The GOP talks endlessly about “returning” to small government, but that isn’t what’s going to happen with a resurgent Karl Rove spiriting away Republican money men.

Or have you already forgotten the eight years pre-Obama, when deficits didn’t matter to corporate control?

The wealthy donors Rove courts have never viewed government as lean or a protector of free markets, but as a multi-trillion-dollar bailout for their reckless, risk-free bets.

Rove and Ed Gillespie, who succeeded him as George W. Bush’s top political adviser, have cooked up something called American Crossroads to snatch the party back from Michael Steele, whose Republican National Committee was distracted by fallout from a fundraiser at a lesbian bondage club. The former Maryland lieutenant governor was inexperienced raising big money, then he started talking about “hip-hop” makeovers.

With a war chest of unregulated campaign cash north of $130 million, Rove would be able to wage the midterm elections on his own terms. He’s all about winning and not much else.

In this case, electing candidates loyal to the GOP’s wealthiest donors.

A letter to Time magazine from Illinois in response to May 10’s 10 questions with Rove pointed out, “Read his words carefully: he does not want something good to happen for the economy this year. Period. This, in a nutshell, is exactly what’s wrong with people like Rove and with our overall political climate right now (both Democrats and Republicans). To them, it’s not about what’s good for the American people. It’s only about winning.”

Recall that the Supreme Court threw open these floodgates for unlimited political spending by corporations and individuals with its decision in “Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission.”

Rove recognized that the court left in place strict limits on contributions to party committees and preserved the legal barrier barring campaigns from coordinating directly with outside groups now empowered to spend millions on their behalf.

National Journal and Rolling Stone reported on this April meeting of conservative political operatives at Rove’s Washington home.

Republicans fumbled control of both the House and Senate in 2006. In 2008, with Rove enemy Sen. John McCain as standard bearer, Obama won behind a campaign powered by hundreds of millions in small-dollar donations. Obama had $1.1 billion to spend, to McCain’s $634 million.

American Crossroads is an RNC shadow version for the party’s richest donors and organized under the same part of the tax code that sunk John Kerry with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

“This is the plutocratic wing of the GOP getting together and deciding that in the era of unlimited corporate contributions, they don’t need a formal Republican Party anymore,” a “top Democrat” told Rolling Stone.

An audit leaked to The Washington Time revealed that the party was actually losing money on its major-donor program, spending $1.09 for every $1 raised. With the RNC reduced to the small-donor arm of the party with an average $40 contribution, the big players were looking for a new place to put their campaign cash.

I love irony and here it is in this instance: what Rove is attempting is not unlike what Democrats tried and failed to do to him in 2004 with Americans Coming Together, a shadow committee largely underwritten by billionaire George Soros.

Stay tuned, electorate, to see where these two tracks lead.

One involves massive numbers of modest donors primarily funding elections.

The other, a massive tide of corporate wealth to overwhelm We the People to keep the grip on the ATM that is Washington.

Quips, quotes and qulunkers: “We just went through this health care debate, which was horribly perverted by money on both sides, and now you look at Abramoff and realize we are making horrible decisions for our country, all because we’ve put our government up for sale.”

— Alex Gibney, Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, whose “Casino Jack and the United States of Money” about the jailed influence-peddling lobbyist opened May 7

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“The meta-story behind the British election, the Greek meltdown and our own Tea Party is this: our parents were the Greatest Generation. (They made) enormous sacrifices and investments to build us a world of abundance … The Baby Boomers (have) eaten through all that abundance like hungry locusts. Now we and our kids together need to become the Regeneration – one that raises incomes … in a way that is financially and ecologically sustainable.”

– Thomas Friedman
in the New York Times

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“I probably shouldn’t say this – it’s the definition of biting the hand that feeds me … It’s time to abolish punditry.”

— pundit Donna Brazile in the Washington Post. But CNN just added a third row of chairs, and some of the other channels have so many tiny talking heads waiting to weigh in it’s like “Hollywood Squares” is back on TV.

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9.2: percentage of personal income Americans paid in taxes in 2009, the lowest since 1950, according to a USA Today analysis.

Sotheby’s June 18 auctions John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics for “A Day in the Life.” Beatles road manager Mal Evans’ estate auctioned it for $100,000 in 1992, but now it’s expected to fetch as much as $700,000.

John Eby is Daily News managing editor. E-mail him at john.eby@leaderpub.com.