To: MSI who wrote (4925 ) 8/13/2003 12:38:49 PM From: LindyBill Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 793622 Well, MSI. Carl is happy, and getting fatter, the way things are going.:>) Karl Rove: Fla. 'Ground Zero' in 2004 ASSOCIATED PRESS PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) - Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, says Florida will play a crucial role in the president's re-election strategy next year. Rove, in an interview with editors and reporters of The News Herald of Panama City, said the campaign strategy in Florida would be a combination of "brotherly love" - a reference to the president's younger brother, Gov. Jeb Bush - and an effort to "register, identify and turn out our vote." "This clearly is going to be ground zero," Rove said in the interview, published in Wednesday's editions. Rove has been vacationing in northwest Florida, where he has been making trips for the past 16 years. Florida, now with 27 electoral votes, decided the 2000 presidential election and is expected to be a battleground state next year. Rove said the strategy would not likely change if Florida Sen. Bob Graham was on the Democratic ticket - as the presidential or vice presidential nominee. "Frankly we're not focused on it," he said. Rove said the Bush administration understands the frustrations of military families who are anxious for the return of their loved ones in Iraq. But he said the protracted stays of many service members are a result of a military "stretched thin." "Our military, when it gets into Afghanistan and Iraq, is taxed," he said. Rove said the administration is committed to the rebuilding of Iraq and hopes by this time next year to have "a country clearly on the road toward a democratic, market-oriented, secular state."lasvegassun.com