Democrats Have Karl Rove in Their Sights

Karl Rove is the eminence grise of the Bush White House, and the Democrats hate him for it. They now believe that they have proof he was involved in leaking the identity of a CIA operative to the press, and that, they say, is a hanging offense. Mr. Rove has done nothing criminal, but all the same, he should go. Not because the Democrats are right but because the protection of the president’s agenda is what he has spent years doing, and because he is now a detriment to that mission.

Mr. Rove is, quite possibly, the biggest shame the Norwegian bloodline has produced since Vidkun Quisling. He is a political hack of the first water and quite comfortably questions the patriotism of those who disagree with him. This of course poisons the well of democratic discourse and undermines the foundations of the republic, but Mr. Rove doesn’t seem to understand anything beyond winning at any cost. He fights dirty as a reflex, and everything to him is a nuclear engagement. Nuance and subtlety are, to him, words from the French and nothing more.

That said, he has been the most effective political advisor Washington has seen in quite some time. Although he has certainly gone over to the dark side (not because of his ideology but because of his manner of implementing policy), he understands the president and his political base better than anyone else. It is, quite simply, impossible to imagine the W years without Mr. Rove.

Now, though, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said, "The White House promised if anyone was involved in the Valerie Plame affair, they would no longer be in this administration. I trust they will follow through on this pledge." Mr. Rove sent e-mails that are now part of the grand jury investigation into Robert Novak’s revelation that Valerie Plame was a CIA operative; the very case that has New York Times reporter Judith Miller sitting in a jail cell for contempt.

Mr. Rove is now mortally wounded, and the feeding frenzy will be fueled by people like Moveon.org and other hard-core partisans. He could well survive in the White House still, but his value to the president is greatly diminished. Someone there needs to figure out that the best thing that could happen is for Mr. Rove to quit, perhaps head up the Republican efforts for the mid-term elections in 2006, and get this behind them. If he sticks around, he will be just one more reason to oppose the president’s efforts in congress – including Supreme Court nominees. Certainly re-jigging the court’s political balance would be worth the departure of Mr. Rove, and he may be the price for it.



© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
Produced using Fedora Linux.


Home