Karl Rove Calls It Quits

Some people walk through Washington and don’t even leave a footprint.

Karl Rove walked through Washington and left his jackboot prints everywhere.

He is at once the most brilliant, the most powerful, and the most divisive political figure of our time. Not even Haldeman and Ehrlichman held over Richard Nixon the spell that Rove holds over George W. Bush. He more than earned the nickname “Bush’s brain.”

Rove did a great job for Bush, getting him elected governor and president. After which he should have stayed in Texas. Because his Texas swagger in the White House produced nothing but trouble. The Valerie Plame affair, the firing of the U.S. attorneys, the stubborn pursuit of a failed policy in Iraq, the branding as “un-American” any Democrat or Republican who dared differ with Bush — all the handiwork of Karl Rove.

Rove’s main goal, of course, was the total realignment of American politics: putting Republicans in perpetual control of government. Instead, thanks in large part to his extreme, divisive, ugly brand of politics, Republicans have lost control of Congress — and will soon lose the White House.

So now, with Democrats in hot pursuit, subpoenas in hand, Karl Rove slinks back to Texas. In all likelihood we will never again see so powerful a White House aide. Good.