In the Rove playbook, the proposal -- with its call for a new "ownership society" -- would attract younger voters distrustful of government and fearful that Washington would not deliver on promised retirement benefits.
The campaign failed. Democrats charged that Bush and the Republicans would weaken or destroy the whole Social Security program.
Rove also played a major role in advocating an immigration-law overhaul that would have offered some illegal immigrants a way to become citizens and would have tightened border security. Hard-line congressional Republicans deserted the White House on the bipartisan effort, which had embodied many of Rove's ideas.
Rove told reporters Monday that he was "worried" about the effect of that high-profile failure on the party's courtship of Latino voters, whom he sees as a key to a long-lasting Republican majority.
Rove's aggressive techniques have also drawn the scrutiny of federal investigators and provided fodder for congressional inquiries, though some of the latter may lose steam with Rove out of government.
Rove's defenders argue that Republicans' current troubles -- sagging presidential approval ratings, loss of the House and Senate, a clamorous fight over who the party will nominate to run for president in 2008 -- all stem from a single cause: the deeply unpopular war in Iraq; not from Rove or his methods.
In this view, if it were not for the war, Rove and his party would still be flying high. And once Bush left the White House, Republicans would be well positioned to regain dominance.
In the short term, at least, Rove's influence seems likely to survive.
Rove said in an interview Monday that he would take no "formal role" in any of the 2008 campaigns. But Rove acolytes are playing leading roles in every major GOP presidential campaign, and strategists say they plan to adhere to much of the Rove playbook.
"I think we'll see campaigns employing Karl's strategy and tactics for years to come," said Mark McKinnon, who worked with Rove on Bush's campaigns and now advises the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Rove's system had three major components.
Using powerful computer systems, modern marketing tools, micro-targeting of supporters and sophisticated get-out-the-vote techniques, he revolutionized the nuts and bolts of campaigning.
Republican strategists said Monday that that would be a lasting piece of Rove's legacy.
