Good riddance to bad rubbish

Rove's win-at-all-costs M.O. did irreparable damage to the body politic.

Failure indeed. His candidate never won except by the narrowest of margins, and Rove tipped the scales every time with the dirtiest of dirty tricks.

May he live out his days in obscurity and disgrace.

It will take at least a year and a half for Rove's stain on the White House to fade away. Alas, Bush and Cheney are still there so the stain will likely get deeper still.

I am hoping that one of many investigations are getting closer to the turdblossom. Several Repugs from Kalifornia are in trouble and the guys in Alaska are also under federal investiagtions. The USA investigations are still on going. I guess it is better to spend time with his family than inmates in DC.

History will judge Rove a colossal failure

Nonsense Kevin. History will judge Rove to be a extraordinary success. This is explained by Real clear Politics.

Link

"To give you a sense of the trust we all have in Karl: during the 2004 campaign, I was asked by lots of people who I thought would win and why. Rather than elaborate analysis, or a state-by-state breakdown, I had a simple formulation: We have George W. Bush and they John Kerry; we have Karl Rove, and they don't. And that was enough for me."
"Karl was at the center of events when George W. Bush, running for president the first time, defeated a popular war hero, John McCain, in the primary, and then went on to defeat an incumbent vice president, Al Gore, who had the strongest economy in world history in his favor and was thought to be a brilliant debater"
"And Karl was again the key figure, this time along with Ken Mehlman, in helping President Bush win re-election"
"Not only did the President win, he increased his support among women, Hispanics, Jewish voters, Catholics, African Americans, Asian Americans, union households, suburban voters, moderates, independents, big city residents, and small city resident (so much for the myth of the "base-only" strategy)."

I guess it is better to spend time with his family than inmates in DC.

And why does he get that choice? Isn't he still under subpoena? Is Leahy likely to say "well, as long as he's out of government, he doesn't have anything useful to tell us any more"?

Has Fox News hired him as an analyst yet? I'm hoping they do so soon, before CNN or one of the networks grabs him.

I love how on CNN it says the first thing he will be doing after retirement is to go "dove hunting". Perfect.

I think Rove was overrated. His basic advantage is he fought dirty. If your opposition has more class (as Gore and Kerry did, for instance), fighting dirty works, at least for a while.

But even so, Rove’s dirtiness didn’t work all that well. He didn’t really win for Bush in 2000. In 2004 Bush beat an ineffective candidate with war hysteria and the media at his back. In 2006, Rove got “the math� entirely wrong, and lost both houses of Congress.

There are few Americans who have wielded power in a manner so damaging to their party and their country as Karl Rove.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that Karl Rove is the son of Murray Chotiner.

History will judge Rove a colossal failure

Listen, I'm as big a Rove-hater as there is. Just hearing the name or seeing that smirkish face makes me spit nails. But, how will he be judged a "failure"? Winning at all costs is not losing. His candidate won TWICE even when he had no business winning. The country lost - but that's not the same thing. Rove was very good at what he did - which was to lie, cheat, steal and come out on top. I'm very concerned that not only will he not be judged a failure but that there will be many a dishonest GOP political hack waiting to fill his shoes.

[do not respond to the troll]

Rove and Bush weren’t the first ones to figure out that whipping up public opinion and starting a war was good politics in the short term. And they weren’t the first ones to find out they didn’t have a clue how to win the war they started, which in the long term is bad politics (besides being stupid and immoral).

I don't think we should try to judge Rove until we've seen how much long-term damage he has done to his own party.

If the GOP starts 2009 without the House, the Senate OR the White House, that'll be bad, but not necessarily permanent.

But if the same situation persists in 2011 and 2013, the Republicans should know who to blame.

Must obtain new dictionaries - Did not know that "Colossal Failure" was spelled "Scalito and Roberts".

Rove mastered the obvious, period. Play on people's fears and hatreds. Appeal to the lowest common denominator. Lie your ass off. Break the law if necessary. It's hard to beat people who will stop at nothing, especially when the media not only fail to expose them but jump into bed with them, and the judiciary is equally complicit.

On the upside, his desperately-needs-to-be-smacked fat little face will no longer be smirking at us from the TV screen. That was always one of the worst parts about Rove stories: having to see the file footage of him. Couldn't they have shown something comparatively benign, like a mushroom cloud?

Going to have to go with Al on this one. Rove got his boy elected president in 2000 and 2004. That was the job he set out to do and he did it.

And may God have mercy on his soul.

History will judge Rove a colossal failure, a man who ... never really understood the times he lived in.

—Kevin Drum

Wrong. Rove showed how greedy, lazy, frightened, bigoted, and gullible the American electorate is. He also showed that the press could not be counted on to save democracy from his ilk.

This is the lesson that dems better learn from Rove -- because there are many more like him out there.

But if you want to be a barking dog on TV with Mr. Murdoch's empire, then doing it in an interview with the Wall Street Journal makes a lot of sense.

Well, I suppose his job is done.

I feel for his wife and son.

It was 9/11 that both made and broke the Bush presidency, not some kind of mystical McKinley-esque realignment. Rove was blind to that, and blind to the way Bush should have governed after 9/11.

This strikes me as exactly right.

Yes, Rove did "win" in 2000 (due to the fine services of the Supreme Court), and 2004, but he will surely be taking down with him the entire Conservative movement for many years to come, with 2006 a mere harbinger. He will live on in disgrace not only with enemies, but with former friends.

Despite his claim to be working toward a larger vision, he simply missed utterly the broad picture of what his policies and practices would engender.

That broad picture can be seen in the direct downward curve of Bush's popularity numbers from 9/11 on. Rove thought that the 9/11 effect was of infinite duration, while it lost punch with every passing month, a fact obvious to all but the foolish and blind.

While aspiring to a permanent realignment behind the Republican Party, he will very likely achieve the direct opposite.

That is what one calls failure.

Rove is not to blame for the mess that is the Republican party. He was a hired hand.

The people to blame are the politicians at the top who actually confused winning elections with governing. They are the people who believed their job was to win by 50%+1 and the govern as though the other 50%-1 didn't exist. They are also the ones who confused beating the Iraqi army with winning in Iraq. They are the ones who didn't plan or think ahead. They are the ones who never, ever asked, what is in the best interests of the American people.

Rove is an immoral crook, but he is still just a flunky. Blame Bush and Cheney for the profound failure that is the Bush Presidency,

It's cropped up here several times and I am sick to death of the mystification. We can never forge ahead until be deambiguate our linguistic circumstances. We are NOT at was with Iraq. We invaded them, we occupy them, and they resist our occupation, along with other disgruntled Islamicists from Saudi Arabia. This is NOT a War. WWI and WWII were wars. Even Viet Nam was a war. This is an ill-conceived military adventure. It may have started out TRYING to be a war. But the other side didn't really fight back--not as a Sovereign Nation. Instead you have a situation of asymetrical resistance to a foreign occupation. This is much the situation that has existed in Israel, and in England when the IRA was on the attack. We even had a similar situation here in the 70's with the Weathermen, no matter has ineffective their efforts were to destabilize the US government.

So, this adventure is not something that can be 'won' or 'lost'. It was lost the minute someone conceived of the adventure. Why? Because Iraq is an artificial state. It was held together by a junk yard dog who was the baddest of the bad in his neighborhood. Without his strength to force an uneasy truce between tribes that would like to slit each others throats, they have hundreds of years of insults to avenge. This will inevitably lead to genocide until the next Strong Man emerges on top. You can't inject democracy directly into a culture. Democracy is an evolutionary process, and a fragile one at that. There is nothing to win in Iraq. If we kill every last Iraqi--and we are on the way--is that victory? If not, what is? This is not a football game. And to claim that Democrats want a disaster in Iraq to win elections is madness. And false. It's myth making. As much a myth as the myth that we are fighting a global war on terror. Nice metaphor, but meaningless in the face of reality. So cut the crap, alright?

It is so refreshing that people learn from mistakes and that history is never repeated.

Mark Hanna, the Hearst empire and the Spanish-American war and the conquest of those Pacific islands.

Karl Rove, the Murdoch empire and Iraq.

Sure happy that History has become such a forgotten field of study.

"Not only did the President win, he increased his support among women, Hispanics, Jewish voters, Catholics, African Americans, Asian Americans, union households, suburban voters, moderates, independents, big city residents, and small city resident (so much for the myth of the "base-only" strategy)."

Sure did retain that during 2006, right, Al?

I am SOOOO looking forward to 2008. We are going to KLEAN your KLOCKS, asshole.

Dems will have 55-56 seats in the Senate, at least a 40 seat majority in the House, and POTUS.

Then the fun begins.

Al, you are in the dustbin of history. The fiction of "Conservative America" is about to be TOTALLY DISCREDITED.

Karl Rove's political career is hardly over.

His methods worked, even if his political master failed in the execution of policy.

Has Richard Viguerie disappeared after GWB's failure? Roger Ailles would still be with us, bar his cancer. Grover Norquist is still hard at work.

The strategy of micro-targetting electoral segments, and of playing to the fears, the id of the electorate, worked like a charm.

If his grand realignment didn't work, he still grabbed the White House twice, the legislative for 6 years.

Scott Shrum anyone? The Democrats still have no one quite like him. Not even James Carville (retired).

Texas had no statewide Republicans when Rove came to the state. It now has no statewide Democrats. In the south, you don't run for Republican office without finding Rove's view.

Rove will define southern politics, which means Republican politics, for decades to come.

Watch to see if Rove backs Newt Gingrich's late run for the nomination.

He's a giant amongst pygmies. And he would be celebrated as such, had his master not gone off and invaded Iraq.

POed Liberal

Don't be too surprised if Romney v. Clinton is President Romney.

The Republicans *are* the presidential party, there's been no big realignment. They only have to take Florida, and Ohio.

I fantasize about Rove getting his commupance, a la the end of Godfather I: "You have to answer for Valerie." If ever an American political operative deserved to be waterboarded in Hell for all eternity, it's Karl. (And Gonzo. And Cheney . . .)

thirdPaul:

Thanks for that cogent historical analogy. It is SOOOO very pertinent.

What we must remember is that the excesses of the Gilded Age, in which Hanna wielded his fearsome power, led to the correction of 1929. We must ensure that the Current Gilded Age does not have the same result.

"His candidate won TWICE even when he had no business winning"

Rove is vastly overrated. The Republicans lost the
2000 election - had it not been for the butterfly
ballot screwup, bad tactics in the recount by Dems,
and a nakedly partisan Supreme Court, the Dems would
have kept the White House and taken the Senate.
And that failure would have been attributed to
Rove's foolish tactics of sending W off to campaign
in California when real swing states were still in
play.

The 2002 election was a big win, for sure: but
the aftermath of 9/11 wasn't a normal midterm.

Then in 2004, with a wartime President seeking
reelection, Rove almost blew it again. Bush was
woefully unprepared and lost the debates by a mile;
the polls showed Kerry winning; a combination of
weather and highly-partisan election administration
saved Ohio by a whisker; and right into the evening
of polling day it looked as though Bush was toast.
The almost-universal discrepancy between official
results and exit polls continues to lack a
convincing explanation.

And then in 2006, Rove was claiming that "the math"
showed the Repubs would hold the House and Senate.
Instead it was a crushing loss: and while the
House was probably a lost cause, minor tweaks to
the strategy could have saved the close Senate
races in Virginia and Montana, and the majority.
But once again Rove screwed around denying there
was a problem. They lost big, and then dumped
Rumsfeld - making that move a week earlier could
have changed the Senate result.

So what have we got ? A guy whose record is
hit-and-miss, and whose successes are achieved
only by slandering opponents, and being willing
to tapdance right on the line of narrow legality.
Good riddance. And let's hope that enough
Republicans continue to follow Rove's foolish
advice as they head like lemmings towards the
cliff of the 2008 election.

Who cares what damage he did or did not inflict on the GOP?

His legacy will be the notion that politics is war by any other means. All future administrations will recognize that the cost of dissing the people and the Congress is minimal, and there is much to be gained for a President in politicizing the instiutions that were traditionally more or less neutral,like the judiciary, the military, and the CIA.

"held together by a junk yard dog"

That's what they need - a new quarter back - Hell, Dick was one in high school - So, all he needs to do is resign and take al-Maliki's place, well, more like Saddam's place.

Cheney and his Blackwater goons could start the blood a'flowin - A new version of "The Man who would be King".

The Republicans *are* the presidential party, there's been no big realignment. They only have to take Florida, and Ohio.

OH is currently STRONGLY Democratic, or going that way. THe corruption and malfeasance in the Repukeliscum Party in OH are absolutely breathtaking. The scum Noe had the OH Government investing HUGE funds in rare coins, for gods' sake.

In FL, many people are overlooking an important fact: currently Republican governor has changed the Felon law. It used to be that former felons would not get the vote back without petition. This is now changed so that all BUT violent felons are re-enfranchised. This means that somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 have had the RTV reinstated. That will be a huge HUGE change in FL. I put FL STRONGLY in the Dem column right now due to that alone.

actually, he quit to spend more time with his pet scorpion.

Beautifully said. Kevin. All he cared about was using dirty tricks for partisan gain -- winning at all costs. The question, "But why win?" would have left him smirking at the idiocy of the question. A Rove-like friend in Canada once said that the ultimate responsibility of government -- the final reason for using power -- is to stay in power. No wonder he was so damaging; he cares nothing about the ultimate purpose of government: the common good.

B: I feel for his wife and son.

I think it was in the Washington Monthly I read an article about Karl Rove saying he was really a good husband and dad. Apparently he goes to little league games and is an exemplary parent, helping out and cheering on everyone and never blowing up at umpires or coaches.

It is another example of the principle that The existence of any one quality in a person (being a good dad and little league parent) does not affect at all the probability of any other quality (evil politics and all that flows from that).

we have Karl Rove, and they don't. And that was enough for me."

I agree with that. Kerry surrounded himself with DLC'ers who didn't understand they were in a bare knuckle brawl. Of course that starts with the candidate.

I think the reviews on this graduate of Mark Hanna High will be mixed. Getting George Bush elected to any office (discounting the 2000 swindle)is a major accomplishment. But Rove neither had a clue or desire to turn off the attack machine and govern for the good of the country.

His impact is he brought 19th century politics back with a vengence. It remains to be seen where it goes from there.

When rdw was poluting the waters around here, he did make one pertinent comment.

Alito and Roberts were a direct result of the 04 election. They will be a pair of albatross' around the neck of freedom and our constitution for a long spell, Roberts current health problems not withstanding.

Rove may have been a "hit or a miss" in some areas, but this has been the most egregious success of his tenure.

"It was 9/11 that both made and broke the Bush presidency, not some kind of mystical McKinley-esque realignment. Rove was blind to that, and blind to the way Bush should have governed after 9/11."

My inclination is to say "amen" to this, and I generally agree with frankly0's analysis at 1202.

That said, whether you think Rove was a failure or not depends on how you're defining the endstate/goal.

If the goal is to simply get elected, then he was a success, a stunning one in a couple of ways.

If the goal was to help build a successful presidency (and since he was on the payroll as Dep. Chief of Staff, it should have been), then he was a fairly large part of a massive failure.

The Bushies have a fairly odd view of political power and capital. Not merely cynical - that's not really unusual, and not necessarily all that troubling. But they seem to truly believe that "50% + 1" is every bit as meaningful as "65% approval, with a large part of the remaining 35% not really angry at you". Roveian divide and conquer was a huge part of 50+1.

You can see this in a lot of ways - their obsession with elections, rather than security and a liberal democratic order in Iraq, their obsession with executive power, their contempt for the legislative branch and process, their inability to articulate a coherent message against the democratically elected, decidedly un-liberal, democratic thug, Hugo Chavez (no, I don't want to invade).

Most of all, shortly after the 04 elections, Bush said something to the effect that the narrow victory ratified everything, and replenished his political capital. Bush had completely lost me long before that, but even I took it as a throw away line at a press conference. In retrospect, I think he, and most of the Bushies, truly believe this. I think every time they deal with the prospect of not being allowed to do whatever they want simply because they occupy the executive branch, they're offended. And I think they're truly, honestly surprised that divisive, controversial initiatives like Social Security and immigration didn't get enacted.

At the end of the day, the Bushies fail to understand that America is governed from the middle. That doesn't mean that you can't try a conservative or liberal approach, but you have to convince the moderates to let you give it a try. It's hard, complex work - sometimes known as "leadership". The two giants of my lifetime - Reagan and Clinton - both understood this. But George W. Bush though 50+1 was good enough, and hired Rove to get him there. I firmly believe that he will go to his grave not understanding why his presidency lay in shambles.

Isn't he clearly resigning to join someone's campaign?

Brojo,

You mean a trophy wife might be replaced by a trophy manager?

I believe Karl is now free to devote himself full time to the restoration of New Orleans, right?

Let us not forget another massive "success" when Rove was appointed to be in charge of Katrina Reconstruction in September, 2005. We all know how well that worked out.

With the judiciary committees still on his trail, I'm confused as to why resign now. He loses his excutive privilege as soon as he goes. If I were Leahy, I'd have the supoena delivered at his "going away" ceremony.

Toilets are flushing all over the world.

With the judiciary committees still on his trail, I'm confused as to why resign now. He loses his excutive privilege as soon as he goes.

Executive privilege covers the period for which someone was working for the president; it doesn't disappear when that person leaves. The question will be whether the WH claim of EP holds up in the courts and/or against inherent contempt of Congress. Rove's departure date has nothing to do with it.

Rove can do more damage outside of the WH because he has no restraints, like, you know, the Constitution or Congress.
I'm QUITE sure we have't heard the last of him.

Now begins serious recruiting for another crony, perhaps a loyal hick from Texas or an affirmative action loyalist.

Could someone more creative than I please write an "Ode to Turd Blossom" for all of us to enjoy?...

It could be written to "The Yellow Rose of Texas" perhaps? :-)

"constraints such as the Constitution and Congress"

And, he observed them, how???

News Flash - Rove to go back to Texas.

If this continues, Shrub will start crooning "All my ex-es live in Texas"

That's an excellent idea Brian! I'll get right on it...

Looking at the enrichment of W. Bush's core constituency, the new ideological make up of the Supreme Court, and the ridding of New Orleans of its detested poor, racial majority, many could say Mr. Rove's executive career was a colossal success. Only the majority of Americans who will be suffering for the next several decades can consider his career a failure, but many of them believed Rove's lies and voted for his candidates. I would prefer Mr. Rove suffer horribly for his service to W. Bush, but will assume he will instead be celebrated and presented with many gifts and honors.

Valuethinker, Ohio went from having no statewide Democrats to having 1 statewide Republicans (Voinovich), only because he wasn't up for re-election that year. How's that for re-alignment?

Rove's legacy is Incompetence and duplicity
Michael Tomasky
August 13, 2007 1:45 PM
...During the 2000 campaign, Rove was fond of saying that he thought of George Bush as today's William McKinley, the Republican who won the 1896 presidential election handily over the Democrat William Jennings Bryan. McKinley's victory ushered in an era of GOP dominance that lasted the better part of 35 years, until Franklin Roosevelt came along. Rove predicted that Bush's victory would do the same. The brains behind this paradigm shift, it went without saying, was Rove himself, who would be credited as the genius who kick-started a new era in which America embraced conservatism and fully and finally rejected anything having to do with the Democratic party.
Well, now. That's going well for him, isn't it?....
He is a Lee Atwater who also depended on smear&lie as well as election fraud.
This doesn't mean that Democratic candidates can relax, the Republican smear machine is still intact and eager to attack.

Could be jumping rats though Rover seems pleased with his fab success. Someone else pointed out that if he is going to profit from his influence peddling he has to start now - '08 will be too late. He's been doing a lot of public speaking this past year. I'll bet he rings up a few millions in the coming 12 months. I wonder if he'll end up on Fox or CNN? Yuck.

Dems like to think of Bush and gang as humiliated and defeated - but that's dangerous thinking. If he's anything, Rove is tenacious.He is fully convinced that he can win the presidency for the GOP next year. They've got a blood taste of big time power and they'll not slink away in the night.

Our tasks are multiple and huge: We have to win the presidency, hold the congress, repair the vast social damage of Bush, and fight off the neocons... all at the same time. And all this with one hand tied behind the back because there's not much we can do about the consolidation of the media under right wing corporate control. Thank good for the internet.

Mike: He is a Lee Atwater ...

No, he's worse. Atwater worked on Papa Bush's campaigns, but Rove got axed from same because he was too unethical. That's kinda like being fired by Stalin because your measures are too harsh.

Just caught this news on Truth Out, and my mind was immediately filled with a rousing chorus of "Ding, Dong! The Witch is Dead."

But however fortuitous this may look on its surface, I'll reserve judgment for now. It strikes me that there's something curiously missing from the story still, so I'm content to remain vigilant, waiting for "the other shoe to drop.".

Fella Called Rove from Texas (by elmo, but was Brian's idea)

There's a fella called Rove from Texas, who got kicked out of D.C. / Nobody else could use him, so they had to cop a plea. / He cried so when Bush left him, he'd been there from the start. / But lately when he'd hang around it smelled like greasy farts.

He's the stinkiest little turd blossom that Texas ever knew. / His nose is long as I-35, and his tactics grow from poop, / You may talk about the Constitution, and sing of the Bill of Rights. / 'Cause the fella called Rove from Texas will be leaving D.C. tonight...

When the war winds were blowing, his starry eyes got bright. / He talked of a dynasty, powered by the Right. / I know that they remember, The promises Rove sold. / But now they're losing votes by the barrel, so he's got to go.

He's the stinkiest little turd blossom that Texas ever knew. / His nose is long as I-35, and his tactics grow from poop, / You may talk about the constitution, and sing of the bill of rights. / 'Cause the fella called Rove from Texas will be leaving D.C. tonight...

Oh now you can find him in Texas, counting all his dough. / He wonders often how Bush gets by with no one to score his blow. / The pundits will right stories, the history of his lore. / 'Bout the fella called Rove from Texas, who destroyed the Right forevermore!

He's the stinkiest little turd blossom that Texas ever knew. / His nose is long as I-35, and his tactics grow from poop, / You may talk about the constitution, and sing of the bill of rights. / 'Cause the fella called Rove from Texas will be leaving D.C. tonight...

I thought when the moment of Rove's departure came, whether he was perp-walked from the West Wing or not, I'd have a feeling of victory -- and I don't.

He'll be remembered for taking a scion of a rich family, a frat-boy drunk, and selling him as a rational leader long enough to have him elected governor -- but not so long that he permanently dented the state of Texas -- and then, on to the presidency!

The legacy Rove created by pushing Cheney / Bush on the nation is corrosive, divisive, and putrescent. Rove is personally responsible for promoting the ruin of the United States and its Constitution. He's personally responsible for destroying lives here, and abroad.

Now, he's off to a comfortable vacation. The American People will pay for all his necessary security, and his family's, for a long time to come. He'll never have to be concerned about finding employment -- or shelter, or potable water, or living in fear, unlike many in Iraq... or in America.

And whatever the future has in store for us all, well -- Karl will just blame someone else.

He's had such a lot of fun -- and with America to pick up the tab... well, I guess that means your career so far has been a wonderful success, eh, Karl?

(I've posted this in a couple of different incarnations elsewhere.)

No, he's worse…..alex at 2:56 PM

On the upside, his desperately-needs-to-be-smacked fat little face will no longer be smirking at us from the TV screen.

Heheh. Are you kidding? Whether he joins one of the GOP campaigns for POTUS or accepts a sinecure from Murdoch to be a senior political analyst on Fox, we'll certainly be seeing more of Rove.

He's not likely to go off into the sunset, no matter how much he gets off on killing the symbols of peace.

Executive privilege covers the period for which someone was working for the president; it doesn't disappear when that person leaves.

I assumed she meant that Rove will no longer be able to break the law, and generally be Rove, under the shield of EP, though I expect that it is only a matter of time before Fielding asserts that EP extends for a period of several years beyond leaving the WH.

I assumed she meant that Rove will no longer be able to break the law, and generally be Rove, under the shield of EP...

I didn't read it this way, based on her last comment, "If I were Leahy, I'd have the supoena delivered at his 'going away' ceremony." But if I'm wrong, sorry for the misunderstanding, sue.

Heheh. Are you kidding? Whether he joins one of the GOP campaigns for POTUS.

It'll be damned interesting to see if one of the candidates has the nerve to bring him on publicly. If anyone's going to do it, it'd be Giuliani. He loves openly hiring criminals.

Just the first syllable of Bush's nickname for him will do for his political epitaph.

Remember that Rove's stated goal was a permanent, Republican majority (as if any party could achieve such a thing). He has clearly, spectacularly failed to achieve that, in fact, tipping the scales in the other direction. By his own terms, he has been a failure.

Rove's legacy will be the destruction of the modern Republican Party. The only asset Rove brought to the Republicans was his determination to win at all costs; slime, corruption, lies, none of them mattered as long as his candidates won.
Those methods degraded the quality of people willing to run for office as Republicans as much as the campaigns. Rove didn't care though; as long as there was a majority that could be threatened or bribed into voting the way he wanted (and what does that say about those elected?). But in elections that aren't already rigged to whatever degree (voting machines, fake scandals, fear-mongering, you name it), those people don't win.
And on top of that these are the very same people who have also shown that they are manifestly incapable of running the government in the interests of the whole country - rather than for the select few.
In one form or other, all those problems can be attributed to the "genius" of Karl Rove. They won't be solved until Republicans realize that elections are a means and not an end in themselves.

will someone please tell me what sic transit means? thanks

>History will judge Rove a colossal failure, a man who never understood how to govern and, for all his immense knowledge of polls and politics, never really understood the times he lived in

And down the memory hole goes the "election-winning genius" theme.

One of your best posts.

Oliver Willis summarized Rove as follows, and it stayed with me:

"I've said before and I'll say it again - Karl Rove is not that good. His candidate only obtained the Republican nomination by using racial demagoguery in the south that the Klan would be proud of. Then his candidate lost the popular vote and had to have the supreme court hand him the election. And then he engaged in yet another smear campaign against a war hero, winning by 2%, followed by a steady erosion of approval to the point where 42% is a reason to rejoice"
This was in '06.

Now look at how they think a movement of presidential approval from the low twenties to the mid thirties is a reason to be happy, and let Rovie go

VRWC: And down the memory hole goes the "election-winning genius" theme.

That you are unable to distinguish between winning an election and governing speaks volumes about your own lack of understanding of politics, policy and the times we live in. Thanks, as always, for the laugh.

What's worse about Turdblossom is that he was unelected. He wasn't MY leader. He was simply the leader of the worst gang of thieves and murderers the White House has ever seen.

Ode to Turdblossom

Old Turdblossom was a heckuva guy.
There wasn't a stunt that he wouldn't try.
But when the going got tough
and the US people called his bluff,
He decided it was better to flee than to fry.

Like a rat on the GOP sinking ship,
Old Turdblossom saw his survival chance dip.
His legacy of lies
was attracting shit-flies,
so he decided to give GOP the slip.

All hail the hero of Turdblossom Bottom. Long may he serve for his crimes.

Washington Monthly commenter Sullijan gets highlighted in this article about what commenters like us think about Rove:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-shrake/a-farewell-card-for-karl-_b_60290.html

And the commenters there agree with you! Way to go, Sullijan!

. . . The interesting point: why is he leaving and why now? There wasn't a whisper of this in the rumor mill. Who has what on him this time? None of these guys have left office for the good of the country.

Three possible reasons, and the last one the scariest:

1) He realized that he will soon be put center stage and have to play the fool in public like Gonzales for a month or two. That perversely reticent personality of his might be cracking under the pressure.

2) Someone actually has a "smoking gun" on him, probably in the form of a former White House staffer flipping in front of a congressional committee.

3) He knows Cheney is going to hit Iran very, very soon, and he wants out before the entire administration and its little social empire in DC collapse under a wave of public outrage.

Washington Monthly commenter Sullijan gets highlighted in this article about what commenters like us think about Rove

Sullijan AND benjoya--good going, y'all!

I also note that the commenter responding to Sullijan missed a chance to seriously tell Karl off in an airport. I really hate when that happens.

Success?

Yes, evil is remembered. But it isn't celebrated.

In Texas, KKKarl is out of reach of the Sgt. of Arms and thus accountability for inherent contempt. We already know that the DoJ will not be representing the people and their elected representatives, but rather the White House political adviser if the courts are invoked over the subpoenas that have been ignored.

con brio: will someone please tell me what sic transit means?

It is short for "sic transit gloria mundi," which is Latin for "Thus passes away the glory of the world," as in "Even the most powerful will die." The original implication was that there is another world whose glory continues, but it is often used without that implication today.

Jemand von Niemand: He'll be remembered for taking a scion of a rich family, a frat-boy drunk, and selling him as a rational leader long enough to have him elected governor ... and then, on to the presidency!

Never have I been so outdone.

In Texas, KKKarl is out of reach of the Sgt. of Arms and thus accountability for inherent contempt.

Is he? My understanding is that the old sergeant can chase 'em down to the four corners of the country if necessary--probably outsourcing, of course.

P.T. Barnum: Hee!

I had to post this:

Mocking President Bush for general ineptitude, comedian Bill Maher delivered a funny rant as part of his “New Rules� segment on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher�: 9/9/05

“Seriously, Mr. President, this job can’t be fun for you anymore. There’s no more money to spend; you used up all of that. You can’t start another war because you also used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people.�

“New rule: American must recall the president. That’s what this country needs – a good old-fashioned, California-style recall election, complete with Gary Coleman, porno actresses, and action film stars. And just like Schwarzenegger’s predecessor here in California, George Bush is now so unpopular, he must now defend his job against…Russell Crowe, because at this point I want a leader who will throw a phone at somebody. In fact, let’s have only phone throwers. Naomi Campbell can be the vice president.

“Now I kid, but seriously, Mr. President, this job can’t be fun for you anymore. There’s no more money to spend; you used up all of that. You can’t start another war because you also used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people. Yeah, listen to your mom, the cupboard’s bare, the credit card’s maxed out, and no one’s speaking to you. Mission accomplished.

“Now it’s time to do what you’ve always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service. And the oil company. And the baseball team. It’s time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or spaceman? Now, I know what you’re saying, you’re saying that there are so many other things that you as president could involve yourself in. Please don’t. I know, there a lot left to do. There’s a war with Venezuela, and eliminating the sales tax of yachts, turning the space program over to the church and Social Security to Fannie Mae, giving embryos the vote.

“But sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. You’ve performed so poor, I’m surprised you haven’t given yourself a medal. You’re a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire metropolis to rising water and snakes. On your watch, we’ve lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon, and the city of New Orleans. Maybe you’re just not lucky. I’m not saying you don’t love this country, I’m just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side. So yes, God does speak to you, and what he’s saying is, ‘Take a hint.’�

-Bill Maher, HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher,� Sept. 9, 2005

"Is he? My understanding is that the old sergeant can chase 'em down to the four corners of the country if necessary--probably outsourcing, of course."

Bounty hunters? Oooh! Is it too early for Congress to release a Most Wanted deck of cards?

Hubris again is the downfall of the mighty.

Shakespeare saw it all 500 years ago and wrote it more eloquently than we ever could.

3) He knows Cheney is going to hit Iran very, very soon, and he wants out before the entire administration and its little social empire in DC collapse under a wave of public outrage.

I seriously doubt the social empire is going to collapse. But, there is no doubt Cheney wants to hit Iran very soon. And rumors of some "odd" deployments have already started.

Rove wasn't a failure. He did exactly what he was hired to do.

Get Bush elected. Destroy government service(s). Go to war.

"Sic transit gloria mundi":

Monday, Gloria was taken ill on the subway.

". . . The interesting point: why is he leaving and why now? There wasn't a whisper of this in the rumor mill. Who has what on him this time"

He might be taking a job with another political campaign...perhaps whichever Bushclone gets the nod as the Republican nominee. Bush is finished in 2008, but Rove could come back.

Upthread, someone mentioned that they thought they would feel more glee, more of a sense of victory, than they actually feel. I agree with that sentiment. The fact that Rove is leaving is excellent, but Bush and Cheney and their entire cabal are still in control. And it isn't as if Rove will go off the grid.

Failure? We could wish. Rove's goal was to finish Reagan's job: make the country irreconcilable and ungovernable. At that, he succeeded decisively.

Rove is finally leaving the WH my only wish is I hope he takes those other two crooks with him back to the land of the queers and steers.

That was funny, Ross. Don't forget the posters in the Senate cloakroom!

>That you are unable to distinguish between winning an election and governing speaks volumes about your own lack of understanding of politics, policy and the times we live in. Thanks, as always, for the laugh.

The laughter sounding from coast to coast is directed at all the people befouling themselves in expressed fits of deranged hatred now that the scapegoat for the failures of their icons (the "evil genius") is leaving. Your choice of yardstick doesn't change Rove's only real purpose. Is there any serious person who truly believes Rove had any job except to win elections?

He might be taking a job with another political campaign...PTate in FR at 8:24 AM

MLuther

Re Iran and Cheney

I'd be interested which 'odd deployments' you are hearing about.

The ones I know about:

- we're back to 1 carrier group in the Gulf. A serious attack would need 3 (so 14 days to get them there)

- the minesweepers have been in the Gulf Region for some time

- the Special Forces have been Iran for at least 18 months, working with the Kurds, the Baluchis and the MEK (an international terrorist organisation, btw)

- the drones have been overflying for at least 21 months. It was in Pravda. The Iranians reported UFOs, the Russians investigated: they are American drones

- Israeli intelligence is an old ally of the Kurds, Israeli SFers have been in Iraqi Kurdistan for years

If I was the Iranians, I would have a guy outside Whiteman AFB, Missouri. The entire B2 fleet is based there, AFAIK.

Have you heard any other rumours?