from wikipedia:
"Sources close to the former president [George H.W. Bush] say Rove was fired from the 1992 Bush presidential campaign after he planted a negative story with columnist Robert Novak about dissatisfaction with campaign fundraising chief and Bush loyalist Robert Mosbacher Jr. It was smoked out, and he was summarily ousted" (Esquire Magazine, January 2003). As Novak provided some evidence of motive in his column describing the firing of Mosbacher by former Senator Phil Gramm: "Also attending the session was political consultant Karl Rove, who had been shoved aside by Mosbacher". Novak and Rove deny that Rove was the leaker, but Mosbacher maintains that "Rove is the only one with a motive to leak this. We let him go. I still believe he did it." (Sources: "Karl and Bob: a leaky history," Houston Chronicle, Nov. 7, 2003, ; "Genius," Texas Monthly, March 2003, p. 82; "Why Are These Men Laughing," Esquire, January 2003)
in 1970--during his apprenticeship to watergate dirty trickster donald segretti--rove claims to have broken into the campaign offices of candidate allen dixon (d-il) and stolen some letterhead which he then used to print up fliers inviting voters to a rally promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing.
accordng to rove, "I was nineteen and I got involved in a political prank." (The Nation).
in 1973, the washington post published an article describing how rove coached young republicans in the art of dirty political tricksterism.