Rove Leaving White House

This just came down about twenty minutes. Karl Rove is resigning from his position as President Bush's chief domestic adviser and other politically-related positions effective the end of August. It's another optical politics blow to the Bush White House, but from an actual politics standpoint, it's less devastating than it seems. Rove, as the domestic adviser, has been ineffective in recent months, as Bush seemingly has no domestic agenda. This is a White House that has bypassed the lame duck phase of its presidency and gone straight to the dead duck portion. I had high hopes for the foreign policy of this Administration as it sought to re-write the rule book to be more effective in implementing positive change in the 21st century and tackling the tough grand strategic issues of our time. That has not panned out particularly well, and with no domestic policy platforms that have any traction, things have not been looking good for the White House for a long time. So losing Rove, while it will be used to make considerably political hay, isn't going to be the death knell for George W. Bush's legacy or any other such nonsense that people will no doubt try to spin out of it. Anti-Bush people will lose one of their favourite punching bags, but there's not much more to it than that other than cutting out a spent force.