Letters to the Editor
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What is the shoe yet to drop?
The only reason Rove would have resigned is that there is something coming - something that cannot be defended - something where the White House has to have distance from Rove.
What is it:
The Don Siegelman prosecution -- the US attorney has been dodging producing documents for 4 weeks now on any political involvement, and that case smells like a week old rotten fish with Rove's fingerprints on it;
Other prosecutions that kept US Attorneys hired (as opposed to fired);
Abramoff/Ney - Rove has been hiding his involvement in Abramoff's activities for about a year, but everyone is rolling over to score a shorter sentence -- has someone given Rove up?
What is it -- wait and see . . .
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The real reason
Bush is a walking dead man politically. He will do nothing in the next 18 months. Nothing.
So, why would Rove hang around? No reason at all.
He will be taking a 3 week vacation, and then he will sign on with a second-tier person with a future. Someone like ... Jeb.
Karl will be on the Jeb in 2012 payroll starting Nov 1.
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Famous Rove-isms
As long as we're recounting the "THE math" quote and the earlier quote about the Bush doctrine, shouldn't we begin placing the justly famous Ron Suskind quote about "the reality-based community" right where it belongs--in the mouth of the Mayberry Machiavelli?
No one else in this administration has that particular combination of insouciance and unbridled arrogance.
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Suddenly Mr. Innocence Incarnate
is not responsible for the erosion of our civil rights, for an illegal and disastrous war, for taking our nation to the brink of bankruptcy, for unprecedented levels of corruption and secrecy, and for rigged (s)elections?
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Posbbile reasons
It is not unusal for predentail staf to start resigning at the end of a presidency. The prosecutor is eeither on the verge of something big with Rove or he is going to be hired for his usual "dirty tricks" campaigin tactics by the RNC.
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Oh - Oh
Something ominous is coming.... we KNOW he'll still be advising Bush/Cheney from the boondocks. We KNOW he isn't getting out of dirty politics. We KNOW there's no possible way this guy will serve any hard time for any of the crimes he has committed. This is definitely cover for something big, and there's definitely a second verse about this move. Martial Law? Invasion of Iran?
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Since it's always ultimately about the money
If he gets thrown in jail when post 2008 election investigations turn up the dirt, I believe you cannot personally profit from book or movie deals relating to a crime you were convicted for.
On the other hand, if he whips out his "How I might have done it" book in the next year, it becomes the donation incentive freebie for every right wing organization in the nation, making him millions...before he gets thrown in jail.
He can't jsuccessfully plan a war or a reconstruction worth crap but planning ahead for the enrichment of himself and his closest friends has never been a problem for him.
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Is this really surprising?
Let's face it, Karl Rove is distinguished from others of his kind only by his complete lack of scruples, decency, or principle. He is not a "genius". He is given credit for maintaining Republican ascendancy in the 2002 and 2004 elections, but it must be remembered that those victories very much depended on the aftermath of 9/11. Anyone political strategist without conscience or concern for the nation could have capitalized on the tragedy and horror of 9/11 to build their party by smearing the other side. Though political strategists are not by general nature moral people, it is doubtful that any would be so lacking in any goodness or decency as Rove. He thus used 9/11 in campaigns of blatant fear-mongering, division, lies, and smears during which he made it clear that he wanted a one-party state. That, and only that, is the extent of his "genius": he could go lower than anyone else. Is it any surprise then that he found failure after failure when it came to actually building constructive policies? Rove's genius was amenable to winning elections with repugnant tactics, but it ultimately produced victories that could not be effectively capitalized on, and thus majorities and electoral winners who could not govern. It is that inability to govern, combined with a pervasive lack of concern for ethics, that has led to a moment in which America stands very likely to turn a corner to a lasting progressive majority. There I think is Rove's ultimate legacy in his deficiencies: he was less a strategist than a tactician who did win victories, but they were Pyhrric ones. He won battles, but he lost the war (thank the gods and all that is good and holy).
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Who will be the last scum standing?
As the eulogies for the despicable Karl Rove roll in, including the war room I must disagree with the idea that Karl Rove has been successful.
I'm sorry, but Karl Rove has not been successful in anything that he has endeavored to create with George W. Bush, unless he is secretly an ancarchist. The election of George W. Bush, the reelection of George W. Bush and the tax cuts, deregulating of industry, preemptive war and Supreme Court appointments have all proven and will continue to prove absolute disasters for the United States, if not out and out crimes.
Upon leaving, Karl Rove said "I'm not going to stay or leave based on whether it pleases the mob". To the last, he expresses his utter contempt for democracy. Stealing elections, stacking courts with partisan plants, destroying the economy through unreasoned economics, starting illegal wars that suck the treasury into historic debt and cost enormous loss of life is anything but success. His order is chaos. His construction is destruction.
I have a bag of feathers, a bucket of hot tar and a really fine ash baseball bat. Is there any way I can be invited to his going away party?
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Rove and Social Security
The Atlantic September issue has an article on Rove that, if true, says the Social Security changes were a dead letter because Rove immediately took a partisan approach. Republicans were not going to change Social Security unless Democrats did as well. Unlike Reagan, who learned that he could only change Social Security if he got Tip O'Neill on board as an equal partner, Rove apparently took the arrogant, partisan route. No surprise, I guess. But Rove seems like a bright guy. I'd think the goal would matter more than insisting on doing it his way.
As for conspiracy theorists, Bush has looked like hell in the past week so maybe now we know why. Perhaps he knew Rove was on his way out. Or, like others note here, perhaps there is something bigger coming down the pike.