Hightower Lowdown

Karl Rove, Bush's top political advisor and the man who devised W.'s campaign theme of restoring "a new ethical tone" to the White House, has his butt caught in a tight ethical vice.

In March, Rove had a White House meeting with the CEO and the chief lobbyist for Intel. These high-tech execs didn't come calling merely to exchange pleasantries— they were there to get the White House to push for federal approval of a planned corporate merger.

The Intel honchos knew the secret password: money. Intel had put more than $300,000 into Bush's presidential run. Intel's lobbyist says the meeting was "quite useful." I'll say. Less than two months after they met with Rove—bingo!—the merger was approved.

It also seems that Rove owned as much as $250,000 worth of Intel stock at the time, meaning he would personally profit if the deal boosted Intel's stock price.

His spokesperson says Rove does "not recall" discussing Intel's visit with President Bush. Rove also asserts that he was out of the loop and not involved in the decision, even though he continued to get correspondence from Intel about the merger until it was approved.

On his first day in office, Bush made a speech that Karl may have helped to write, in which he said he expected everyone working for him to behave ethically, "avoiding even the appearance of problems." For Karl, ethics are apparently only good for soundbites.