Salon: Rove in civvies isn't such an ugly sight

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

Salon has an interesting take on the Rove situation:
....

Whatever we learn from Fitzgerald's inquiries into how the Bush administration conducted its war games will come out during the Libby trial. When it came to concocting a rationale to go to war with Iraq, Rove, despite his top-secret clearance, appears to have been a bit player compared to Cheney and Libby, his loyal henchman.

Preparing for a possible Rove indictment, I had been asking Democratic strategists over the past month which would be better for the party's political fortunes in November -- criminal charges against the man known as "Bush's brain" or gasoline at $4 a gallon? The standard answer was that gas prices (even at their current levels) would have a far greater influence on the voters than mug shots of Rove.

Moreover, the notion may be heresy in political circles, but there are recent indications that Rove may not be the greatest political chess player since Metternich remade the map of Europe after the Napoleonic wars. Rove was not exactly doing hard time on a federal rock pile when Bush's popularity plunged to around 35 percent. It was Rove's handiwork to make Social Security privatization the signature issue of Bush's second term. The disastrous fate of that political gambit, combined with the Iraq war, turned Bush into a lame-duck president before his time. As a political strategist, Rove runs the gamut of issues from A (national security) to B (tax cuts). Six years into his tenure in the White House, Rove may be running on empty, just like the president whom he serves.

.....

Vendettas may be emotionally satisfying, but they rarely provide a formula for winning elections. In fact, the best way to get back at Rove is not through criminal prosecution but by forcing him to read an Election Night speech conceding that the Democrats have won back Congress.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/06/14/rove/

[TomInTib]

1. Great point.

Rove would be all but forgotten, but gas prices will stick to the wall.

[wizdum]

2. Are the writers at salon.com on drugs?? Rove isn't a bit player...

...in anything dubya does. His tentacles reach everywhere. I am not about to swallow that line of bull from those a**holes at salon. They need to get real.