Monday, August 13, 2007

Rove: The Beginning of the End

We've all seen or read about Karl Rove finally stepping down, using the well worn excuse of spending more time with family. In my opinion, someone so steeped in that ideology, with an election on the horizon, will not be off the political scene for very long. There are certainly enough Republican presidential candidates out there who would kill to have him around. "Swiftboating" tactics won't be far behind.

This is a brief look at Karl Rove, when he began, with the Nixon campaign. You can see his determination even then.


I'd love to believe that he's gone for good, but I just don't believe it.

7 comments:

Steve V said...

"I'd love to believe that he's gone for good, but I just don't believe it."

I wonder if he plans to start working for another Republican? Afterall, Rove lives for campaigns, which makes the timing curious. Why not just ride it out until the end?

Scotian said...

I'm not so sure. Everything I have seen and read over the past 15 hours on this makes me think this was not by Bush and/or Rove's preference/choice. I distinctly get the sense that something is forcing this, and to me that means most likely a criminal indictment coming from one of the many criminal investigations where he is known to be involved with from Abramoff to Plame to the Prosecutor Firing Scandal to Hatch Act Violations to Presidential Record Keeping violations etc. I also do not think this is something Rove is doing because of preparing to continue he political work in some manner from outside the WH as some have suggested, and if what I suspect may be coming down the pike it may finally be enough to make him too toxic for any GOP campaign to be caught working with for many many years to come.

I realize this may sound on the optimistic side, but I really cannot see any other reason for why Rove would leave at this point, and then there was the fact that the wife and son had to be suddenly flown to DC so the could all go to Crawford together, if this had not been a short notice affair they would have not had to scramble to get them there. No, I really think something nasty for Bush/Rove is coming into the public domain soon, something they fear even more than everything already out there, which given that suggests it must be a real doozy. It will be interesting to watch for such over the next several weeks.

Anonymous said...

Maybe that's why Fred Thompson is waiting for his announcement - the timing is interesting. Thompson's to announce in Sept and Rove finishes at the end of this month. Maybe I'm wrong, but interesting coincidence.

Paul Wells is interesting today - talking about Rove - read the link and Wells' closing comment - hmmm.

Karen said...

Scotian, you make some interesting points. I in fact would like to agree with you.

What I don't quite understand, is how he is free and clear if removed.

If what you say is true...and wouldn't that be brilliant, how is he or anyone else immune?

Scotian said...

KNB:

It is not about him being free and clear but more trying to limit the damage to his principle, Bush, if my suspicions are correct. Indeed, I am particularly wondering whether this is tied to the continuing revelations of WH direction of a clearly bogus prosecution of an Alabama governor who lost in 2002 by approx 3000 votes with a case of one electronic machine switching 6000 votes to his opponent, twice the needed margin of victory. When he went to challenge it it turned out the USA (who was closely connected to Rove AND the GOP winner that year and appears to have been acting at Rove's direction too) falsely charged, prosecuted and convicted this Dem (they had to judge shop to get a judge that would go along, of course a GWB appointee when the first judge threw the case out with prejudice and made pointed remarks about prosecutorial misconduct) on massively trumped up and bogus charges and he was sentenced to 7 years and a bit while the prosecution wanted 30 years. You can look into this in more detail at the following website:

http://www.harpers.org/subjects/
DonSiegelman/SubjectOf/BlogEntry

Sorry, I suck at creating links, I trust you can put it back together to get where it goes though...:)

Karen said...

Darn Scotian, I can't make that work, the link. I'll try again tomorrow to configure it and if you're okay, I'll lay out how to create one. I'm a plebe at this stuff, but it's pretty easy once you get it.

In a rush, so I'll come back tomorrow.

Scotian said...

KNB:

Copy the link to a document. Then put the bottom half immediately following with no spaces at the end of the top half, and then copy it into your URL bar, that’s how I do it and it generally works. I am just not a very good person for remembering how to add the right coding, it is alas one of the minor problems with taking the amount of pain meds I do. Feel free to try, but I warn you others have and I still get muddled...*sigh*