Politics | Steve Schmidt Rove Legacy Tails McCain's New Top Dog Schmidt takes the reins By Jonas Oransky Posted Aug 1, 2008 3:05 PM CDT Copied Steve Schmidt, an adviser to Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., center. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Steve Schmidt is the new captain of the McCain campaign ship, which an ex-operative compares to the "Pirates of the Caribbean." Known as a taskmasker and carrying the seemingly oxymoronic reputation of a moderate Karl Rove protégé, Steve Schmidt isn't showing his hand just yet. The New Republic tries to dig a little deeper. A longtime Bush White House figure, Schmidt made his bones managing Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2006 re-election campaign and joined the then-high-flying McCain campaign soon after. Not what he's secured the corner office, how the Rove DNA manifests itself remains to be seen, but "under Schmidt's direction the overall message has been much more aggressive, for better or for worse." Read These Next A family hike took a tragic turn in Arkansas on Saturday. White House makes Hegseth put his polygraph away. A new book argues the Sacagawea legend is all wrong. US denies visas to Venezuelan team bound for Little League tournament. Report an error