There’s a suspicion on the part of many Dems that Karl Rove’s influence is felt in almost every move made by the Republican Party and its national candidates. The concerns are generally unfounded.

But once in a while, Rove really might be pulling certain strings behind the scenes.

For example, Marc Ambinder noted the other day that John McCain’s “bio tour” and Rove’s advice for McCain seem to coincide quite nicely. Rove was asked in mid-February during a Q&A at the University of Pennsylvania what he would advise McCain to do. Rove said:

“[McCain] needs to seize the opportunity to reintroduce himself.... He should take a biographical tour to the places in the country that have made him who he is. Go to the Naval Academy and talk about the values he learned there. Then he should go to Pensacola, Florida and Corpus Christi, Texas where he was trained as a naval aviator, and talk from the heart and the call to service. Go to Meridian, Mississippi and Jacksonville, Florida and talk about what he learned about leadership commanding the largest naval air squadron in the United States. He should go to wherever it was that he first stepped foot back in the United States after the Vietnam War and meet with his POW buddies and talk about what he learned about character when he sat in that cell in hell. And he should give a speech in Sedona, Arizona and talk about the people and places in his hometown that affected him.”

And what did McCain spend last week doing? Well, let’s see, McCain made appearances in Meridian, Pensacola, the Naval Academy, and Prescot, Arizona (which is near Sedona), all as part of a “biographical tour to the places in the country that have made him who he is.”

We already knew that Rove has at least some role in advising McCain, but this does raise an ethical issue: Rove has put on his "journalist" hat to praise a strategy he appears to have come up with, without disclosing his role with the campaign.

Insert joke here about the need for a bloggers ethics panel.