Beware the stain of Atwater's, Rove's tactics

The architect of today's "anything goes" campaign style was a southerner by the name of Lee Atwater. A mentor and close friend of young Karl Rove and then young George W. Bush, Atwater, young, brash, personable and devoid of restraint when it came to winning campaigns, began the Republican strategy in the south in the early '70s. By the time 1988 rolled around, Atwater had amassed an amazing 28-4 campaign win (Rove's from 1986 is 34-7) and earned himself a top berth on the presidential campaign of George H.W. Bush, where he was credited with the turn-around campaign ad against then Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. It featured "Willie Horton," a fierce, African-American man who had been granted prison parole from one of Massachusetts' state prisons and had committed a rape.