CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Newsweek magazine has hired Karl Rove, the former White House deputy chief of staff, to contribute occasional opinion pieces to the print and online versions of the publication.

Rove stepped down from his post in August after a controversial six-year stint as President Bush's senior political adviser. His successful campaign strategies for Bush in 2000 and 2004 have been called into question, and leading Democrats have led investigations into Rove's possible role in the firings of U.S. attorneys and whether he had an undue influence over key decisions made by the federal government, among other concerns.