The New York Times reports President Bush’s former adviser Karl Rove is playing a leading role in building what amounts to a shadow Republican Party, a network of donors and operatives that is among the most aggressive in the Republican effort to capture control of the House and the Senate. With help from former White House counselor Ed Gillespie, Rove has started the groups American Crossroads and Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, which are spending millions on ads boosting Republicans in some of the most closely contested Senate races. American Crossroads is now planning a barrage of anti-Democratic attack ads that will be run tens of thousands of times, a final get-out-the-vote push with some 40 million negative mail pieces, and 20 million automated phone calls.