WASHINGTON _ At a gathering of GOP insiders today, Karl Rove may have previewed a new line of attack by Republicans: Barack Obama the elitist.

“Even if you never met him, you know this guy,” Rove said, according to an ABC News report.

“He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.”

The beautiful date? That one makes sense considering that Barack and Michelle Obama look to have fallen out of the pages of Beautiful People magazine. Don’t know about the martini; Obama came along after the gin generation.

As far as cigarettes, Obama says he quit a while back (but fell off the wagon a time or two.)

The country club line? Sounds suspect. Sure, Obama’s got the money to join after becoming a millionaire from writing books. But there are a lot country clubs in Illinois where Obama wouldn’t have been welcome over the years and the betting here is that some of the people in Rove’s Capitol Hill Club audience today have belonged to such clubs.

Could it be that frumpy Rove wishes he were that cool guy leaning up against the country club wall? If so, there’d be no shortage of snide comments.