What Was This Rove Fuss All About?

If Karl Rove didn't exist, Democrats would have to invent him. And in a way, they did. He was 1-1 in Presidential races, and with about 50,000 or so votes shifted in Ohio, he would have been the Republican equivalent of Bob Shrum. Even the 2002 Congressional victory is not all that impressive given the high approval ratings of the President at the time, and in 2006, the year he had the math, his party got walloped, not flipping a single seat for the first time in modern history. He presided over an historic collapse of the Republican Party such that the 2008 race will only be won by running against the protege he brought to the White House. And now he's getting out while the getting is good.

Like Shrum, Rove ran the same exact "play to the base" election every year no matter what the political landscape. The only difference was that he was willing to be more ruthless and more unethical and even more criminal. That's not genius, unless you consider a criminal mind genius. In so doing, Rove empowered a maniac base that is purging their party of moderate, national candidates and quickly turning them into a regional minority. Rove keeps boasting that this is a conservative country and practically nobody is believing it anymore (except, sadly, the Democratic leadership, who on the FISA bill still acted like it was 2002).

I guess Josh Green makes the same case in the Atlantic this month, and honestly I see it as a fairly obvious point. The greatest trick Karl Rove ever pulled was proving to the Democrats that he did exist.

UPDATE: Anyone who thinks that this is a ploy to get Rove out of DC before the Democrats swoop in and force him to testify is crazy. Harriet Miers is being held in contempt of Congress and she no longer works in the White House. This should have approximately no effect on any investigation. Rove is leaving on his terms, but Democrats have no need to stop digging for the truth on the US Attorney scandal, for example.