Q: Can the Republican Party regain its stature and power?

A: Oh absolutely. Oh absolutely.

Q: But there are some like David Frum who say the GOP has to give up on its limited-government, small-"g" government attitude and become more Democrat lite.

A: Yeah, there are people who believe that -- I recognize it. There are also people who would be enthusiastic if we did it -- namely a lot of Democrats. Remember, Barack Obama won in part by campaigning against some traditional liberal values. He emphasized he would cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans. He did not emphasize in equal measure that he would raise taxes on the top 5 percent.

In fact, I did an interesting little study -- excuse me one second here while I open the garage door. He emphasized that he was going to cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans and for every four words in a stump speech that he devoted to that on average he devoted one word to talking about raising taxes and most of the time his language was essentially that they would simply go back to where they were in the Clinton years. In fact, in the most-watched speech of the entire campaign -- his convention speech -- he talks about cutting taxes for 95 percent of Americans and never mentions one word about raising taxes. Also he didn’t emphasize during the campaign that he was going to raise $600 billion in taxes by putting a tax on carbon -- the cap-and-trade system.

So he ran essentially on the taxes as a conservative. ... The same with health care. You saw it in Pennsylvania. The second-most-widely shown spot of the entire Obama campaign was a spot called “Government-run health care extreme.” That’s a pretty extreme thing to go out there and wang on government-run health care as extreme. What’s the impression that’s left by running 10 gazillion ads on that? So my point is, even Democrats recognize the strength of the limited-government theme. They understand that the American people -- while we are a practical people and while we want to get things done -- have a suspicion of centralized power and big government as the vehicle to get things done.

Q: You've been demonized by the mainstream media and liberals in general. Is there any one criticism of you that rankles you the most because it is either unfair or wrong?

A: Well, look, nothing rankles me. Frankly, part of the reason that they say ugly things is to get under my skin, so I'm not going to let them. Let me just say this: There are lots of myths about me. I'm like Grendel from "Beowulf." I get talked about a lot but people don't really know who I am. I'm writing a book and I'm going to deal with "the myths of Rove" and all these lovely things people say, but I am going to do so without rancor. Some people don't like me -- fine. Other people in the press believe it is their job to take everybody and whack them around. I drive liberals nuts -- I understand that -- or some liberals nuts. I actually have good friends who are liberals. But I'll deal with it in my book.

Q: How is the book doing?

A: It’s a painful process. I understand now how authors come to hate their own work. But I’m having fun.

Q: You obviously write your own columns in The Wall Street Journal. How’s that going?

A: It’s the most interesting thing I do. I never understood until I started doing it every week how challenging it is to find something interesting that people would want to read and then to say it in 770 to 815 words and then convey information to support your thesis. I like doing it. It helps me prepare my speeches. It helps me clarify my own thinking. It’s an interesting challenge.

To top it all off, I have two fantastic editors at The Wall Street Journal, Robert Pollack, who’s the editor of the op-ed page, and then the editor he assigns to do most of my columns, a young man named Brendan Miniter. Working with the two of them has helped me, I hope, to become a better writer. I told Brendan I felt like some German theological student at the University of Wittenberg. I would get his edits on my piece and I would say, “Ow, I see. He changed that one word and looked what happened!” It’s been a lot of fun for me.

Q: How many of these talks like the one you’ll be giving in Pittsburgh do you do each year?

A: Well, I gave about 67 (paid) speeches last year to groups and associations through my speakers bureau. And then I spoke (for free) to another 30-some-odd times for candidates and political parties.

Q: When you give a speech like one you’ll be giving in Pittsburgh, you obviously don’t write a brand-new one for each event. So what's the main message you'll impart?

A: You know what, I try to keep it current and updated. In fact, I will sit down this weekend with my research guy and give him some things I want him to dig out for me. But I try and keep it fresh. What I’ve been asked to do is sort of give an update on where I see the current state of affairs in Washington and the direction of the country and the direction of policy. I’ll draw on some of the themes from my recent columns in The Wall Street Journal and my commentary on Fox. But the general thrust will be a survey of where we are and what I think the trend lines are.