WSJ: Karl Rove to resign
Update 4pm Eastern. Radar talks to Fred Thompson rep Mark Corallo, who seems to shoot down rumors of a Rove jump to the campaign.
Update: Video highlights and a parting shot.
Update: Press conference at 11:35am. Update: 11:25am Eastern.
The President is talking about Rove’s family “making huge sacrifices. We’re going to be friends for a long time. I would call Karl Rove a dear friend…I thank my friend for making a tremendous sacrifice. Wish you all the very best. I’ll be on the road behind you soon.”
Rove speaks: He’s “grateful to have been a witness to history. It has been a joy and honor. Praises Bush for putting America on a war footing. I’ve seen a reformer…We’ve been at this a long time.”
(Rove is choked up.)
“Right time to start thinking about the next chapter of my family’s life…now is the time. I will deeply miss my work here…looking forward to continuing our friendship of 34 years…I will ask for God’s gifts of eternal strength and..Thank you again for this extraordinary opportunity.”
Hug. Depart.
Rove was much more articulate and emotional than Bush, FWIW.
Fox News Channel’s E.D. Hill notes the curious playing of the “family” card…Rove’s son is going off to college. “I’m not sure how many kids going off to college have time for more ‘family’ time.” Now, there’s on-air banter about which campaign Rove’s headed to: Thompson or Giuliani?
***
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,” 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.
Gigot’s interview is titled “The Mark of Rove.” Gigot lets Rove defend himself and his legacy, and what I see, alas, is the mark of self-delusion and blindness that has damaged the White House and the Beltway GOP. Rove pats President Bush (and himself) on the back for the disastrous Medicare entitlement expansion and the aborted Social Security reform effort. We get this admission: “His biggest error, Mr. Rove says, was in not working soon enough to replace Republicans tainted by scandal.” And then this:
As for what his own White House mistakes have been, Mr. Rove winces and says, “I’ll put my feet up in September and think about that.”
The Left will harp on Plameout. John Little rounds-up reaction and fresh conspiracy theories from the far Left.
But here’s what I find striking about Rove’s exit interview:
Not a word here about the Harriet Miers debacle, the botching of the Dubai ports battle, or the undeniable stumbles in post-Iraq invasion policies.
And not a word about the spectacular disaster of the illegal alien shamnesty, which will be the everlasting stain Rove leaves behind.
I repeat from the WSJ news article:
“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.”
Imagine how much better off the White House and the Republican Party might be now if he had, in fact, left a year ago.
Yes, there’s the legacy Rove should ponder as he puts his feet up.
***
Flashback: What is your name? MC Rove:
***
More reax:
Pajamas Media keeps tab. The story’s already at the top of Memeorandum. The WSJ blog is monitoring blog responses.
See what others have said
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Categories: Karl Rove
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Rove was fantastic when it came to game-planning for the elections. But he never should have become involved in the actual policy setting.
If the left hadn’t tried to turn him into the devil, Conservatives might have been more vocal about saying “why IS he involved in policy in the first place?”
One has to wonder if Rove is going to end up on someones campaign staff. Fred! maybe?
GREAT “hope” there William Teach! Wouldn’t that be a hoot? Why, yes, it would!
I am hoping he comes back down to Texas and help us divorce ourselves from the rest of the country.
All y’all “rabid right-wing conspirators” will be welcomed with open arms. We have all the oil and gas we need for the Republic of Texas and if the liberal moonbats want any they will have to grovel. We have our own electrical grid as well.
Maybe we will even invade Mexico and take out the terrorists down there.
We Texicans take care of our own!
Come on home Mr Rove! Ya dun good!
And the left collectivly orgasms…
Imagine the scramble by Congressional Dems at this time. They are on vacation, and Rove will be out of the fed gov’t by the time they are back, so what about their millions of investigations?
I hesitate to put my thoughts about Rove down here, fearing the flaming pens of Mr. Cat, PB, and others. However, I have never seen such hatred directed against an aide to the President as was directed against Rove. It was irrational and unreasoning.
Rove was very, very tough. He played the game with a zest that usually served Bush pretty well. But I agree with Michelle, he should have been gone long ago – probably after his role in the Plame Affair came to light. If not there, almost certainly for his failure in 2006. That Mid-Term plan was a Rove operation all the way. As one of the major architects of that debacle, he should have been canned.
I am now going to amuse myself by going to lefty websites and watching their heads exploding.
PTL 4 KARL ROVE
hope he’s near the top of the list next time there’s a spot on the US Supreme Court.
Make sure you have plenty of hand sanitizer available for your dumpster dive, Rick
how did your little song go???
…so long, farewell…
Why did Bush and Rove abandon the
“Ownership Society” theme that they talked about in W’s first term?
They could have taken that concept, and ran with it, and WON more seats.
Instead, they took a gamble, and went into Iraq on evidence that is not so “compelling” in hindsight.
Yes, I want to continue the War on Terror. Yes, I want to continue to fight and win the war against Jihadists even in Iraq. But Conservatives are supposed to be Competent!!
We are supposed to look at the evidence, re-examine it, and ask the hard questions repeatedly because we do not trust in Government to solve our problems. This whole thing called Iraq is a nightmare.
Fear not.
I think Rove will be remembered as a great election strategist and as a Bush administration legacy, not so much.
The neocon legacy is a liberal one.
If you’re a senior on a low, fixed income with catastophic drug expenses, it’s not a “disaster”…It’s a God-send.
I can prove it.
Another legacy of Rove’s is the “new tone” of Washington–where President Bush would refuse to explain conservative ideas, battle with liberals in Congress, and take on the bias of the MSM. It was apologetic conservatism. What a disaster that was! They were always on the defensive and let the MSM filter everything.
Then during the second term, he arrogantly STILL refused to take on the bias of the MSM or use the bully pulpit.
Really? How so? He was a horrible strategist. He barely won the 2004 election to a horrible candidate, John Kerry, and lost the 2006 Congressional elections. He refused to explain conservative ideas; instead, he relied solely on bringing out the base. It was a very selfish strategy because it hurt the Republicans long term.
Oh, and for the record…
Karl Rove: Still not indicted.
I disagree with MM on this one. I think it is wrong to place blame for the Illegal immigration debacle at Rove’s feet or the loss of seats back in Nov.
Republicans were to blame completely for the elections in 2006 and for the Illegal immigration reform bill they tried to pass on us this year.
I agree with Hugh Hewitt, I think Rove was smart to remain loyal to Bush through some of the mistakes: Harriet Myers, the Medicare fiasco, etc. Even though I disagree with what Pres. Bush did I think it is wrong to lay all the blame at Rove’s feet.
Hugh thinks Rove will rest up and be back for the November elections….I hope he comes back with Fred.
It was not just a Democratic drive, but Media drive to force him out like they have done with others.
I personally think the reason he stayed so long was to show they were not bowing to the Media agenda and drive to push him out, not the Democratic one.
Perhaps MC Rove can retire to an illegal immigrant infested town in Texas?
BTW, timing is everything. Rove to head Fred!’s campaign strategy team (that’s my hunch).
I think Gabe has it right.Rove said this in the interview-A big debate among Republicans these days is who bears more blame for 2006 — Messrs. Bush and Rove, or the behavior of the GOP Congress. Mr. Rove has no doubt. “The sense of entitlement was there” among Republicans, he says, “and people smelled it.” That must be why President Bush vetoed so many bills.
It occurs to me the people who credit Rove with every single action that came from the Administration are just as deluded as those who claim the President is a puppet controlled by others.
I for one thought it was amazing how Rove was the devil himself to the Democrat’s. Karl must have chuckled about that every day. The mastermind of very conspiracy ‘imagined’ by the Dim-o-crats.
Good job, and all the best in your future.
The entire Bush administration tried to play nice with Democrats and all it did in the end was create one black eye after another for Republicans. Don’t put the blame entirely on Rove. The Bush administration began with the idea that compassionate conservatism was somehow the right way to go. The truth is that good ole conservative ideas were the successful parts of the administration (tax cuts and military action) and compassion was a failure because it was viewed, and rightly so, as softness and indecision (shamnesty and social security privatization).
Every administration has a few blunders, just as every human being has a few blunders. The question is how do you deal with the blunders and move on effectively.
Whatever his day-to-day role, Rove’s departure will certainly change the dynamics in the White House. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.
Folks, King Karl with be join’ Fred! as campaign strategy guy.
That’s my hunch and I’m sticking to it.
Frank #12:
Some kind of prescription drug plan would help those people.
But the plan proposed by Bush and pushed through Congress by Rove is a fiscal disaster, a nightmare that could have been avoided with a few common sense market solutions regarding the insurance companies and pharm companies who are making out like bandits because of some of the bill’s particulars.
It could have been drafted better and achieved the same results, costing us less money in the long run.
Rove has to share some of the blame. Immigration “reform” (read: amnesty) was one of Rove’s pet policies for bringing about a political realignment and create a permanent Republican majority. That, along with a few other major policy initiatives (e.g., SS reform) which also failed, were part of Rove’s plan to create the realignment. Needless to say, that has not come about, in large part because of some of Rove’s miscalculations, as he badly misread the base and the electorate in general on amnesty and seriously misread congress on SS reform.
None of this gets Bush off the hook off the hook of course, nor does it get congressional republicans off the hook for their own mistakes. But Rove certainly deserves his share of the blame for the current (mis)fortunes of the Republican party.
Who won? That Bush did is testament to Rovian campaign ability.
Without Rove, George would be still scratching his head in Crawford.
He just should have been kept out of the active administration.
In time, I believe history will reveal that Rove was the man who tore the Republican party to pieces via his immigration stance. The vitriol served on those who opposed that policy, the majority of the party, has caused a fracture that may prove to be irreparable.
When politicians believe they can impose their will on the people instead of serving the will of the people, they become a danger to this Nation.
I love you guys dearly and visit this site more than once a day. I deeply enjoy the comments section and often make comments on items that are of interest to me. Having said that, I have been feeling anger in lots of the words Michelle writes. Almost a disdain for subjects as if one or two simple things could have changed things in a dramatically different way. Nothing is simple and though we may hate to, we must often make deals with the little devils in our lives to get anything done. The mark of our side is that when we had enough, we voted our piggies out and that deal will end up costing us. The other side with the tinfoil hatted leftists loons pushing the charge, do not care about anything except getting out of Iraq, getting Bush and spewing angry hatred on everyone including themselves. Their candidates fawn and salivate all over themselves trying to please them. And if we are not committed and willing to work together, they will win and our country will be lost. Each of has a position and most of us will rearrange ourselves to accommodate to some degree. Anger will not help. Disdain turns others off. Please, Michelle, let us get back to trying to find resolutions rather than negativity as the other side does hourly!!! Rove is a genius but hey, not every genius is likable. Tony is a first rate press rep, but even he cannot “say it like it is”. We may think we know what is right, but we often don’t get every bit of information we must have to make a truly informed, intelligent decision. Even in our own lives. My best to you all on the site.
Rove = your typical Machiavellian strategist. I was never a big fan of the man from the beginning. I think that George is inherently a good human being; I can’t say the same for Rove.
Coltsfan #9:
Those are pretty much my feelings exactly.
I thought basing conservative governance on the “Ownership Society” could have been an excellent counter to anything liberals could have come up with. It truly is a conservative idea and eminently practical in a 21st century industrial society.
I thought it might even offset some of the loss in Hispanic support (from citizens mind you) that the GOP has absorbed as a result of our strong stand against illegal immigration.
But you’re right – like everything else this Administration has done, they never pushed it very hard and just let it fall by the wayside.
I don’t know how you can even begin to make that argument.
The plan came in, well UNDER the cost estimates.
Phone rings, it’s for you Mr. President.
George: hey Carl its Geraldo, he wants your job…see ya.
Shamnesty, just another job American Americans can’t do.
Image: Bear1909 slingin up his leiderhosen again to teach zorro #8 the rest of that tune…
“the hills are uhhhh-live, vith da soundz uff da Luftwaffe….” zzzzrrrttttt….sowwy…wrong tune….here it is….
“adieu! adieu! to you and you and you….”
Karl Rove was the loyal lieutenant to the President. It will be difficult to extrapolate how much of the President’s policy views and actions were consistent with or even conceived by Rove.
One thing no will be able to argue with is Rove’s record for getting the President elected (twice), in spite of the relentless and formidable forces aligned against the President.
Mission accomplished, lieutenant.
Actually, Rove was anything but Machiavellian if you really take a close look at Machiavelli’s writings. I don’t think there’s anything in Machiavelli that would advise a political actor to nakedly pander to one ethnic group in order to beg for their votes while brazenly and viciously attacking your own natural base of support.
#35, noted. On the immigration issue, i would agree. I was speaking in generalities.
Perhaps a better articulation would be that I believe that Rove was someone who really tarnished this presidency.
George is a good guy, a loyal guy….almost to a fault. I think George could have done better with another stategist.
Better?
What are the chances that Bush will resign?
Hopefully, excellent. Then “President Cheney” can do what really must be done, and not coincidentally cause heads to explode at D-KOS.
The big league was just too much for the entire Bush administration, from the top to the cronies. Reminds me of sports, where a college player seems a sure bet for the pros, but something just ain’t there when he hits the big league.
Some of my favorite moments were Wolfowitz ridiculing Gen. Shinseki for suggesting more troops were needed for Iraq, Rumsfeld and “freedom is messy,” Condi’s tenure as head of Iraqi reconstruction, (perhaps the greatest corruption moneywise in history) and her performance in general which reminds us why real conservatives are opposed to affirmative action, the surprise of Texas hick Karen Hughes in her role as good will ambassador to Islam when she found that explaining the Bush policy of killing as many Arabs as possible for Israel and the Jewish neocons didn’t resonate with Moslems, and so forth.
Karl Rove was good enough to get Bush elected twice, so I give him credit for that. That was his job, and he produced.
Only if you think James Bond was the best secret agent ever…
A true Machiavellian wouldn’t have his name so widely known…
I don’t know exactly. But imagine the caniption of the Left over this- Bush resigns for “medical reasons” and Cheney has to take over.
Yeech. Btw- is there a any correlation between Rove’s resignation, his mention of “putting America on a war footing”, the radioactive car crash in New Jersey, and the heavy guard on Puget Sound ferries up in Seattle?”
“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.”
Translation: “I’m going home to Texas to prepare my underground bunker“
The divisive nature of Rove’s political strategies have done long term damage to the Republican Party. Bush’s reliance on Rove for policy decisions is a major factor in GW’s 30% approval rating. He helped alienate all but hard core conservatives. Bush may have been a better President without him.
Rove was a reliable lieutenant with an excellent mind like most of “W’s” administration. It will take time for the history to be sorted from the spin.
Then explain Congress’s approval rating…
LOL – what happened there. Omit strike, please!
As Karl Rove embraced President Bush today following an emotional farewell announcement on the South Lawn, the solemnity of the moment was shattered by Bill Plante of CBS, who bellowed to Bush: “If he’s so smart, how come you lost Congress?
Bias once again from the overwhelmingly left wing of journalism. No surprise that it is the Couric/Rather wannabees in action at CBS.
After suffering through the worst Congress in history, he is going to eat those words!
CBS has a news division?
Rove deserves every accolade of “genius,” that is bestowed upon him. 2006 was not his fault. Overall, Mr. Rove did an excellent job, and his brilliance at political strategy down to every metric milepost is the reason we did not have Gore or Kerry.
Yes, it does matter.
We could have had Bob Shrum, whose losing streak is matched only by his viciousness.
http://blacktygrrrr.wordpress.com/2007/05/31/kerry-edwards-revisited-the-scam-the-scum-the-scrum-and-the-shrum/
Any republican Presidential candidate that does not attempt to hire Rove should be drug tested.
Respectfully,
eric
Yes, it’s call “Si BS News”
Without Rove, Gore would have been President on 09/11.
For that alone we should be thankful.
On Hillary Rodham Clinton: “a tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate.” Nice parting shot.
Have a great life, Mr. Rove. I wish you well.
Dang!42 surveyor you beat me to it
LOL
Kudo’s to Karl Rove, the Grinch who stole Fitzmas.
If Bill Plante is so smart,why is he working for CBS News? *rim shot*…but seriously folks….guys like Rove and Lee Atwater and Eliot Abrams et al operate with a certain amount of impunity,simply because they don’t give a fat baby’s butt what the polls say about them or what people think about their various machinations…….they are hired to get RESULTS…and if the writhing paroxysms of BDS that Rove was able to induce into Democrat minds is any indication,he has been fairly effective by any objective political standard….he likely got blamed for incidents that he had nothing to do with and probably loved being the lightning rod for the Bush Administration…and now he leaves with the Democrats never really having laid a glove on him….pretty impressive if you ask me
I think it is odd that this blog’s usual liberal hacks haven’t chimed in with their snipes en masse.
Very interesting.
As far as Rove goes, I am still too mad at Bush for things like Shamnesty and his appeasement of terrorist-supporting entities to feel any remorse.
I will be glad when we get a real conservative in office. If Rove has truly had anything to do with Bush’s attempts to destroy the GOP and sell this country out to the highest bidder, all I can say is good riddance.
I think everyone has fallen for the Dems constant saber-rattling about Rove …
George and Karl are just like a football team … the coach and the quarterback …
get too much credit when they win …
get too much blame when they lose …
I think Rove did some good things and some not so good things … just like anyone else … but I think there were times when the Dems wanted Rove so badly over losing the elections in 2000 and 2004 that they tried to make him the scapegoat on everything … including things he had nothing to do with …
just a different viewpoint …
Rick,
You have nothing to fear from any comments from me about what you posted except this:
“I hesitate to put my thoughts about Rove down here, fearing the flaming pens of Mr. Cat, PB,”
I don’t appreciate remarks like that, Rick. You made a similar comment once before and I honestly challenged you on it and never heard from you again on the issue. Trust me, if you think I’m going to sit back and have to pull MSM tactics on me by slowly defining who I am by these cute qualifiers, you’re mistaken. I think to most people, openly debating you on one or two issues, especially when you struck first re the snarky remarks, doesn’t qualify as being a flaming pen. You may want to take a close look in the mirror on that one.
Next time keep the snide digs to yourself.
Apart from that I agree with you and Michelle, he’s been on the wrong side of one too many issues. It’s more than that in terms of letting him go, however: the right needs to learn how to play the media game. When you allow the left to define who and what someone in the right camp is (similar to my first point in this thread), then you need to be prepared to let them go when the damage becomes irreversible. That’s my main complaint about Rove regardless of issues; the Bush administration has been terrible at balancing how the left defines it and the people within it. It’s like chess, this media game, and occasionally you have to sacrifice a valued piece for the sake of winning the game. The problem is, though, that that usually happens when you’ve already screwed up big time, and that’s what’s happened here. The same with Newt Gringrich: he and the rest of the right did a terrible job in fighting back the MSM as they determined who he was in the eyes of the public, and as a consequence, we’ve lost, in my mind, the best possible Presidential candidate we could have had, because as a candidate he’s such damaged goods now that I personally don’t believe he can win against Hillary.
So with Rove it’s a one-two punch: wrong issues and wrong media perception. He should have been given a handshake and a gold watch ages ago.