appetite for raw information, which is superinsatiable. Midway through a riff about how Crossroads was forcing Obama to respond to its advertising in swing states and thus draining the President's funds, Rove interrupted himself and jumped up. "Let's take a quick second, and I'll show you," he said, stepping to his desktop computer and clicking open a spreadsheet showing spending for every major group aligned with what Rove calls "Team Obama" (the Democrats) and "the good guys" (the Republicans).