Calling the Iraq invasion a just and necessary part of a larger war on terror, White House adviser Karl Rove asked the country to stand with the president and the troops until the United States earns "complete and total victory over the terrorists."

Rove said that victory in the war on terror would require patience, resolve and sacrifice. It would be folly to pull the troops out immediately, he said, in an address to a crowd of 500 at a Republican fundraiser in Manchester.

Rove, the chief architect of President Bush's electoral victories,reminded the crowd that Democrat John Kerry, who challenged Bush in 2004, voted to authorize the war in Iraq but now wants the troops to come home. That means Kerry was "for the use of force before he was against the use of force," Rove said, reviving a familiar line.

Rove received consistent applause as the keynote speaker at the Republican State Committee's annual dinner. In a half-hour address he celebrated Bush as a man of character, striking themes from a time when the president and the war were more popular.

Rove said Kerry and Democrats like him lack the resolve of their Republican counterparts. "They are ready to give the green light to go to war, but when it gets tough, and when it gets difficult, they fall back on that party's old pattern of cutting and running," he said. "They may be with you at the first shots, but they are not going to be with you for the last, tough battles."

Guests spent $100 for tickets to the dinner at the Center of New Hampshire, or $250 for dinner and a private reception with Rove. The attendance set an annual-dinner record for the state Republican Party and raised an estimated $50,000 to $60,000, state party Chairman Wayne Semprini said last night. The money will be used to help preserve the Republican majorities in the New Hampshire House and Senate in this year's elections, he said.

Still, Semprini said, some of the money might go to the state Republican Party's defense in a civil lawsuit related to the 2002 phone jamming incident, when Republican officials in New Hampshire and Washington conspired to block a series of Democratic get-out-the-vote phone banks on Election Day with hundreds of hang-up telephone calls.

Three people have been convicted and sentenced to prison for their roles in the phone-jamming scheme, and the federal investigation is ongoing. The state Democratic Party hopes to learn more about the plot through its lawsuit, including what White House officials might have known about the phone jamming. Records show James Tobin, a national Republican official who was convicted for his role last year, made numerous calls to the White House in the days surrounding the election.

The Republican National Committee has spent at least $2.8 million on Tobin's defense, and the state Republican Party has paid at least $80,000 to counter the local lawsuit. At the end of April, the state Republicans had $413 in the bank; by comparison, the Democrats had more than $25,000 saved, according to the latest federal financial documents filed by the state parties.

Democratic activists seized on Rove's appearance yesterday to call attention to the phone jamming case and to call on Rove to reveal what the White House knew about the telephone crime. About 50 people gathered across Elm Street last night to wave signs -"Financing Felonies,""Karl Rove & NH GOP: Where Criminals Congregate"- in protest as the Rove event was about to get underway.

Several protesters said they were surprised state Republicans would want to embrace Rove, rather than distance themselves from him, given the questions surrounding the phone jamming and Rove's own reputation for "winning at any cost," as state Democratic Party Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan put it. Rove has testified before a grand jury five times about the unauthorized leak of the identity of ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame. He is a subject of the investigation.

"When I think of corruption, I think of Karl Rove," said Chaz Proulx, a board member of Democracy for New Hampshire and a self-described "lefty blogger" for the political website NHinsider.com. "I have to wonder where the conscience is for the New Hampshire Republican Party."

The protesters seemed to relish the fact Rove had been invited. "Sometimes I ask myself how I can be so blessed," Sullivan said.

Semprini defended the choice of Rove. His appearance generated excitement and money for the party, he said. "There's a lot of support in this room for this president, and Karl and this president are seen as a team," he said.

Bush's approval ratings have plummeted amid public disapproval of the Iraq war, the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and the Washington lobbying scandal. Rove reminded the crowd of Bush's accomplishments.

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