Presidential pitbull Karl Rove has built his political career retailing his opponents' dirty laundry, but that hasn't stopped him from mounting a fierce campaign against an upcoming bio that delves a little too deeply into details of his own personal life. Sources say Rove has been furiously lobbying the authors to protest the impending publication of The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power.

The book was co-authored by Wayne Slater and James Moore, the veteran Texas journalists who previously wrote the Dubya-bashing bestseller, Bush's Brain. Their new book paints the beleaguered presidential aide as a ruthless political opportunist who let few things obstruct his march to power.

While the authors' description of Rove's relationship with indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff is certain to have D.C. buzzing, their revelations about his family life are even more intriguing: According to the book, the architect of the Bush administration's anti-gay policies was raised by a homosexual father who abandoned his family to lead an openly gay life in Palm Springs. A decade later, Rove's mother, Reba, committed suicide, a tragedy the authors attribute to her husband's departure.

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