Bush's helmsman leaves ship

Analysis: After an era of influence rarely rivaled in White House annals, Karl Rove can lay claim to a key role in the rise of neocons -- and the president's current troubles.

WASHINGTON - Rarely has anyone who never won an election claimed so much power in Washington.

Yet Karl Rove was as well known as almost any politician, his name inspiring both reverence and revulsion, but also respect. So much so that when George W. Bush won a second term in 2004 he singled out Rove, his political maestro, for uncharacteristic praise, as the "architect" of the victory.

That moment, seen at the time by Rove and many other Republicans as the signal of a fundamental realignment in politics, might now be viewed as the peak of the recent conservative era -- and a sign that Rove's increasing role in crafting West Wing policy, not merely politics, helped steer the Bush presidency to its currently troubled state.Rove, 56, announced his departure Monday in the relatively friendly forum of the opinion page of The Wall Street Journal, underscoring his skill at the tactical advantage, telling his version of history, on his terms, in a way that reflected well on both Bush and himself.

His influence with the president rivaled that of Colonel House with Woodrow Wilson, Sherman Adams with Dwight Eisenhower or H.R. Haldeman with Richard Nixon, although he never had a lofty title. It came with controversy as well, with Rove a target of an investigation by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, which resulted in no charges against Rove but damaged the White House operation. And he remains a target of Democratic congressional leaders attempting to get to the bottom of the political machinations of an administration that has asserted sweeping presidential powers and privileges.

His resignation will not quiet the fury on Capitol Hill.

"I am realistic enough to know I am not going to stop them," Rove told the Tribune on Monday. "You've got a bunch of people up on Capitol Hill auditioning for Captain Ahab, and I'm Moby Dick."

Rove accumulated power and he pushed its limits. Few presidential counselors have so clearly understood and performed the art of winning. He was the ready mentor for the president and his supplicant when it helped the president's cause. His tactical brilliance was perhaps most evident in the 2004 campaign when Rove helped engineer a surge in turnout in rural areas of key states such as Ohio to ensure Bush's re-election.

Nonetheless, with the dual roles of political and policy adviser that Rove had assumed in the Bush White House as deputy chief of staff after Bush's re-election three years ago, critics say the art of governance still eluded a combatant who had abandoned college for campus politics at a young age and devoted a career to defeating rivals at all costs.

'A witness to history'

"I'm grateful to have been a witness to history," Rove said, holding back tears alongside the president in announcing his departure Monday, but in truth he has helped shape it.

Rove, after the campaign of '04, believed he had helped forge a political realignment in America, that the GOP had fixed its hold on power for a generation. That belief stoked an even broader assertion of presidential powers and authority as the White House sought to remake every branch of government, with notable success in the judiciary.

His vision was undone, however, by events that were well beyond any one person's control, with the war in Iraq pushing American voters to Democrats in 2006, and Republicans now bemoaning their chances of winning the White House in 2008.

In the modern-day cult of the consultant, in which political maestros sometimes gain more acclaim than their candidates, Rove has been his party's icon.

For all of his vaunted political expertise, he had become personally entwined in some of the most damaging controversies of the Bush administration, from the administration's leak of a CIA operative's identity in 2003 to the White House's refusal to divulge more about its role in the firings of federal prosecutors last year.

"Rove is going to go down in history as the model in presidential advisers," said Scott Reed, a Republican consultant in Washington. "He is smart and disciplined, and he had an amazing relationship with the commander in chief.

"With that comes some of the problems of governing -- you get blamed for every deputy secretary in the Commerce Department," Reed said. "Governing has been an area where the Bush administration has come up short, and Rove will probably get some of that blame."

Rove already has refused to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the prosecutors' firings. As with the refusal of other present and past players in the administration to testify in the inquiry, the White House is citing executive privilege.

The Senate panel hasn't decided what to do about Rove's refusal to testify, but Democrats say Rove's resignation will not put an end to their inquiries.

Rove appeared five times before the federal grand jury investigating the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame's name after her husband, ex-Ambassador Joseph Wilson, publicly accused the Bush administration of manipulation of intelligence in the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Rove's attorney maintained that Rove had never divulged her name. But columnist Robert Novak, who first published Plame's name in 2003, later testified that Rove had been one of his sources. "Karl Rove was an architect of a political strategy that has left the country more divided," said Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who is seeking his party's presidential nomination in 2008.

The president had insisted at the outset of Fitzgerald's investigation that anyone responsible for leaking the agent's name would no longer have a job in the White House. But there never was any circumstance under which Bush would fire Rove.

Their relationship spans three decades. Bush, calling Rove "a dear friend" and hugging him Monday on the South Lawn, said, "We've known each other as youngsters."For years, Rove and Bush had gone quail-hunting together -- though the last time, on Bush's Texas ranch, was in 1999. Politics have gotten in the way of life, Rove says now, and he wants to rejoin his family.

For all Rove's seriousness about politics, he also has a prankster's affinity for playfully offering to help reporters write their stories for them by grabbing a laptop computer. He could take in a Sunday afternoon museum exhibit on Portuguese exploration, and read a thick biography of Albert Einstein for pleasure.

"He is brilliant, he is funny and he is a passionate advocate for the president and his policies, and I know that he will continue to play that role outside the administration," said Karen Hughes, a Bush adviser and friend from Texas.

Rove is at heart a serious student of the numbers game in politics, having mastered a marketing technique known as "micro-targeting" in which potential voters are identified and besieged with calls and letters.

Rove has served Bush since 1993, when he went to work on Bush's first campaign for governor of Texas.

But he has known Bush since the day before Thanksgiving in 1973 when Rove, then 22, met Bush at his father's office in Texas, the son wearing his Texas Air National Guard flight jacket and blue jeans with a tin of chewing tobacco stuffed in the pocket.

Now Rove is taking a political respite.

"I am not going to take any formal role" in the 2008 elections, he said, but beyond that, "I am a committed Republican. ... I'll be involved in some way in shaping our candidate."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-roveaug14,1,4730305.story?page=1&ctrack=2&cset=true 

WASHINGTON -- Rarely has anyone who never won an election claimed so much power in Washington.

Yet Karl Rove was as well-known as almost any politician, his name inspiring both reverence and revulsion, but also respect. So much so that when George W. Bush won a second term in 2004 he singled out Rove, his political maestro, for uncharacteristic praise, as the "architect" of the victory.

That moment, seen at the time by Rove and many other Republicans as the signal of a fundamental realignment in politics, might now be viewed as the peak of the recent conservative era. And a sign that Rove's increasing role in crafting West Wing policy, not merely politics, helped steer the Bush presidency to its currently troubled state.

Rove announced his departure Monday in the relatively friendly forum of the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal, underscoring his skill at the tactical advantage, telling his version of history, on his terms, in a way that reflected well on both Bush and himself.

His influence with the president rivaled that of Colonel House with Woodrow Wilson, Sherman Adams with Dwight Eisenhower or H.R. Haldeman with Richard Nixon, although he never had a lofty title. It came with controversy as well, with Rove a target of an investigation by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, which resulted in no charges against Rove but damaged the White House operation. And he remains a target of Democratic congressional leaders still attempting to get to the bottom of all the political machinations of an administration which has asserted sweeping presidential powers and privileges.

His resignation will not quiet the fury on Capitol Hill.

"I am realistic enough to know I am not going to stop them," Rove told the Tribune on Monday. "You've got a bunch of people up on Capitol Hill auditioning for Captain Ahab, and I'm Moby Dick."

Rove accumulated power and he pushed its limits. Few presidential counselors have so clearly understood and performed the art of winning. He was the ready mentor for the president and also his supplicant when it helped the president's cause. His tactical brilliance was perhaps most evident in the 2004 campaign when Rove helped engineer a surge in turnout in rural areas of key states like Ohio to ensure the president's re-election.

Nonetheless, with the dual roles of political and policy adviser that Rove had assumed in the Bush White House as deputy chief of staff after Bush's re-election three years ago, critics say the art of governance still eluded a combatant who had abandoned college for campus politics at a young age and devoted a career to defeating rivals at all costs.

"I'm grateful to have been a witness to history," Rove said, holding back tears alongside the president in announcing his departure Monday, but in truth he has helped shape it.

Rove, after the campaign of '04, believed he had helped forge a political realignment in America, that the GOP had fixed its hold on power for a generation. That belief stoked an even broader assertion of presidential powers and authority as the White House sought to remake every branch of government, with notable success in the Judiciary.

His vision was undone, however, by events that were well beyond any one person's control, with the war in Iraq pushing American voters to Democrats in 2006, and Republicans now bemoaning their chances of winning the White House in 2008.

In the modern-day cult of the consultant, in which political maestros sometimes gain more acclaim than their candidates, Rove has been his party's icon.

For all of his vaunted political expertise, however, he had become personally entwined in some of the most damaging controversies of the Bush administration, from the administration's leak of a CIA operative's identity in 2003 to the White House's refusal to divulge more about its role in the firing of several federal prosecutors last year.

"Rove is going to go down in history as the model in presidential advisers," said Scott Reed, a Republican consultant in Washington. "He is smart and disciplined, and he had an amazing relationship with the commander-in-chief.

"With that comes some of the problems of governing -- you get blamed for every deputy secretary in the commerce department," Reed said. "Governing has been an area where the Bush administration has come up short, and Rove will probably get some of that blame."

Rove already has refused to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the prosecutor firing. As with the refusal of other present and past players in the administration to testify in the inquiry, the White House is citing executive privilege.

The Senate Judiciary Committee hasn't yet decided what to do about Rove's refusal to testify, but Democrats say Rove's resignation will not put an end to their inquiries.

Rove had appeared five times before the federal grand jury investigating the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame's name after her husband, ambassador Joseph Wilson, publicly criticized the Bush administration for manipulation of intelligence in the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Rove's attorney maintained that he had never divulged her name. But columnist Robert Novak, who first published Plame's name in 2003, later testified that Rove had been one of his sources.

"Karl Rove was an architect of a political strategy that has left the country more divided," said Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who is seeking his party's presidential nomination in 2008.

The president had insisted at the outset of Fitzgerald's investigation that anyone responsible for leaking the agent's name would no longer have a job in the White House. But there never was any circumstance under which Bush would fire Rove.

Their relationship spans three decades. Bush, calling Rove "a dear friend" and hugging him Monday on the South Lawn, said, "We've known each other as youngsters."

For years, Rove and Bush had gone quail-hunting together – though the last time, on Bush's Texas ranch, was in 1999. Politics have gotten in the way of life, Rove says now, and he wants to rejoin his family.

For all Rove's seriousness about politics, he also has a prankster's affinity for playfully offering to help reporters write their stories for them by grabbing a laptop computer. He could take in a Sunday afternoon museum exhibit on Portuguese exploration, and read a thick biography of Albert Einstein for pleasure.

He is reading two books today, The Pursuit of Glory, a history of Europe, and Lone Survivor, a Navy SEAL'S account of a mission in Afghanistan.

"He is brilliant, he is funny and he is a passionate advocate for the president and his policies, and I know that he will continue to play that role outside the administration," said Karen Hughes, a fellow Bush adviser and friend from Texas.

He is at heart a serious student of the numbers-game in politics, having mastered a marketing technique known as "micro-targeting" in which potential voters are identified and besieged with calls and letters.

Rove has served Bush since 1993, when he went to work on the president's first campaign for governor of Texas.

But he has known the president since the day before Thanksgiving in 1973 when Rove, then 22, first met Bush at his father's Reublican Party office, the son wearing his Texas Air National Guard flight jacket and blue jeans with a tin of chewing tobacco stuffed in the pocket.

Karl Christian Rove, 56, born in Denver on Christmas Day and raised in Utah among Mormons, had never finished college, yet he became national executive director and political mastermind of the College Republicans in 1971.

His intellect, organizing skills and take-no-prisoners approach to campaigning won Rove an assignment from former Republican National Committee chairman George H.W. Bush. The senior Bush, plotting a campaign for president in 1980, had formed a fundraising political action committee in 1977 and tapped Rove to run it.

Rove later formed his own firm, Karl Rove and Co., before going to work for the younger Bush. Rove parlayed his fundraising and political expertise into his first national campaign in 2000 and repeated the feat with Bush's re-election in 2004.

Rove is taking only a temporary political respite, saying, "I am not going to take any formal role" in the 2008 elections, but predicting that beyond that, "I am a committed Republican... I'll be involved in some way in shaping our candidate."

But Rove's departure cements an unavoidable fact of Bush's own presidency – as Rove follows a line of senior advisers who have left during the second term, including counselor Dan Bartlett and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Bush's time too will end in January 2009.

"Karl Rove is moving on down the road," Bush said Monday, before boarding the presidential helicopter, Marine One, with Rove aboard, for the start of a trip to Texas and rest for both. "I thank my friend," Bush said, adding: "I'll be on the road behind you here in a little bit."