Here’s your two weeks notice:
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 haven’t checked the Democrat’s conspiracy sites but I’m sure they’re of the opinion that Rove will just control things from afar. The really crazy folks will see Bush’s trips to Crawford as secret Bush-Rove summits where they’ll plan to suspend elections and create a fascist state. The moderately crazy Democrats are just freaking out over the prospect of Rove advising the next Republican presidential candidate.
Update:
OK here are the results from a quick scan of Democratic Underground:
annabanana
I can’t imagine him actually leaving. Perhaps they’ve implanted s communication device so he can run GW from afar. . .
anniebelle
I know when our candidate finally emerges we’ll see that sorry, slimy pile of regurgitation spreading his vile from one corner of our nation to the other. He’ll have his little piggy snout up every RNC puppet. Gawd I hate these people.
Joolz
We aren’t rid of the fat pig just because he’s leaving the White House. He’s never really been a “presidential” adviser anyway, IMO. He’s a political operative for the Rethug Party, pure and simple. He’s just slithering off to become the brains behind the campaign of whoever gets the Rethug nomination for ‘08.
tom-paine
The continuity of power is absolutely necessary to keep Imperial Amerika “in higher, tighter and righter hands,” to quote our First Emperor, Poppy Augustus (1984-1992). You will see some combination of Loyal Bushie Comrades at the side of the next Emperor (unless the next Emperor of Amerika is permitted to be a Democrat, which I will simply not believe until I see it) which will be the real power in the naive and beholden Romney or Ghouli Imperium. And Karl’s resignation, which has absolutely nothing to do with what the Imperial Subjects of Amerika or our bootickling Imperial Congress want, is the logical step in terms of the Bush Imperium contiuing to keep Amerika a BushPutinist Nation, no matter who takes power.
adsosletter
I think ol’ Karl is gettin’ ready…..to make himself available for the Republican candidate in 2008…
krj44
he will be working behind the scenes with more liberty to do as he pleases,more illegal trash then ever,more dirt and did you catch that fatally flawed clinton,he`s right on the money,if the rethugs had a candidate they could blow clinton away.clinton better slap gen. clark on that ticket to cover her ass or we will be looking at 4 more years of rethug rule.rove has targeted 28 dems that are vunerable,doesn`t sound to me like he`s shutting it down.if you want to win you have to get into the gutter just like the rethug bastards,take nothing for granted.
skittles
that bastard ain’t going anywhere. the heat is getting so close so he is running to Texas but he will just be operating bush’s puppet strings remontely
Update II:
Michelle Malkin poses an interesting question:
“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.
Michelle also posts the single most cringeworthy video of all time - MC Rove.
Update II
Pajamas Media rounds up rational reactions from the mainstream media and blogosphere.
Right Click for URL
Filed Under:
Politics
August 13th, 2007 at 7:33 am
Heads may not be exploding on the left, but they are popping a few fuses over the fact that he’s resiging of his own accord, and not because of anything they were able to gin up through Plamegate or some other imagined scandal. Instead, he’s leaving as the congressional Democrats are being forced kicking and screaming to admit the surge seems to be working and they may not be able to yank troops out of Iraq in September.
Rove’s second term missteps, as documented by Malkin, are similar to the mistakes the Reagan White House made under Chief of Staff Donald Regan in the second term, compared with how things ran with James Baker as COS during the first term. The difference here is it’s the same person running things in both terms, albeit it Rove has more control over policy more in the second term, as Andy Card’s influence out of the Chief of Staff position wained prior to his resignation.
August 13th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Karl Rove To Resign: A Year Too Late?…
I have never been a huge defender of Karl Rove. So now that he announces his resignation I can only wonder if his departure isn’t a year too late?
……
August 13th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
If you can stand the smell, wander over to DU… http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1574494&mesg_id=1574494
They have their normally less than intelligent take on things…
August 15th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Rove Resigns: MSM Goes Ballistic (as in orbital) With Joy…
We start off in Seattle. Where editors of the Seattle Times cheered Rove’s resignation
when it was announced.
Why? What was so
exciting, so wonderful about Rove’s resignation to these supposedly
hard-headed, fair, nonpartisan, unbiased…