Ah, the old “doing this to spend more time with my family” excuse. Funny how so many in government use that when they are in truth leaving a sinking ship, about to be indicted and so on. Who knows? Maybe he really wants to trade being one of the most powerful people in the world for family life. Or at least it was powerful before it all started crumbling. What good is a puppeteer if no one wants to listen to his puppet anymore. And who really thinks Rove will go quietly and disappear into that good night? Interesting times ahead.
Karl Rove to Resign At the End of August
Karl Rove, President Bush’s longtime political adviser, is resigning as White House deputy chief of staff effective Aug. 31, and returning to Texas, he said in an interview with Paul Gigot, editor of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page.
Mr. Rove, who has held a senior post in the White House since President Bush took office in January 2001, told Mr. Gigot he first floated the idea of leaving a year ago. But he delayed his departure as, first, Democrats took Congress, and then as the White House tackled debates on immigration and Iraq, he said. He said he decided to leave after White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten told senior aides that if they stayed past Labor Day they would be obliged to remain through the end of the president’s term in January 2009.
“I just think it’s time,” Mr. Rove said in the interview. “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.” Mr. Rove and his wife have a home in Ingram, Texas, and a son who attends college in nearby San Antonio.
From another article:
Rove will soon be gone — but it will be a long time before he is forgotten. One can not overstate how much Democrats loathe Rove, and desperately want him dragged into numerous congressional investigations of the Bush White House.
House and Senate Democrats are trying to force his testimony in the firing of U.S. attorneys. There is much more to come, Democrats tell the Politico.
Rove said he fully expects accusations that he is leaving under pressure. “I know they’ll say that,” he told the Journal. “But I’m not going to leave or stay based on whether it pleases the mob.”
Rove never worries about pleasing a mob – unless he’s at the head of it. Like, say, a lynching.
Bye bye, Baby Atwater.
Have no fear, there’s always another political operative with absolutely no moral sense waiting in the wings.
A couple of points here:
1) Rove said that he is resigning “to spend more time with his family.” How many times have we heard this from other Bushco, Inc. employees who were forced to resign.
2) My bet is that he is going to work on some other Republican candidate, to make sure that the Bushco, Inc. regime stays in power for at least another term.
Why doesn’t a vice president or president ever resign to spend more thime with his family?
Is this good news or neutral? The only way I can figure it’s good news is if he really is going to spend time with his family. Otherwise, he’s off to campaign for the next President (shudder).
Naa, Rove won’t be helping anyone else anytime soon. His star is gone. In order to get Bush elected, he burned too many people in the Republican party. His manipulations were the cause of the Republicans losing Congress in 2006 and the Presidency in 2008. He has so polarized voters that any Republican hiring him would never stand a chance in a general election. He is too much a liability.
His only supporters are the Right Wing Neo-con Evangelical Conservative Republican Radiohead Shut-ins. Oh gee, that includes so many posters here at DU. I’m really so sorry to see one of your heroes fading into the sunset. But James Hill, iHotAir, joshua, malren, pmitchell, mxpwr03, and any other that I missed, (sniff, sniff) so sorry.
Ok, I’m better, PARTY !!!
Fusion, your propensity for saying stupid things never ceases to amaze. The fact that you think I’m a Rove fan is indicative of how much of a team cheerleader YOU are. You think anyone who doesn’t think EXACTLY like you must be one of those Bushbots.
Sorry, that kind of lock-step thinking is for you, not me.
One down, two to go!
Good riddance, fuckwad. And good luck with Jenny Craig.
“But I’m not going to leave or stay based on whether it pleases the mob” – I love it – the “mob”.
I told you all Bush wanted is for the peasants to sit, shut up and die like the cannon fodder the poor should be!
I guess in just a few days he will announce that he is working for the Hillary Clinton campaign.
About to be indicted? So far we’ve had one indictment, Scooter Libby, and I think his real crime was being Mark Rich’s lawyer. Supposedly Rove was going to be indicted for leaking Plame’s name, but it turns out that was Richard Armitage, and Wilson was lying about nearly everything. Then people said he made up WMD claims, rigged voting machines, and I think now they say he was getting government workers to engage in politics.
He reappears when he decides who he will lie into the next presidency.
but it turns out that was Richard Armitage, and Wilson was ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
>>but it turns out that was Richard Armitage
Armitage wasn’t the ONLY leaker. And Scooter Pie had to take the fall for the traitor(s) who leaked Valerie Plame’s name in an effort to discredit Wilson. Treason during wartime used to be a hanging crime. That was before the criminals took over the administration of justice.
Like I said (re: Rove) – good riddance, fuckwad.
So you’re saying that Joe Wilson should be hanged for “outing” his wife, Mr. Mustard?
#7 & 8,
Geeze, it didn’t take you morani long to jump ship.
#13, Frank, #14, Mike
Sorry I missed you in #6. My apologies.
I haven’t felt like this since the very first time I watched The Wizard of Oz. The part where Dorothy dumps the water on the Witch and she melts. Geeze, that felt so satisfying.
#18, Frank,
For the life of me I will never understand why the Right Wing Nut Neo-con Evangelical Conservative Republican Radiohead Shut-ins keep inventing crap like that. Can’t you effen morani just stick to facts. Rove is gone, you may revert to honesty again.
Frank, your ability to embrace talking points over facts is marvelous; it makes you very useful, in the way that a hammer or a wrench is. But, the fact is that Joe never outed his wife, unless you live in the Foxiverse. Even if it were true, a few whispers over cocktails doesn’t much comparte to sending the info out over the newswires.
#6 – There goes the Liberal Filter causing jumps to conclusions again.
Enthusiastically and frequently pointing out the very obvious fact that the vast majority of Democratic candidates for decades have sucked because they always want to raise taxes that are already about twice what they should be, does not equate to being a Rove fanboy. I’m not.
Though Rove says he’s leaving the White House and political consultancy, odds are pretty good he’s going to maintain a behind-the-scenes “advisory” role in a lot of Republican campaigns. He might have burned a lot of Republicans in the last election, but, as mentioned, his basic constituency still embraces him and there will be a lot of others who would rather win (or at least feel like they have some chance of it) than hold a grudge.
By the way, the standard “the leaker was Richard Armitage” line is nonsense. Chronologically Armitage may have been the first to officially spill the Valerie Plame beans to a reporter but it’s established in the investigation timeline that both Rove and Libby were out there peddling the information to other reporters well before the Novak report hit. In fact, Time would have run with the story before Novak had an editor there not pulled it at the last moment for further verification, and Armitage wasn’t Time’s source. (I believe that was Libby, but I’d have to check; could’ve been Rove.) The evidence suggests not casual slippage (as Armitage has tried to portray it) but an orchestrated leak. I’ll leave it to you to figure out who’s at the intersection of Armitage, Libby and Rove.
So why was Libby prosecuted and Armitage & Rove weren’t? Same reason Novak didn’t get thrown into jail until he revealed his sources. They cooperated with the investigation. Libby didn’t. He lied, misled, “non-remembered,” and tripped all over his own testimony. Remember, he wasn’t tried for leaking Plame’s name. He was tried for interfering in and lying to a national security investigation. The only reason to believe Libby didn’t deserve to be tried (and convicted) is if you believe that national security investigations are trivial matters.
>>So you’re saying that Joe Wilson should be hanged for
>>“outing” his wife, Mr. Mustard?
Can you back that up, Phranquie? Or is that just more of the same old bullshit you usually vomit up on this blog?
He just needs some down time to get JEB ready for the run in 2012.
Cursor_
#23, iHotAir,
Another rat jumping ship. I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised at all the denial. And that twist?!?!?!?! Sheeet. Now all Rove’s tricks are the fault of Democrats.
#27 – Have a deuterium oxide in a chilled mug, settle down and follow some logic: What twist have I thrown out? Preferring brown liquid to Kerry is completely unrelated to Rove. They’re separate issues.
Personally I think Rove leaving helps the Republicans. Now if all the religious whacks would also leave the party ….
Obvious, Armitage completely forgot about a conversation with Bob Woodward where he talked about Plame, and only told the prosecutor after Woodward mentioned it. I’ll agree that perjury in such a case is a serious offense, but I still think Libby is in jail because like Judith Miller, he crossed paths with Fitzgerald before in other cases.
This multiple leaker theory is interesting but ultimately silly. Basically they were out to get Joe Wilson, but leaking his wife’s name to blow her covert status just doesn’t make sense as any sort of serious retribution. Novak has said that Rove was a confirming source, as was Libby. It started with Armitage, and the gossip got to the main players, who then served as secondary sources for reporters who asked. I suspect Colin Powell was probably a source as well.
Not sure why Rove gets credit as a political strategist. He kept underestimating McCain in 2000, told Bush it was a slam dunk a few days before getting beaten by Gore, and barely beat Kerry. The last Mass liberal got beaten by 8%, and the last open tax hiker was beaten by about 20. Rove’s brilliant ideas were for Bush to support gay marriage and immigration amnesty.
#28, iHotAir
Have a deuterium oxide in a chilled mug, settle down and follow some logic:
WOW Man, that is heavy. May I smoke too?
John McCain, remember him? Viet Nam Veteran and hero? Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart. South Carolina Primary, 2000. Rove engineered a smear telephone campaign against McCain. A hero when most of the Republicans have never served.
Max Cleland, remember him? Viet Nam War Veteran and hero. Silver Star, Bronze Star Triple amputee. Senator from Georgia. Rove started a rumor that he had fathered several black children during an election. Also he helped devise the ads showing Cleland and Osama bin Laden side by side. A hero when most of the Republicans have never served.
John Kerry, remember him? Viet Nam War Veteran and hero. Silver Star, Bronze Star, three Purple Hearts. Senator from Massachusetts. Rove helped with the infamous “Swift Boat” campaign to discredit this fine man. A hero when most of the Republicans have never served.
And there are more on the list. These came to mind quickly. So what is wrong with any of these guys? Nothing of course. Yet to point out that Rove helped engineer their defeats, not on merits but on slander and sleaze gets twisted by YOY to suggest that the only things Democrats do is want to raise taxes that are already about twice what they should be .
Ya effen moran, you and your Right Wing Neo-con Evangelical Conservative Republican Radiohead Shut-in friends have instead dropped taxes for the wealthy, raised spending until it is out of sight, and dropped the bill on our children. Pay as you go is so quickly shot down by the spend crazy Right Wing Neo-con Evangelical Conservative Republican Radiohead Shut-ins I can’t believe it.
But you, iHotAir, are the frosting on the cake. You support giving all that money to the rich instead of building a future for Americans.
Have a cup of the bovine fecal matter Republicans are famous for. Then keep denying you love Karl Rove’s ass.
Congress is in charge of spending, so I’ll wait and see if Democrats are capable of implementing pay as you guy, or not increasing spending. If that’s not the case, then those two points should be excised out of your paragraph, as it is clearly bipartisan.