In an interview published this morning in The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Rove said, “I just think it’s time,” adding, “There’s always something that can keep you here, and as much as I’d like to be here, I’ve got to do this for the sake of my family.”
Mr. Rove said he had first considered leaving a year ago but stayed after his party lost the crucial midterm elections last fall, putting Congress in Democratic hands, and Mr. Bush’s problems mounted in Iraq and in his pursuit of a new immigration policy.
"Problems mounted in Iraq" is an understatement -- A HUGE understatement. Iraq's a disaster. Don't forget that Rove was overseeing Iraq policy, because for Bush, Iraq is and has been primarily a political issue. Last month, as we reported, Rove was working on the next steps in the Iraq strategy with Bush:
Iraq has always been first and foremost a political issue for the Bush White House. Same for national security. Politics trumps policy every time. In today's NY Times [July 9, 2007], we see one more time that Karl Rove is playing a key role in setting the Bush administration's Iraq policy. Bush doesn't listen to the military. He listens to Karl Rove. So, one more time, we see that politics matters more than anything:
Last week, Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, called in from a brief vacation to join intense discussions in sessions that included Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s longtime strategist, and Joshua B. Bolten, the White House chief of staff.
How many times did the White House press corps fall for Rove's tactics on Iraq. How many times did the media breathlessly report that Bush was going to give a SPEECH about Iraq? Have to give Rove credit for one thing: he knew the press corps were a bunch of patsies and he played them over and over and over.
