August 13, 2007
Rove Heads For The Exit
UPDATED.
Karl Rove took the microphone before reporters on the White House lawn this morning, an unusual position for a man who is well known as the man literally and figuratively behind President Bush. Today, the two stood side by side.
Bush praised his deputy chief of staff and called him a "dear friend," noting that Rove was "moving on down the road" and that Bush himself would "be on the road behind him in a little bit."
Rove had some kind words in return. Choking back tears as he looked over his right shoulder at the president, he told Bush, "Through it all, you've remained the same man. Your integrity, character and decency have remained unchanged and inspiring." The two men hugged and left the podium together.
The emotional goodbye comes at a difficult time for Rove -- and not only because he will be leaving after 14 years as a power player with Bush.
One of Rove's chief foes of late, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., summed it up this way: "There is a cloud over this White House.... A similar cloud envelops Mr. Rove, even as he leaves."
The man Bush called "The Architect" announced in a Wall Street Journal interview published this morning that he would resign effective at the end of August, after six and a half years in the White House. He cited the desire to spend more time with his family in Texas.
"I just think it's time," the deputy White House chief of staff told Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul A. Gigot. "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 also predicted that Bush's approval ratings would climb out of the 30s, and that Democrats "are likely to nominate a tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate" in 2008: Hillary Rodham Clinton.
As the WSJ piece suggests, Rove may well have engineered his departure for the sake of timing. The influential aide certainly hasn't fallen from grace with Bush, who reportedly relies on Rove as heavily as ever, but the word "embattled" could be applied to him in recent days.
He's been buffeted by congressional subpoenas -- all ignored under the umbrella of executive privilege -- over the U.S. attorney firings, before and after his fellow aides were also summoned to the Hill to testify. He's been fingered for violating the Presidential Records Act by using his Republican National Committee e-mail account to send internal White House emails.
He's had to testify (not just once, but five times) before a grand jury over the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name in 2003 and has been accused of taking part in a conspiracy to protect himself while throwing former vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby under the bus. And he's still under investigation by the Office of Special Counsel for his role in the attorney firings and the Bush administration's political tentacles in the appointment process.
He's also seen as somewhat less than the talisman of victory he once seemed in GOP circles and something of a diminished enemy to Democrats -- not quite the "evil genius" his opponents once considered him to be. With the president's legacy very much in question, "Bush's Brain" has lost some of his magic touch.
Still, the adviser who's been with Bush for the highs and lows since he began planning to run for governor, is leaving with his own legacy.
"I'm a myth. There's the Mark of Rove," he told the Wall Street Journal, amused. "I read about some of the things I'm supposed to have done, and I have to try not to laugh."
Rove's family probably shouldn't get too comfortable having him around the house; it's unlikely that his infamous passion for politics will be extinguished just because he'll have left the White House. CNN's White House correspondent John King speculated that Rove will have a behind-the-scenes voice in the next cycle, citing two friends of Rove who claimed he wanted to write a book and think about teaching, but that he would also try to help the GOP find its way in the 2008 election -- at least in an informal way.
Posted at 11:52 AM
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Bush Administration, Karl Rove
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