Is somebody watching what is really going on today? You gotta think that they know this will suck up all the news coverage and air time today. Wonder what they're going to try and pull off today?

Many of the problems within the republican party are of a sexual nature, much to the chagrin and detriment of the entire country.

I'm sure Rove falls into this category. Once in power many of these guys can get laid, but long ago it was hopeless frustration. And they carry that chip on their shoulder.

Rove isn't going anywhere anymore than Karen Hughes did when she "went away" a few years ago. He may be spending more time in Texas, but Dubya will have him on speed dial. My guess is that he's leaving the White House to do what he does best...win elections for the Republicans. He has his work cut out for him in '08.

I think history will gawk instead at the government attorney firing scandal ... his role in that (I may well have been his very own idea) and the power he was given or took for the objective of influencing the course of the next election cycle .... from the White House and the Department of Justice ... which will circle of course to Fredo ... whose bumbling second-class resume (if that) and inept toadying performance future historians will again simply marvel at.

Rove's reputation and audacity will outshine many legendary past political operatives -- no cleverness, no dirty tricks, just audacious ambition given a free hand.

gosh, maybe he'll write a book. gosh, i.don't.think.so.

Gee, maybe Karen Hughes is free to once again show us GWB's "human" side.

Not just the 3700 lost American lives that Rove is responsible for, the 100s of 1,000s Iraqis, directly and indirectly lost their lives due to the war unleashed by a callous group of which Rove was a key member. That plus the destroyed families, millions of refugees now crowding in neighbouring countries, a country perhaps broken forever are some of the legacy left by this man who wants to "spend more time with his family"

and will die an excruciatingly painful death, only partially resolving his karma for all the horrible deaths he has caused.

The dead might not be so if Rove had returned to his family and taken Cheney with him. The witches' brew that is our national politics is all from Rove's nasty little cookbook. But all the blood is on Cheney's hands.

Rove's "genius" was fear mongering. He figured out how to appeal to a segment of the population that liberals pretended didn't exist, or were so marginalized and cynical they didn't matter.

Now, the reverse is true. So called "liberals" see themselves as disenfrancised, think the system is corrupt, and refuse to participate. By being covert, they're just as responsible for Bush as Rove.

If they stopped demonizing politics and politicians that would be a start.

...which is how much Rove's urgings entered into the decision (in early 2002) to do the Iraq war. Rove did want a short, decisive, prominent war, a quick victory, "mission accomplished" and a hero candidate. That dovetailed neatly with a lot else that was going on in the WH, but how important was the political calculus in the decision? Maybe the memoirs will disclose this eventually--or we may never know.

As much as I hate Karl Rove, the lies perpetuated by the White House were so blatant ("Saddam Hussein, a secularist and control freak is directly working with a rabid, radical Islamic terrorist group that considers him a sworn enemy," for one) that it is our own damn fault for believing it. If basic critical thinking was too much to ask of Americans, you have to realize that there were members of the press who did that for us.

Newspapers like Knight-Ridder bluntly exposed the fallacy of the case for war and public broadcasting (NPR, BBC, PBS), at least, proved the case was not air-tight, which was necessary to justify a pre-emptive strike. All these sources were available either for free (radio) or online and we still chose to go along. And why not? The vast majority of us didn't have loved ones in the military and Arabs and Muslims were so dehumanized in our mind that we gleefully looked forward to "Shock and Awe." It was fundamentally our fault as a public. The Bush administration simply exploited our willful ignorance and complete contempt for active citizenship.

Iraq is our shameful legacy as a people.

Rove has corrupted the political system in a way that the political machines of the 19th century only dreamed of. He has divided our nation. He has destroyed our governments reputation locally and abroad. He has left us politically, morally, and economically bankrupt. The damage he leaves behind will take decades to heal, and could, possibly, result in permanent decline in the United States. He didn't do it alone, but he was the "mastermind" who implemented the ideas of a number of people who put greed and ideology ahead of the nation's welfare.

In another age it would be wall to wall Teapot Dome Scandals and Watergate. But with Rove-Bush not only did we sit on our fat asses and let them get away with it, they got even MORE power. The legacy of Rove is we finally eradicated any notion that there are meaningful laws or limits on governance. The legacy is all the trials that never occurred and never will.

Joan,

I believe that many this administration's mechanisms are motivated almost exclusively by chess-move style legal ass-covering. I cite: Gonzales' extremely specific language during congressional "testimony" (referencing "the program we are talking about" so much) the administration's unbelievable ability to get democrats to pass the FISA legislation (which i presume will help them in months or years in the future to be able to say "the democrats passed this law, how could what we have done be seen as illegal or political"). My point is this, there is no way Rove would quit this job unless it is somehow to his advantage to do so. Please send your attack dogs to figure this out: where is the advantage & why. Salon is the only news outlet with the skill and indepedance to do this.