Will Rove tell all?

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President Bush’s political guru Karl Rove may not be leaving the White House payroll until Aug. 31, but he’s already talking with a high-powered Washington lawyer who has brokered publishing deals for former Fed chief Alan Greenspan, first daughter Jenna Bush and Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Publishers Weekly reports today.

And publishers, by and large, are curious to see what Rove--dubbed ‘the architect’ and ‘boy genius’ by President Bush, and ‘Bush’s brain’ by critics--might have to say.

‘He’s clearly one of the most controversial, notorious and elusive figures in politics, and I think that people would be interested in looking behind the curtain and seeing what the Wizard of Oz is actually saying,’ Jonathan Karp, publisher of the Twelve Imprint at Grand Central Publishing, told the Associated Press.

In announcing his resignation Monday, Rove told reporters that he planned to return to his hometown, Ingram, Texas, with no particular plans beyond wanting to teach, ‘make some money’ and write a book on Bush’s presidency. But just how forthcoming would Rove be?

‘He said the president has encouraged him to write a book, so one would not expect complete candor,’ added Karp, publisher of the newly released ‘Hard Call’ by GOP presidential contender Arizona Sen. John McCain. ‘Rove’s historical value would be in a candid rendering of the Bush presidency.’

Indeed, candor may be what publishers will demand, HarperCollins executive Steve Ross told AP.

‘If he’s ready to talk about what he’s been doing, to lay out how he developed his architectural plans and then implemented them and what his vision is, I think that book would have significant readership,’ said Ross, who published ‘The Audacity of Hope,’ a bestseller by Democratic presidential hopeful and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for Crown last fall.

Candor aside, Ashbel Green, a senior editor at Alfred A. Knopf, says Rove is unlikely to command more than an advance in the mid six figures, not the multimillion-dollar contracts inked by the elusive Greenspan or the charismatic Bill Clinton.

‘He doesn’t have the personality,’ Green said of Rove.

Robert Barnett, a lawyer with the Washington firm of Williams & Connolly, has spoken with Rove, but referred further queries on the depth and breath of Rove’s book plans to the White House.

Many other Bush administration officials have collaborated on or penned books, including former Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill’s unflattering account of his tenure, the bestselling ‘The Price of Loyalty.’ Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is also at work on a book and was making the rounds of publishers earlier this summer, Publishers Weekly has reported.

Kristina Lindgren