Thread: Karl Rove Resigns

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/ ... tpop_story

This is the best news of the day. I think the Bush Administration is failing. There is a reason he wants out. Karl Rove is behind Illegal Immigration. America wants answers and he does not want to be around. Hopefully Bush will now change some things.

Top Bush Aide Karl Rove Resigns
White House Confirms Bush Political Strategist Is Heading Home To Texas


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(Page 1 of 2)WASHINGTON, Aug. 13, 2007
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Karl Rove (left) has been side by side with President Bush in the political trenches for over a decade, but says he now feels it's time to return to Texas. (AP)


Quote

"The absence of Rove will create a situation sort of like Paul McCartney without John Lennon. The music will be different."



(CBS/AP) Karl Rove, President Bush's close friend and chief political strategist, plans to leave the administration at the end of August, the White House said Monday.

A longtime member of Mr. Bush's inner circle, Rove was nicknamed "the architect" by the president for designing the strategy that twice won him the White House.

A criminal investigation put Rove under scrutiny for months during the investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's name but he was never charged with any crime. In a more recent controversy, Rove, citing executive privilege, has refused to testify before Congress about the firing of U.S. attorneys.

Mr. Bush was expected to make a statement Monday with Rove. Later Monday, Rove, his wife and their son were to accompany Mr. Bush on Air Force One when the president flies to Texas for his vacation.

"Obviously it's a big loss to us," White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said. "He's a great colleague, a good friend, and a brilliant mind. He will be greatly missed, but we know he wouldn't be going if he wasn't sure this was the right time to be giving more to his family, his wife Darby and their son. He will continue to be one of the president's greatest friends."

It's very unusual for top presidential aides to stay for all eight years. The jobs are burnout jobs, reports CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller. The president goes through top aides over the course of his eight years in office, so Rove's decision to step down while a surprise is by no means unprecedented.

Since Democrats won control of Congress in November, a number of other top administration officials have announced their resignations. Among those who have left are White House counselor Dan Bartlett, budget director Rob Portman, chief White House attorney Harriet Miers, political director Sara Taylor, deputy national security adviser J.D. Crouch and Meghan O'Sullivan, another deputy national security adviser who worked on Iraq. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was forced out immediately after the election as the unpopular war in Iraq dragged on.

Rove became one of Washington's most influential figures during Mr. Bush's presidency. He is known as a ruthless political warrior who has an encyclopedic command of political minutiae and a wonkish love of policy. Rove met Mr. Bush in the early 1970s, when both men were in their 20s.

Once inside the White House, Rove grew into a right-hand man.

Rove is expected to write a book after he leaves. He disclosed his departure in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

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," Rove said in an interview at this home on Saturday. He first floated the idea of leaving to Mr. Bush a year ago, the newspaper said, and friends confirmed he'd been talking about it even earlier. However, he said he didn't want to depart right after the Democrats regained control of Congress and then got drawn into policy battles over the Iraq war and immigration.


"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," said Rove, who has been in the White House since Mr. Bush took office in 2001.

Rove's son attends college in San Antonio and he said he and his wife plan to spend much of their time at their nearby home in Ingram.

Rove, currently the deputy White House chief of staff, has been the president's political guru for years and worked with Mr. Bush since he first ran for governor of Texas in 1993.

"The absence of Rove will create a situation sort of like Paul McCartney without John Lennon. The music will be different," Wayne Slater, author of the Rove biography "Bush's Brain" told CBS News Radio.

Even as he discussed his departure, Rove remained characteristically sunny. This quality of unrelenting optimism about the president, which matches Mr. Bush's own upbeat, never-admit-disappointment nature, has at times gotten Rove into trouble. Up to the end of the 2006 midterm elections, the political guru predicted a Republican win. That of course was not to be, and there was grumbling that Rove wasn't on his game during those elections as much as he had been before.

In the interview, Rove predicted Mr. Bush will regain his popularity, which has sunk to record lows because of the war in Iraq.

Rove also predicted conditions in Iraq would improve and that the Democrats would nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, calling her "a tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate."

Rove testified before a federal grand jury in the investigation into the leak of the name of Valerie Plame, a CIA officer whose husband was a critic of the war in Iraq. That investigation led to the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on charges of lying and obstructing justice. Plame contends the White House was trying to discredit her husband.

Attorneys for Libby told jurors at the onset of his trial that Libby was the victim of a conspiracy to protect Rove. Details of any save-Rove conspiracy were promised but never materialized.

The most explicit testimony on Rove came from columnist Robert Novak, who outed Plame in a July 2003 column. He testified that Rove, a frequent source, was one of two officials who told him about Plame. Libby, with whom he seldom spoke, was not a source.

Rove, though, was not indicted after testifying five times before the grand jury, occasionally correcting misstatements he made in his earlier testimony.

The jury in Libby's trial did not hear that testimony, nor did it hear that Rove is credited as an architect of Republican political victories and has been accused by opponents of playing dirty tricks.

All that jurors heard is that Rove leaked Plame's identity and, from the outset, got political cover from the White House. He was never charged with a crime.

The rats are deserting the sinking ship. I'm sure he doesn't want to go down in flames!!

Michele Malkin has a say.

http://michellemalkin.com/

Well, isn’t this interesting news to greet us on a Monday morning in the dog days 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,â€

Well, if the hammer is about to fall and Rove doesn't want to be around when it does, his exit won't excuse him. His resignation and Bush's 180 on immigration (which I still don't trust) signals something is happening.

Oh, gosh, he's coming back to Texas.

Don't we have enough troubles?

No, I don't think the President is going to change his agenda.

It is possible that Rove can do more out of sight, and out of the limelight, than he can do up there.

He will still have the PResident's ear, we just won't be aware of it.

Think of what he has done while we are watching - gringe at what he can do when we can't see him at all.

I am really hoping that there are enough watchdog groups out there that intend on bringing things to the surface that Rove wants to distance himself from. He won't be able to they will get him even more now that he will be in the public sector. He could even testify with immunity which I think would be hilarous. We will just have to see what happens next. I am sure glad that he is going.

Heard a FOX commentator say maybe Rove will go help advise another Rep candidate for '08!
Rather doubt that!

I don't think so either. Maybe he is moving to Mexico.

Originally Posted by jean

Heard a FOX commentator say maybe Rove will go help advise another Rep candidate for '08!
Rather doubt that!

If he is, he will be 'behind the scenes'.

These people don't leave the 'group'. They know too much and others know too much on them. He isn't gone - just out of signt.

Submitted by Bob Fertik on August 13, 2007 - 6:01am. Karl Rove
For family reasons? Yeah right - his son is in college. The real reason could either be good or bad.

Good reasons:

He will be indicted and frog-marched to jail for one of his innumerable crimes. Marcy Wheeler thinks the most likely prosecutions involve (a) Jack Abramoff (if Susan Ralston rats on Rove), (b) violating the Hatch Act by showing his powerpoint to every federal agency, or (c) the firing of U.S. Attorneys, particularly David Iglesias
Congressional Democrats refuse to accept "executive privilege" as an excuse to keep Rove from testifying under oath, and Bush didn't want to fight this bloody battle with Congress
Congressional Democrats found a copy of the 5 million missing emails
Colin Powell will soon reveal Rove's role in lying the nation into Iraq
Polls show Republicans will lose in a landslide due to Bush's disastrous policies so the GOP's corporate backers threw him under the bus to help the GOP change its "image"
Bad reasons:

He lost a crucial policy battle with Dick Cheney over Iran and U.S. bombing is imminent
He has advance warning the economy is about to collapse and is getting out before the deluge
He will be working for an evil Republican Presidential candidate
Rupert Murdoch is hiring him at FOX News to help Murdoch take over the world
Someone even more evil than Rove stole his job and blackmailed him into retiring
Why do you think Rove resigned?

Update 1: here are Rove's predictions for the 2008 elections:

Rove said he expects Democrats to give the 2008 presidential nomination to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom he described as "a tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate." He also said Republicans have "a very good chance" to hold onto the White House in next year's elections.


Of course Rove predicted the GOP would win both houses of Congress in 2006, famously citing "The Math." Let's hope "The Math" is just as accurate in 2008.

Update 2: here are Rove's other predictions:

Bush "will move back up in the polls" towards 40% - while the housing market is crashing?
"Iraq will be in a better place" as the surge continues - with ethnic cleansing spreading, Maliki aligning with Iran, Parliament imploding, no electricity or water, more guns than people, and our occupation forces exhausted?
In the fall, "the budget fight will have been fought to our advantage" - which means Bush will veto every Democratic bill. Will that finally convince Democrats to impeach him?
"We'll see in the battle over FISA a fissure in the Democratic Party." Clearly Reid and Pelosi need to exert some party discipline to get conservative Democrats to oppose warrantless wiretapping by Alberto Gonzales.
Think Progress has Rove's record of failed predictions. PoliticsTV has Rove's video hall of shame.

Update 3: Sen. Pat Leahy isn't letting Rove walk away from his crimes:

Earlier this month, Karl Rove failed to comply with the Judiciary Committee’s subpoena to testify about the mass firings of United States Attorneys. Despite evidence that he played a central role in these firings, just as he did in the Libby case involving the outing of an undercover CIA agent and improper political briefings at over 20 government agencies, Mr. Rove acted as if he was above the law. That is wrong. Now that he is leaving the White House while under subpoena, I continue to ask what Mr. Rove and others at the White House are so desperate to hide. Mr. Rove’s apparent attempts to manipulate elections and push out prosecutors citing bogus claims of voter fraud shows corruption of federal law enforcement for partisan political purposes, and the Senate Judiciary Committee will continue its investigation into this serious issue.


Hey Pat - invoke inherent contempt and frog-march Rove before Congress!

http://www.democrats.com/why-did-karl-rove-resign