Bush apparatchik Karl [let me hurt you] Rove announced his intention to leave the White House at month's end. Obviously he and Tom Delay want to jump start Tom's Termite & Bug Business and aim it towards any and all Democrats. Or perhaps he'd like to devote the next few years - in private practice - to track down those 5 million e-mails that suddenly went missing from the RNC servers in the White House.
Whatever the real reason for Rove's departure the fact remains that he managed to single-handily destroy the Republican Party. What remains is not even a shadow of its former shell. What he did to the GOP was akin to what Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans. That dream of GOP national hegemony was pounded to dust by the Rovemeister and his Monkey-Man in the White House.
Perhaps the fact that Senator Patrick Leahy's Senate Judiciary Committee has issued a subpoena compelling Rove's attendance before that Committee to answer the allegations of White House complicity in the firing of 9 U.S. Attorneys lies at the root of Rove's quick trip back to private life. It seems that Rove was personally involved in the dismissal of New Mexico's U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, a Republican. Telephone records of conversations reveal that Rove made suggestions that efforts be undertaken to have him replaced when prosecutions against alleged Democratic voter fraud in that state were not forthcoming.
Rove's foot prints are also evident in the dismissal of Bud Cummins, U.S. Attorney in Arkansas who in turn was replaced by Tim Griffin, right hand man to Karl Rove. Griffin did not last long as a U.S. Attorney and resigned hours after BBC Television ‘Newsnight’ reported that Congressman John Conyers requested the network’s evidence on Griffin’s involvement in ‘caging voters.’ Greg Palast, reporting for BBC Newsnight, obtained a series of confidential emails from the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign. In these emails, Griffin, then the GOP Deputy Communications Director, transmitted so-called ‘caging lists’ of voters to state party leaders.
Karl Rove presided over two stolen Presidential elections [2000 + 2004] and countless smear campaigns against countless candidates. His most infamous exploit will no doubt be his public revelation of the identity of - at the time - covert CIA operative Valerie Plame during a telephone conversation with Time Magazine reporter Matthew Cooper on July 11, 2003. While not mentioning Valerie Plame by "name, Rove did clearly indicate that she worked at the "agency" - an obvious reference Cooper interpreted to mean the "CIA." Rove also added that she was working on "WMD" - aka - Weapons of Mass Destruction. The conversation concluded with Rove stating "I've already said too much."
His short-term legacy will be his exploitation of the cultural divides within this country, pitting the conservative religious community against virtually everyone else. This was brought to full fruit in the 2004 Presidential election as Rove crowed that he was able to turn out millions of conservative evangelicals to re-elect George Bush to a second term. Using God, Gays, Guns & Abortion as the main ingredients in this diabolical concoction the hate monger in the West Wing did succeed at generating over 50+ million votes for Bush.
Unfortunately for Rove, the 2006 election showed just how short-lived this New GOP majority was. Like the Mississippi River - a mile wide but an inch deep. One thing is for sure, those 9-11 swing states that figured so prominently in the U.S. Attorney firings will be in play for the GOP in the 2008 Presidential campaign. Rove can direct this battle from the sidelines, hence his early departure in his quest for a 3rd Presidential Trophy. Only a massive Democratic turnout will quash any Republican machinations at election gimmicks and reinstall a Democratic president.
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