Rove Resigns, Ivan Drago “Disappointed”
“You must have a few tricks left up your sleeve. Smithers, boil some coffee, we’re not licked yet.” - C.M. Burns
“Yes we are. Come on boys, the old guy’s finished.” - Burns for Governor Campaign Manager
Karl Rove is quitting at the end of the month and no one knows quite what to say about it. Cable channels, newspapers and websites are, per regulations, filled with opinion and opprobrium, but no one is really happy with the way it’s ending. Rove had his lungs handed to him in last year’s election, so he can’t go out on top as a conquering hero; and while his ideological enemies beat his team last November, they didn’t beat his most famous client. Nailing the prom queen two years after she’s out of high school just doesn’t have the same cachet.
I don’t know what will become of Rove and, at this point, neither does anyone else. He’s screwed either way though. The bulk of the country will look at him as a tool of evil in the Ehrlichman/Haldeman mold while people who were once on his side snidely deride him for being at the controls when the train derailed. Unless he hitches himself to a Savior of the Republic type in a future election he will go down as the man most directly responsible for giving us Bush the Younger. In terms of crude sexual metaphors, this is like being known as the ex-boyfriend who gave you HPV.
I have no problem with Rove’s campaign tactics. Electioneering in the United States of America has always been a cutthroat affair; lying, cheating, smearing, and all other manner of dishonesty have always been part of the game, from the Revolution through the age of Jackson, the Civil War and right up to today. Complaining about it, by direct whining or earnest appeals to higher notions of democracy, has always struck me as naïve and childish. This man once headed a campaign that insinuated that John McCain was in favor of cancer…and it worked! What can you do but applaud the balls of that?
I was disappointed to learn of his upcoming resignation though. There is a great deal of hard political fighting ahead and Rove has become known as Bush’s foremost political warrior. Yet there he was on the White House lawn, stepping down just as the battle for Bush’s political legacy and survival are about to be joined. My suspicion is that it’s another act of cowardice from a group of people unaccustomed to actual political opposition.
Rove represents a political force predicated on the idea that the opposition is not only wrong, but un-American. It’s all good fun when you’re winning elections against paper tigers like John Kerry and you feel the winds of history at your back. But when the going gets tough, when the invincibility that you’ve convinced yourself of disintegrates, life and politics become a lot scarier. Rove lost badly last year, a loss he has no choice but to take personally, and if he’s as much of a history buff as he’s supposed to be it ought to sting that much more. With the tea leaves pointing to an even bigger defeat next year he decided to resign rather than stay in the bunker.
It’s an understandable decision, though not one that reflects well on him personally. He became a true member of the Administration when he took a job with policy responsibilities after the 2004 election. When he did that he stopped being just an election strategist. If he was still merely a campaign manager, a man tasked with winning votes and little else, his resignation would be justifiable. After all, no elections remain for Bush the Younger. But he is a member of the team now, a government official accountable for government decisions and he’s quitting right as those policies and decisions are facing their biggest test.
Bush will be fighting for his very political survival this fall and Rove won’t be on the front lines. I had hoped he was made of sterner stuff.
