Rove On Way Out?

First there was the GOP Congress. Then Rumsfeld. Rove might be the next to go according to this report in The White House Bulletin:

The rumors that chief White House political architect Karl Rove will leave sometime next year are being bolstered with new insider reports that his partisan style is a hurdle to President Bush’s new push for bipartisanship. “Karl represents the old style and he’s got to go if the Democrats are going to believe Bush’s talk of getting along,” said a key Bush advisor.

Other elements are also at play: The election yesterday of Sen. Trent Lott to the number two GOP leadership position in the Senate is also a threat to the White House and Rove, who worked against him when he battled to save his majority leader’s job after his insensitive remarks about Sen. Strom Thurmond.

And insiders report that Bush counsel Harriet Miers isn’t a fan, believing that Rove didn’t do enough to help her failed Supreme Court nomination among conservatives. In fact, one top West Wing advisor said that the unexpected ouster of Rove aide Susan Ralston over ethics questions was orchestrated by Miers as a signal to Rove to leave. The advisor said that Rove is aware of the situation and that a departure might come in “weeks, not months.” A Rove ally, however, noted that he has a record of out-witting his critics.

(Hat tip to Think Progress).

1 Comment

  1. 1
    Probus says:

    Even though Rove was so off the mark in not anticipating that the repugs would lose the House and the Senate I can’t completely see Bush wanting to let him go. The administration would collapse if it didn’t have the Rove smear machine backing them up. This guy was supposed to be Bush’s brain so I suppose his Rovinian tactics failed. It’s hard to imagine how he didn’t see this big blue tidal wave coming their way. He said he was seeing different polls and he had a different kind of Math which was better than what the pollsters were looking at. Did he not realize how bad it would look if he was found to be grossly wrong?

    I’ll be surprised if he goes. But then again I never expected to see Rumsfeld go either. So maybe Bush will be left without a brain after all. McCain, Romney, Guiliani, Frist, and all the potential GOP contenders will be lining up to bag Rove so he can work his smear magic on their campaigns in 2008. Though I wouldn’t want to hire the man who was so wrong about the 2006 midterm elections. He lost a lot of his credibility. He was actually predicting that not only would they keep their seats but that the would pick up some open seats and possibly unseat some dems. Ken Mehlman is also on his way out due to his poor performance for the repugs.

    Personally, I never thought much of Rove’s political acumen. I 2000 in the last days of the campaign he sent Bush to CA instead of FL. It nearly cost him the election. In 2004 they were never quite able to put Kerry away simply because the election was so close. Again this year 6 days before the election he focused on Kerry’s criticism of Bush and tried to manipulate it to his advantage. The voters didn’t buy it and dems won not only the House but also the Senate which many didn’t expect them to win. By focusing on Kerry he ended up by focusing on the dreaded Iraq war and it sank their candidates.

Leave a comment