here are fewer than 17 months of the staggering Bush presidency left and the latest set-back to the obvious lame-duck presidency of George Bush is the further disintegration of his Republican old guard. For the first several years of the current presidency Karl Rove was the powerhouse behind what he had hoped would be a permanent realignment of US politics in favor of conservatives. Since January he is the third long-serving Texan to quit the Bush administration; Harriet Miers stepped down as the Bush legal counsel and Dan Bartlett, one of the most trusted of Presidential aides, quit as counselor two months ago.
Just a short while ago Karl Rove was hailed by many as possibly the greatest political strategist in American history. That was then, now Rove's reputation has suffered as has his boss's approval ratings. Once again I find myself in accord with the thinking of Vermont's Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who said of Rove, "he has added his name to the list of officials who resigned to avoid congressional scrutiny. Rove, who was Bush's political genius/guru and his most trusted domestic political advisor, is receiving a lot of the blame for the general state of the Republican party as the election draws ever closer. Mr. Rove, I feel that you failed, not just the Republican Party but the American people, when you counseled President Bush to make every single major policy debate into yet another political dogfight. It was that way with the war in Iraq, with Social Security, even terrorism. Mr. Rove, enjoy your Texas retirement but don't get too comfortable until Congress is able to use its power to bring you back to Washington to testify, in public, under oath, about how you used that office, so close to the Oval office, to put politics always above the interests of the American people.