End of an Era: Karl Rove To Resign
Karl Rove, the master of polarizing politics and George Bush’s longtime mentor and White House consigliere, is resigning effective August 31, bringing to an end one of the most controversial tenures of a presidential political operative.
Rove, Bush’s deputy chief of staff and a man so influential that he was a de facto Cabinet member, told the Wall Street Journal‘s worshipful Paul Gigot that:
“I just think it’s time. There’s always something that can keep you here, and as much as I’d like to be here, I’ve got to do this for the sake of my family.”
Rove, 56, is credited with engineering Bush’s successful entry into Texas and national politics and his dossier is full of allegations of dirty tricks and hardball dealings. He is currently a focus of several congressional investigations, including the U.S. attorney probe and whether he broke federal laws by making political presentations to government employees encouraging them to find ways to support Republican candidates.
Make no mistake: No matter what you think of him, Rove did his job well, at least until the realities of the world outside the Washington Beltway became so crushing that they could no longer be subsumed or blustered away.
I am reminded of a reader’s comment at Political Animal in answering the paradox of why Bush, a mediocrity of the first water, has generated such intense loyalty in people:
“It must tickle someone like Karl Rove — surely a geek who was picked on mercilessly in high school or a loser who could never get a date with the hot cheerleader — silly pink to be able to watch his boss best all them high achieving Ivy League types who populate liberal circles. Bush is a proxy for a lot of conservative anger at our powerful liberal culture and the accompanying desire for revenge.”
Rove has said that he planned to resign in 2006, but stayed on through the mid-term election cycle. He said his hand was forced when Joshua Bolton, the White House chief of staff, recently told senior aides that if they stayed past Labor Day they would be expected to stay through the rest of Bush’s term.
In the end, Rove’s legacy is a tarnished one: He leaves behind a president whose popularity has plummeted to historcally low levels and a war in Iraq of which he was a principal planner that has become a political albatross for Bush and the Republican Party.
While it is not unusual for ranking members of an administration to move on in the closing months of a presidency and there already has been some attrition since the Republican defeat in the mid-term election, the White House will be a different place without Rove.
The question is whether Bush will be a different president.
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6 Responses to “End of an Era: Karl Rove To Resign”
Love the picture.
I’m struck not by Rove’s vaunted genius, but by the level of emotion he elicits from his admirers and detractors. Not since, I think, the days of Haldeman has a COS been held up as either a genius or a criminal.
I don’t find analysis of Turd Blossom that interesting, but I will hazard a hunch:
Methinks that he has been given notice that he’s in the clear as far as any prosecution is concerned, so now he can take off.
I am reminded of an old New Yorker cartoon wherein a well dressed man is speaking before a bank of microphones:
“I’m leaving to spend more time with my lawyers.”
M.C. Rove Rappin’ No More — Karl Rove To Quit, He Tells WSJ:…
Karl Rove, President Bush’s close friend and chief political strategist, plans to leave the White House at the end of August, he told Wall Street Journal’s Paul Gigot. President Bush was expected to make a statement Monday with Rove. (AP/Breitbart)…..
Mistake on my part:
Of course Rove is not COS, so my allusion to Haldeman is inexact, but you get the idea.
I don’t really think the question is whether the current WH and Bush will change as a result of Rove’s leaving — I think the culture in which Rove thrives has so permeated the current administration that any real change is unlikely.
I do wonder if Rove will end up managing one of the Repub Presidential campaigns — Romney, perhaps? I don’t see Guiliani needing him. And would McCain want to work with him after what Rove did to McCain in the 2000 elections?
I’m actually surrprised and impressed by the remarks on this thread, given as it came after Shaun’s tiresome Bush-bashing and other attacks on Rove that match those we see and predict elsewhere, as the Usual Suspects predictably emerge from the woodwork, or from under their rocks. [scowl]
Rove is quitting so he can join the campaign of a soon-to-be-drafted Jeb Bush, to rescue the nation from the (truly) evil clutches of Stalina herself, Hitlery Clinton. After a long search next year, they will discover, after having requested his assistance on vetting suitable candidates, that Jeb Bush’s Vice Presidential nominee will be Richard Cheney.
And then there’s, of course,
Bush-Rove 2008
McCain-Rove 2008
Gingrich-Rove 2008
Rove-Cheney 2008
Rove-Limbaugh 2008
[...] at the end of this post).. (Be sure to read posts on Rove’s departure on this site by Shaun Mullen, Clarrissa Pinkola Estes, Michael van der Galien, and Robert Stein with perhaps more posts on [...]