In the 1992 letter to the die-hard Democrat, Rove wrote, "My career has been to fight for causes and candidates I'm certain you disapprove of, but I am equally confident that you approve of my being in the fight." Rove, who considers Williams to be one of his first political mentors, may have been a little overly confident.
Williams believes President Bush's top adviser and famed GOP mastermind failed to grasp one of the two key lessons he was taught at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics.
One: Participate in politics. Two: Do so in a decent and honorable way.
"Karl Rove magnificently fulfilled the first goal," Williams says. "He never learned the second part of the message."
If true, that would explain why Rove is in the biggest crisis of his long political career. A federal investigation continues to focus on Rove's possible role in unmasking a covert CIA agent. Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, has been indicted on charges related to the incident, and in the coming weeks, Rove could be charged as well. Or he could be exonerated and continue to serve as the most powerful political strategist in the nation.
'A man of the people': The hero of the GOP, whose face lately has appeared on countless magazine covers and ends up on the nightly news virtually every day, has come a long way from the pocket-protector wearing, self-proclaimed "nerd" whose first campaign was running for student senate president at Olympus High.
Rove was born in Colorado, but his father's job as a geologist forced them to move periodically. The Roves spent a few years in Nevada and then came to Holladay, where Rove enrolled at Olympus as a sophomore.
Already showing a great interest in history and politics, Rove was first spurred to participate in politics by the late Eldon Tolman, a legendary Olympus High civics teacher.
"He was a wonderful person, a huge person in my life, despite the fact we didn't agree on a thing politically," Rove said in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune before Bush became president. "In Eldon's political science class he turned to me and said: 'Mr. Rove, it will be easy for you to get an A in this class, but to get an A you must join a party. I care not which.'"
In response, Rove volunteered for the re-election campaign of the late U.S. Sen. Wallace Bennett, whose son, Bob Bennett, is now a senator and, reportedly, a member of the network Rove checks with regularly.
Bob Bennett doesn't remember Rove standing out among the cadre of students working on his father's final campaign.
"There may have been a chance meeting," Bennett says.
Rove's political activism permeated his classes and social activities too.
"[Whether] munching Oreos or politicking, Mr. Karl Rove was a man of the people," proclaims his 1969 yearbook. "He put the Olympian [student body] Senate into motion with his characteristically well-versed arguments and witty comments."
That's Rove, who was fond of packing box after box after box of notes to debate tournaments to intimidate opponents.
Salt Lake City businessman Rick Higgins was one of his debate rivals.
"He was intensely interested in politics, fiercely patriotic, fiercely proud of American history," Higgins recalls. "He was a very intense person."
And the ultra-competitive Rove was always ready for a head-to-head debate.
"If you wanted to win you had to be as prepared or better prepared than he was," Higgins says. "I could see he was an incredibly great strategist."
Classmate Robyn Seldin described Rove as "thin. He wore black-rimmed glasses. He was sort of the intellectual geek, so to speak."
The reputation as an "intellectual geek" followed Rove to the U., where he pledged to the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and worked as an intern in the Utah Republican Party.
"He was constantly on the phone," recalls Seldin's husband, Charlie, a fraternity brother, and Rove wasn't talking to girlfriends either. While other classmates were trying to get out of the draft, or protesting the Vietnam War, Rove was organizing causes in support of the Nixon government.
His entire world didn't revolve around politics: He still needed some spending money.
"I waited tables," Rove said at a 2002 speech at the U. "And it may be hard to believe now, me being a conservative Republican, but I manned a cash register at a 1960s hippie shop on Main Street selling patchouli oil and beaded curtains."
Passion and drive: Rove only spent two years in college before embarking on what turned into a famed political career. He never obtained a bachelor's degree.
During his college years, Rove spent much of his time at the Hinckley Institute, where Williams served as the director.
"He was simply gung-ho," Williams says. "Of the 300 interns my staff and I worked with, Karl would be one of the two most turned on students that we saw." Williams could not recall the name of the other "turned on" scholar.
Rove professes fond feelings for Williams, whom he previously called "a wonderful man" and "the big man on campus."
And Williams is impressed with Rove's drive, intellect and passion, if not his methods.
"The issue that has permeated his whole career has been his ethical standards in his use of political power," Williams says.
Williams' critique of Rove's "hardball" tactics began with Rove's candidacy for president of the nationwide College Republicans and has continued throughout Rove's career.
He laments Rove's role in pushing "the family values campaign," faith-based initiatives and the Iraq invasion.
On Iraq, Williams says: "Part of Karl's motive, I believe, was to paint the Democratic Party as not committed to the security of the United States. I regard that as mean politics."
And Williams says he is "certain" that Rove played a vital role in outing the covert CIA agent Valerie Plame as retribution for criticism of the White House by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. Rove remains under investigation for his role in the leak.
Higgins says he never saw Rove push the envelope.
"I found him very ethical," he says. "I would not say he does anything to get where he needs to be."
Rove left Utah and ultimately ended up in Texas, which he helped turn from a Democratic haven into a Republican stronghold.
Bennett gives Rove "a lot of" credit for the Texas turnaround, but says it's exaggerating to call Rove a Utahn, or to say that the Beehive State is responsible for jump-starting Rove's career.
"He got his first taste of politics in Utah," Bennett says, but not much more, "however much we might want to take credit for him."
Utah Republican Party Chairman Joe Cannon says Rove may not be a Utahn, but he still "retains a lot of interest in Utah."
"He follows Utah pretty closely," Cannon says. "When I see him he asks me about the 2nd Congressional District," a largely Republican voting district represented by Democrat Jim Matheson.
For Cannon, it's still somewhat of a badge of honor to take some credit for Rove.
"It's neat to say to big political insiders that, 'Yeah, Karl Rove got his start in Utah,' " Cannon says.
Rove even played into that feeling during his 2002 speech calling his trip to Utah "an emotional homecoming" and he was greeted with a warm reception by the overflow crowd.
'Missed the bullet': Aside from new Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, Rove may be one of the most talked about people in Washington of late. Major news outlets say Rove is the "Official A" named in Libby's federal indictment who spoke with columnist Robert Novak before Novak revealed Plame's identity in his syndicated column. That contradicts previous denials by the White House about Rove's involvement.
Questions about whether Rove should still advise the president pepper the White House news briefings, and several people, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Plame's husband, have called for Rove to be fired. The Washington Post reported this week that top White House aides are privately discussing if Rove should stay, resign or apologize for his role in the leak.
A poll by the Post and ABC News also showed that nearly half the nation believes Rove did something wrong, either in an unethical or illegal way. Some 23 percent polled said Rove didn't break the law.
His legacy is still in question: Will Rove be known as Bush's Brain or Official A?
Bennett picks Bush's Brain.
"He's probably missed the bullet," Bennett says.
Cannon agrees. "I think that's actually by a long way the more likely outcome," the party chairman says. "If I were Karl Rove I would be sleeping better at night."
mcanham@sltrib.com;
tburr@sltrib.com
Karl Rove's rise
The early years
Born Dec. 25, 1950, in Denver.
His family (adoptive father and birth mother and four siblings) moves to Salt Lake City in 1965.
He is elected to Olympus High School student government in 1968.
Rove enters the University of Utah on a $1,000 scholarship in 1969. The same year, his father leaves the family and his parents divorce.
Political calling
Rove drops out of the U in 1971 to become executive director of the College National Republican Committee.
He leaves the post in 1973 to campaign - with the help of Lee Atwater - to become national chairman of the organization. The disputed election ends with Rove filling the post upon the ruling of then Republican National Committee Chairman George H.W. Bush.
Bush later hires Rove as a special assistant on the RNC, where he first meets George W. Bush.
The Texas connection
Rove moves to Texas in 1977 after marrying Houston socialite Valerie Wainwright; they later divorce. He lands a job as executive director of a political action committee headed by James A. Baker, George H.W. Bush's future secretary of state.
The following year, Rove helps elect Bill Clements as the first Republican Texas governor in more than 100 years and also works on George W. Bush's unsuccessful 1978 congressional bid, and the elder Bush's 1980 presidential campaign, which ended in the candidate's selection as Ronald Reagan's running mate.
Rove and W.
Rove helps the younger Bush win election as Texas governor in 1984, and re-election four years later.
He marries graphic designer Darby Hickson in 1986. Three years later, the two have a son, Andrew Madison Rove.
With Bush's launch of his presidential bid in 1999, Rove sells his consulting business to become the campaign's chief strategist.
Bush appoints Rove his senior adviser following the January 2001 inauguration. He remains Bush's most trusted lieutenant through the first term and Bush's 2004 re-election victory, for which the president credits Rove as the "architect."
