Rove To Go

In a story just a short time ago it was announced that Karl Rove, President Bush's close friend and chief political strategist, will leave the White House at the end of August, joining a lengthening line of senior officials heading for the exits in the final 1 1/2 years of the administration.

This has got to be seen as a big deal as Karl Rove has been with President Bush since the beginning of his political career in Texas, and has been with him throughout his Governorship right up to the two terms in the White House.

Mr. Rove was also the person that Robert Novak, a famous newspaper columnist said gave him the name of the CIA operative, Valerie Plame, not "Scooter” Libby. Mr. Rove has not faced any criminal charges in that matter, and has testified several times before a grand jury investigating the incident.

Critics of Karl Rove think that he is leaving before the “other shoe drops” in the Plame outing as well as his role in the firing of the U.S. Attorney’s, for which he refuses to testify before Congress, at President Bush’s instruction.

However, in the announcement he said that he was going home to take care of his family, as it has been a long, touch time and his family needs him home.

Whatever the real reason it would seem that as in many admnistrations, when you get to the “4th quarter” a lot of people start thinking of their lives after the White House and begin moving into new careers, retirement, or just to do something different. Mr. Rove has expressed an interest in writing a book about his experiences, which should be an interesting read.

After the Democrats took control of Congress in November, some 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 due to his handling of the Iraq War.

It says also that this makes Bush more of a lame duck, but he is in good company, as the latest polls show that even though his standings in our eyes is very low, the Congress is even lower, so they are pretty much a lame duck Congress as well. This is probably good, because more often than not, when the President and Congress cannot get anything done, our country is better off, and costs us less tax dollars.

Obviously, there are some IMPORTANT things that they do need to work on, such as the war in Iraq, funding to keep the government running, infrastructure issues, etc., that the lame ducks hopefully can get accomplished, but as for most of the other pork barrel projects and earmarks they could surely be left aside for our betterment.

I am not a big fan of Mr. Rove, but he has shown to be smart, sneaky, and successful in much of what he has done throughout his association with President Bush, and we will need a little time to see what his legacy was to this White House and this country.

Rove