Karl Rove and lobbyist Karen Johnson -- officially his girlfriend or just another hunting buddy?

Karl Rove speaks at a Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce luncheon last year. (AP/Matt York) Does Karl Rove have a girlfriend?In an extensive new profile of the Bush 43 campaign mastermind, New York magazine asserts that he does. Writer Joe Hagan opens the story with a description of Rove talking to him on the phone from the road, on his way to a central Texas quail hunt, an audibly giggling Karen Johnson at his side. Johnson, a 45-year-old GOP lobbyist, doesn't reappear in the story, which is otherwise about Rove's hopes for 2012, but the brief reference sure tantalizes. The two have been colleagues and friends -- close enough to generate whiffs of tabloid speculation over the years -- but this appears to be the first confirmation they're an item. Rove, 60, has been a single man since splitting from his wife Darby in 2009.

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