Letters to the Editor
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2008
The only reason Rove would have resigned is that there is something coming
Yeah, it's called the 2008 elections and Rove is going to help the RNC with his bag o'tricks for the presidential campaign and for key house and/or senate seats. Remember, if a Democratic president gets in with a majority Democratic house and senate, it's curtains for the rightwing. Karl Rove is probably being treated like a superhero right now, with the RNC sending out bat signals to him. "We need your help". And Rove will respond. He really is a fanatic. Not a fanatical believer in Jeebus - he knows that's all a lot of crap. Rove is like all the other soft-looking, war supporting but draft-dodging, out-of-touch young people of the 1970s who worked for the Young Republicans and watched Nixon go down in flames. He's bent on revenge for not having been one of the cool guys back then and is convinced his time is here. He is a fanatic conservative with a grudge and a knack for spiteful destruction.
He may be leaving the White House, but he's not going away any time soon.
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The fatal flaw
Of course it is good to see him go. Glenn Greenwald's new book A Tragic Legacy capturea the Bush ethos brilliantly - the good-versus-evil mentality, divide a-and-conquer politics, bumper-sticker thinking and slogans.
The Bush-Rove relationship - so central to this administration - highlights a related flaw that runs deeper than the Bush administration.
Bush is a Don Quixote without a Sancho Panza, and this is a tragedy for everyone. His closest associates - Rove, Rumsfeld, Cheney - are all masters of bureaucratic and political infighting, artists of tactics at the expense of strategy or overarching philosophy, with acquisition or retention of power the prime end.
In the end, they could win but could not govern. They triumphed in tactics, spin, pressure, manipulation and even corruption at the expense of the messy consensus, aisle-crossing and attention to detail and consequences needed to govern. There were indeed victories: tax cuts, a right-tilting Supreme Court and surveillance laws. But what price victory?
In this world, governance is reduced to politics. But in the real world, running an Iraq occupation like the South Carolina primary- just to give one example - leads to unintended consequences.
And what has become of Republicans and military men who either counseled realism, questioned consequences or were mugged by reality? The names go on: DiLullo, Pete Peterson, Paul O'Neill, Gen. Shinseki, Colin Powell, Gen. Taguba, Brent Scowcroft, Lawrence Wilkerson, John Agresto, even Richard Armitage. All were muwcled out in one way or other by the infighters and fantasists.
And why on Earth did Rove get the Katrina recovery dossier? Was it to manage Louisiana's demographic post-Katrina shift even more sharply in a Republican direction? It is a reasonable question.
Yet beyond Rove and Bush, the primacy of technique and spin over substance remains - whether you are watching Hannity & Colmes or the Situation Room or Hardball or even Meet the Press. The story now is who has the sizzle, the smarts, the tactics in the horserace.
Perhaps Rove left because big trouble is coming, perhaps not. He has litrle to gain by staying whatever the case, other than his formidable loyalty to Dubya. My hunch is that, one way or the other, Rove will be back.
It is instructive to look at the isolation of Bush-Cheney today. The cheese stands alone. So, in time, will the next president who tries to govern in this fashion. Et tu, Rudy?
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About "THE math"
I keep thinking about Karl Rove's statement about having access to "THE math" and then how "THE math" worked out entirely and spectacularly wrong.
THE math translated into "a thumpin'" for Republicans in particular and the right wing in general. Now all that can be heard is the wailing and gnashing of teeth from FOX NOISE and Mr. Murdoch's well-paid minions. The Bush worshippers are a bit less conspicuous...and Karl Rove returns to private life taking "THE math" with him. The math that has proven so completely unreliable the last 3 years. While many here are calling his resignation a sign that something bigger is in the offing (a not entirely unfounded assertion, by the by), I think Rove was right when he said "It's just time". Despite all the foaming at the mouth about the Republicans regaining control of...ANYTHING, the truth might be closer to this: having thoroughly destroyed their reputation and their legacy for at least a generation if not more, the Bushies are sort of getting ready to saddle up and ride off into the sunset with their ill-gotten gains. After all, this gang was always just a bunch of horse thieves anyway, and the ill-winds of accountability are blowing like the Santa Anas in late summer. Best to get out of Dodge now and save your neck from the gallows because sure as the sunrise, somebody's gonna hang for all this. Time to go.
Do the math.
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Who will the White House blame?
MacK.. wrote:
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.
This is the most succinct way to put it, that I've seen.
Yes, it sounds paranoid to insist that "there's more to this, this is the first shoe dropping."
I'll bet that someone told Rove that he better get any indictments over-and-done with so he can be pardoned before Jan 21 2009. ("The next election is not certain, and if indicted after Bush leaves off, you might do jail time. Best to get it over now. Bush will pardon you immediately after sentence is pronounced.")
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Turd Blossom is leaving.
Good riddance. Nonetheless Turd Blossom is not dead. Too bad because a "well" Turd Blossom will bring a near death experience to anyone running against the Bush legacy in the upcoming election. There will be no talk of issues other than the ones being formatted by a "resting" darth Rove. Forget it. The neocons are "not quite dead yet". Anyone who makes that mistake will find it to be fatal.
One observation I'd like to invoke. When Fitzgerald was "coming after" Rove for the Plame deal, Rove was shitting bullets. Yep truly scared, pee-ring and all. So, if Lahey and Co. really put the heat on him you'll see the real Rove exposed. A scared little turd, not being protected by the kindly Crawford Sheriff anymore, will wilt. Just like anyone else facing jail time. That is unless these knuckle-headed Dems try to jail him before the Crawford Sheriff leaves "Dodge"...