Ahigh school student with an emo haircut who sounded like a surfer asked Karl Rove how many times he has broken the First Amendment. Rove fired back, asking which aspect of the First Amendment the student was referring to: freedom of speech, expression or religion? Caught off guard, the student shuffled his note cards, looking to drill Rove on breaking the law, and found this gem: “Why do you insist on using the Southern Strategy to brainwash the media?”

Rove sidestepped this one. “Let’s get a real question,” he said to enthusiastic applause.

Most local students – peppering the Bush campaign architect with questions at the May 4 Panetta Institute Lecture Series event – kept any left-leaning tendencies they may have in check. And Rove played nice alongside Barack Obama election wizard David Plouffe, shelling out rhetoric on building bipartisanship and painting Bush as a “uniter, not a divider,” in response to the lecture’s thesis question: “Can the Partisan Divide Ever End?”

The numbers cruncher who Bush nicknamed “Turd Blossom” once claimed Republicans could win a permanent majority. But alongside Plouffe, who led Obama’s decisive Democratic victory, Rove flipped positions: “I don’t think it’s constructive or healthy for either party to have dominance in structure or duration.”

Rove said Capitol Hill will never rid itself of partisan turf wars, but the battles can be diminished. He sniped at Obama for dismissing the GOP’s stimulus package. At one point Rove asked Plouffe if he had read the House Republican’s budget proposal. “Probably not every page, but there weren’t that many,” Plouffe joked in response. (In late March, the Republicans in Congress called a press conference to release an 18-page “alternative budget,” which included no numbers.)

While Plouffe, a soft-spoken, Obama-like speaker, had home-court advantage at liberal CSU Monterey Bay, Rove stole the show with conservative punch lines and stage antics. Here are the highlights of Rove’s gag reel:

• At a pre-lecture news conference, Rove joked about how he and Plouffe are college dropouts. CSUMB President Dianne Harrison offered them the university’s online courses to finish their degrees.

• During the student forum, Rove plugged the book he is writing, saying it will be available on Amazon for $29.99, and joking about a student discount.

• Rove teased teachers (likely the biggest Rove haters) who were seated farthest away from him: “I like the fact that all the instructors are behind that black barrier.”

• Bush’s former deputy chief of staff recalled a 2005 reading contest he had with the president: “He is the most competitive S.O.B. I have ever met,” Rove said, adding that Bush started reading John D. MacDonald mysteries to gain ground. In the end, Rove claimed victory with 110 books to Bush’s 94. Moderator Frank Sesno quipped: “Weren’t you guys supposed to be running the county?”

• Near the end of question-and-answer segment, a student asked Rove about ignoring presidential subpoenas. Rove, responding like an angry professor, said he had not testified regarding the politicized firing of U.S. attorneys because he wanted executive privilege to be protected. “Before you start getting up and claiming that a person ignored a presidential subpoena, you better get your facts straight, young man,” Rove shouted, triggering more cheers.