After Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for Rove’s group American Crossroads, said that Bozell was a “hater” who had “weird axes to grind,” Bozell and other conservative leaders called for Collegio to be fired.

“Jonathan Collegio misspoke,” Rove said. “He immediately called Bozell and apologized. But look, Bozell — I respect him. He has done a lot of good things. The media center that he has does good work. But look, here’s a guy who called me a fake conservative, who called our efforts a failure, who distorted what we did. And yet, he turns around and starts crying crocodile tears when Jonathan Collegio says something he shouldn’t have said. But at least Collegio apologized for it. Bozell is out there calling me a fake conservative. Doesn’t matter to me, but it’s obviously not true.”