In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote of Tom and Daisy, "They were careless people...they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back to their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made." Rove is certainly more careful than Fitzgerald's characters--careful when it comes to politics and doing whatever is necessary to win. But with Bush, he recklessly steered this country into a debacle in Iraq that has caused the death of thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and that has ruined the United States' reputation abroad. Bush, Rove, Dick Cheney and the rest did so with little understanding and with insufficient planning, and they sold the war to the public with bad information and blatant misrepresentations. (Rove was part of the White House Iraq Group that devised the prewar messaging.) Rove deserves not reward but punishment. A fitting sentence would be for Rove to stay to the bitter end so he can sweep up the turds he is now leaving behind.David, it would only give him more time to screw things up worse for the country.
Which would only be more good news for Democrats, although it would pretty much be a Pyrrhic victory in 2008.
Still, my faith in America and the American people remains unshaken: barring the entire country plunged to a depth of 200 feet under the seas, we can rebuild. We can restore. We can make it better than it was in 2000.
The Republicans threw Rove under the bus when it became clear he was a master at the short term but couldn't wrap his tiny mind around the fact that he'd actually have to get something done in eight years.
Bush has done nothing, and I do mean, nothing, to warrant any mention in the history books beyond the absolute basic "He was President for eight years, and managed not to get half the population killed" caretaker notice that was reserved for Presidents like Ford and Grant.
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