The news, first reported in The New York Times Sunday, has hardened battle lines between grassroots conservatives and the Republican Establishment, laying bare tensions that have been brewing since Rove led the GOP's tar-and-feathering of Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin during the 2012 election.

Rove's new super-PAC, Conservative Victory Fund, was formed explicitly to avoid candidates like Akin, whose infamous "legitimate rape" comment sank a once-winnable Senate race and badly tarnished the Republican brand.

But conservatives see the new group as final proof that the GOP Establishment has abandoned — and wants to silence and destroy — the party's rank-and-file.