For 26 minutes, after calling for civility in politics in a speech before the Republican National Committee, Rove offered a lacerating attack on Democrats that other Republicans said was a road map for how the party would deal with a tough electoral environment as it battled to hold control of both houses of Congress.
Rove, in a speech that drew several bursts of strong applause, attacked Democrats for their opposition to tax cuts and for what he said were their ''mean-spirited'' attacks on Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Samuel Alito. And he left little doubt that in 2006 - as has been the case in both national elections since the Sept. 11 attacks - he was intent on making national security the pre-eminent issue.
Rove's speeches early in election years have proved to be accurate predictors of what Republican candidates will say in the fall, and thus every seat in the ballroom at a downtown Washington hotel was filled Friday. He attacked Democrats for what he described as their ''cut and run'' policy on Iraq, for blocking a renewal of the USA Patriot Act and for challenging the legality of the administration's use of warrantless wiretaps.
Rove made no mention of Republican opposition to aspects of both the Patriot Act and the surveillance program, which has posed a political problem for the White House.
''The United States faces a ruthless enemy, and we need a commander in chief and a Congress who understand the nature of the threat and the gravity of the moment America finds itself in,'' Rove said. ''President Bush and the Republican Party do. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for many Democrats.''
''Let me be as clear as I can be: President Bush believes if al-Qaida is calling somebody in America, it is in our national security interest to know who they're calling and why,'' he said, referring to the wiretapping program. ''Some important Democrats clearly disagree.''
The speech by Rove was a relatively rare public address by one of the best-known public officials in the White House, and it came at a time when Rove himself is under investigation in a case involving the leak to reporters of the name of an undercover CIA agent.
In his speech, Rove made no mention of his own legal situation. And even as he sought to rally his troops, he did not mention an issue that accounts for much of the Republican concern about the election: the influence-peddling investigation of Congress that has focused on some senior Republican leaders, including Tom DeLay, who has stepped down as majority leader.
Howard Dean, the national Democratic leader, responded to Rove's attacks by noting the investigation into his activities and challenging Bush's decision to keep him in the White House, even as the investigation proceeds.
''Rove's political standing gets him an invitation to address Republicans in Washington, D.C., today, but it doesn't give him the credibility to question Democrats' commitment to national security,'' Dean said. ''The truth is, Karl Rove breached our national security for partisan gain, and that is both unpatriotic and wrong.''
