It's hard to imagine the White House scraping any lower to find a replacement for Karl Rove. They hired Barry Jackson, an admitted burglar.
1n 1987, I owned half interest in a provincial small-town paper, and half-interest in a national lefty tabloid. It was in the pages of Zenger, "The nation's underground newspaper," that Barry Jackson was first exposed as a burglar.
"Groups opposing the contras have been plagued by office break-ins and FBI harassment. Former Johnson County (IA) Republican Chair Barry Jackson, has bragged of having stolen files from New York CISPES offices."
-ZENGER, March 1987
It was a personal admission. Jackson had a serious dirty tricks operation going in Iowa. Both him and I had been drinking at the Deadwood bar in Iowa City, and had adjouned to my home to argue politics. We were sitting in the study and I was showing some snippets of writing on my old Macintosh. (My housemates were translating rtty shortwave off macs for news services then.)
We were discussing Central America, and sipping brandy. That's when Barry Jackson gave an amazing admission. "Those break-ins in NYC? (CISPES offices) That was us. I was in on that." Yeah, he is an arrogant prick.
Those were quite well-documented.
"None of those break-ins-several of which involved the abductions and terrorizing of political activists, as well as arson attacks on at least two of their homes-have been solved. ...
... network of private, right-wing groups which worked in concert with the nation's law enforcement and intelligence agencies to terrorize policy opponents.
That conviction was strengthened when I came to learn that the covert assault on political activists involved not only the FBI and the Salvadoran security forces, but also the CIA, the National Security Council and a range of private, right-wing groups-most of whom had been integrally involved in the secret contra operation."
Break-ins, Death Threats and the FBI
by Ross Gelbspan
South End Press, 1991
This is someone that, based on what I remember, is nastier than Kark Rove. He's less afraid to get his hands dirty.