I’d like to know what his advice was to the President concerning the “comprehensive” immigration bill. Was he as out of step with the public as the President? Was he also “surprised” by the outrage of the American citizens? Or, did he tell the President the truth but he just didn’t believe him.
From what I recall, from reading bits and pieces here and there, Rove always had a real contempt and callousness towards the conservative base -- the pro-lifers, pro-Constitution crowd, the anti-illegal immigration crowd. He basically took the attitude of, "Where else are they going to go?" and dropped crap on them during Bush's presidency. So I would imagine that he, and Bush, were never surprised at the vocal opposition, at least, not that there were opponents within conservative ranks.
Course, on second thought, maybe he was surprised that the GOP base, which for so many years has nodded in unison, saying "Yes, we believe you, that's rain coming down on our heads" -- which it's actually a stream of you-know-what from the White House -- finally had enough and said "No Mas, President Jorge!"