Following up on this morning’s item about Karl Rove’s alleged genius, Bush and Rove made a brief public appearance this morning to note the departure.
“Karl Rove is moving on down the road,” Bush said, appearing grim-faced on the White House’s South Lawn with Rove at his side.
“We’ve been friends for a long time and we’re still going to be friends … I’ll be on the road behind you here in a bit,” he said ruefully.
“I’m grateful to have been a witness to history. It has been the joy and the honor of a lifetime,” said Rove, his voice quivering at times. “But now is the time…. At month’s end,” Rove said, “I will join those whom you meet in your travels, the ordinary Americans who tell you they are praying for you.”
White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino said, “Obviously it’s a big loss to us. He’s a great colleague, a good friend, and a brilliant mind.”
I’m still hard-pressed to think of evidence of his alleged brilliance. Rove was convinced that Bush could privatize Social Security. He was placed in charge of overseeing the response to Hurricane Katrina. His response to every challenge was always exactly the same: jam it down their throats. (Who are “they”? It never mattered.)
With regards to national electoral politics, Rove’s strategic mind has to put to the test four times:
In 2000, Rove kept his candidate in California in the campaign’s waning days. Bush came in second.
In 2002, Rove exploited 9/11 for all it was worth. Dems avoided national security as a policy and paid a high price.
In 2004, Rove ran the campaign of a war-time president running with a relatively strong economy — and came within Ohio of losing.
In 2006, Rove’s worldview came crashing down as Dems won back the House and Senate.
By any reasonable measure, this is the record of a mediocre political strategist who, as I noted this morning, is bolstered by the myth of brilliance.
The next logical question, of course, is understanding why Rove is resigning now. It’s not as if there have been whispers — even William Kristol, a close White House ally, said this is unexpected.
Josh Marshall considers the stated reason (“I just think it’s time”) and dismisses it out of hand.
The innocent explanation is never right with these guys.
Of course, if there’s more to this resignation, it’s not necessarily that easy to narrow down the list of possibilities since Rove is connected to pretty much every instance of high-level wrongdoing. And then there’s the extra added wrinkle that if anything the White House’s ability to keep Rove off the witness stand is decreased, if only marginally, by his leaving the White House. With the recent news of cutbacks on funding of human intelligence in the intel budget, there’s the possibility that there were no more CIA agents whose cover could be blown and he decided to move on to greener pastures.
Indeed, Marcy at The Next Hurrah compiles a few possible explanations for Rove’s unexpected departure, and notes the various controversies hovering over Rove’s head. The list includes, but it not limited to, the U.S. Attorney scandal, the Abramoff affair, and the ongoing investigation from the Office of Special Counsel. It’s quite a record Turd Blossom has built up.
As for the Hill, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) issued a statement this morning, noting that if Rove thinks his resignation will help put some distance between himself and his scandals, he ought to think again.
“Earlier this month, Karl Rove failed to comply with the Judiciary Committee’s subpoena to testify about the mass firings of United States Attorneys. Despite evidence that he played a central role in these firings, just as he did in the Libby case involving the outing of an undercover CIA agent and improper political briefings at over 20 government agencies, Mr. Rove acted as if he was above the law. That is wrong. Now that he is leaving the White House while under subpoena, I continue to ask what Mr. Rove and others at the White House are so desperate to hide. Mr. Rove’s apparent attempts to manipulate elections and push out prosecutors citing bogus claims of voter fraud shows corruption of federal law enforcement for partisan political purposes, and the Senate Judiciary Committee will continue its investigation into this serious issue.
“The list of senior White House and Justice Department officials who have resigned during the course of these congressional investigations continues to grow, and today, Mr. Rove added his name to that list. There is a cloud over this White House, and a gathering storm. A similar cloud envelopes Mr. Rove, even as he leaves the White House.”
Stay tuned.