Goodbye to Rove

Karl Rove announced his resignation yesterday. I'm not sorry to see him go. I think that most of what is wrong with the Republicans today came from his strategies. That includes abandoning fiscal conservatism in favor of big-spending social conservatism. Along the way Republicans wandered into territory normally occupied by Democrats - things like earmarks, trade wars, and general corruption. This let the Democrats win last year on a platform of being different (the difference is that they have no shame over earmarks).

But is he really gone? Liberals are sure that they drove him out. A quick look at Huffington shows that most posters think that Rove's departure was part of a deal over the Libby case or an attempt to get a lower profile before he could somehow be charged in the attorney firings.

Something none of them seem to have considered - did he really leave to go work on someone else's campaign? There's nothing for him to do in the Bush White House. The 2008 campaign will be managed by a new candidate and Bush will just be a bit player. Rove may have hopes of doing a repeat performance and putting the next Republican president in the White House.

I can hear the howls from the Democrats now if someone even suggested this to them. They always credited Rove with more power than is humanly possible. Remember the speculation that there would be an October Surprise in 2004 - that Rove had arraigned for bin Laden to be captured just before the election? Then there are the 9-11 Truthers who think that Rove planned the whole thing, probably with the help of the Jews.

To many Democrats, Rove is evil incarnate. The policies that I see as having Rove fingerprints on them - the moderating of the Republican party in order to capture a permanent majority - goes under their radar. Instead they assume that everything that has happened since Bush took office January, 2001 has been part of some Rovian master plan.

Who will they blame when Rove is gone?