 |
|
|
 News from Around the Americas | August 2007 
Karl Rove, Adviser to President Bush, to Quit
 Debbi Wilgoren & Peter Baker - Washington Post
go to original
| | Karl Rove, chief architect of the Bush presidency and the premier Republican strategist of the last decade, will step down as White House deputy chief of staff on August 31. (Mandel Ngan/AP) |
Karl Rove, chief architect of the Bush presidency and the premier Republican strategist of the last decade, will step down as White House deputy chief of staff Aug. 31.
Rove revealed his plans to the Wall Street Journal in a Saturday afternoon interview that was published this morning. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino confirmed the news to The Washington Post.
Rove, 56, has survived years of pointed investigation of his activities while in the White House - first during special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's probe of White House leaks, and more recently by Democratic-controlled Congressional committees examining the firing of U.S. attorneys and the involvement of Justice Department officials in White House political briefings.
He refused Congressional subpoenas, citing executive privilege, and was never accused in the White House leak scandal, despite being grilled by a grand jury multiple times.
Critics of the White House have demanded Rove's resignation for years, and Rove first discussed the idea with Bush about a year ago, Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul A. Gigot reported in a column in today's Journal.
Rove said he did not want to leave immediately after the Democrats took over Congress in 2007, Gigot reported. Nor did he want to abandon the White House as the president pushed through a troop surge in Iraq and fought - unsuccessfully - to forge new immigration laws. Rove's decision to end 19 years of working as Bush's closest political adviser came only after chief of staff Josh Bolten told senior White House aides that if they stayed past Labor Day of this year, they would be expected to remain on staff until Bush's second term ends 17 months from now.
"I just think it's time," Gigot quoted Rove as saying.
Rove said he was finished with political consulting, and would return to private life "for the sake of my family," which includes his wife Darby and a son who attends college in San Antonio, the Journal reported. He said he would like to teach eventually, and planned to write a book about Bush's years in office, but had no other job lined up for now.
Along with Karen Hughes and Joe Allbaugh, Rove was part of a group known as the "Iron Triangle" who were central to Bush's political success since his days as Texas governor. Bush described the trio as close friends as well as advisers, the kind of people who stick with you during the toughest times. "We've grown up together politically," the soon-to-be president said in 1999.
But Rove proved the most enduring and influential of the group, shaping Bush's presidency in what many consider one of the closest client-adviser relationships in American politics.
Perino said President Bush would make a statement later this morning about the departure of his longtime aide and friend.
Rove leaves a White House buffeted by an unpopular and lingering war in Iraq and battered by approval ratings that are among the lowest in the history of the American presidency. He has been a lightning rod for criticism among Bush's opponents, and has stoked the anger of Democrats in Congress by refusing to answer questions on White House political activities despite being subpoenaed.
Rove skipped a Congressional hearing two weeks ago on the allegedly improper use by White House aides of Republican National Committee email accounts, citing Bush's claims of executive privilege.
"Where is Karl Rove? Why is he hiding?," Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) asked the young political aide who testified in his place. "Why does he throw a young staffer like you into the line of fire while he hides behind the White House curtains?"
In the interview with the Journal, Rove painted a typically upbeat picture of what the future holds for Bush and the Republican Party. He predicted that conditions in Iraq would improve in coming months as the effect of the surge is felt, and that Democrats will split over issues like wiretaps in the name of national security. He said he believes the Democrats are likely to nominate New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for president in 2008, and speculated that Republicans would have "a very good chance" of holding onto the White House for a third consecutive term.
Staff writer Howard Schneider contributed to this report. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us