Rove rides again, as a force behind Romney

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly a decade ago he was dubbed “Bush’s Brain,” for his influence in guiding Republican George W. Bush to the U.S. presidency.

This year, Karl Rove could be Mitt Romney’s brawn.

Perhaps no one, besides Romney himself, will have a greater influence on the course of the Republican presidential campaign this fall than Rove, the brash, often-controversial architect of Bush’s two successful bids for the White House.

Bush called Rove “Turd Blossom,” a term Texans use to describe a flower that grows from a pile of cow dung. This year, thanks to the American Crossroads “Super PAC” organization that he co-founded, Rove will have vast resources to fertilize Romney’s campaign: a massive wallet, one of the loudest megaphones in conservative media, and close ties to Romney’s campaign.

It’s a dramatic re-emergence for Rove, who resigned as Bush’s deputy chief of staff in 2007 amid questions about his role in the firing of a federal prosecutor.

Read the rest of the story at Reuters.com.