CARL ROVE Architect
To this day, loyalists to McCain blame Rove for mounting a whispering campaign
against the senator during the 2000 Republican primary in South Carolina, while
allies of former Democratic senator Max Cleland (Ga.) accuse Rove of
engineering the tactics against the wounded Vietnam veteran that cost him his
2004 reelection bid.
Rove, a self-made intellectual who never graduated from college, came to power
convinced that Republicans could remake government in a fashion that would
secure conservative prevalence for years to come. The realignment Rove
envisioned would have returned ownership to individuals (in the form of
personal retirement savings accounts and health-care plans) and in so doing
lure new types of voters, in particular Hispanics and African Americans, to the
party.
But after easing Bush into a "compassionate conservative" persona that appealed
to the Texas electorate while he was governor and to the political center in
the 2000 presidential election, Rove shifted to focus on turning out the
conservative base -- a strategy that worked for Republicans for a short time
but eventually cost the party the chance to expand.
Even when he returns to Texas, Rove said, he expects to be under attack for his
role in advising Bush. "I realize that some of the Democrats are Captain Ahab
and I'm the great white whale," he said. "I noticed the other day some
Democratic staffers were quoted calling me the big fish. Well, I'm Moby-Dick
and they're after me."
Democrats welcomed Rove's resignation and vowed to continue probing his
involvement in the firings of U.S. attorneys, political briefings conducted at
various agencies and the use of Republican National Committee e-mail accounts
by White House officials.
"The list of senior White House and Justice Department officials who have
resigned during the course of these congressional investigations continues to
grow, and today Mr. Rove added his name to that list," said Senate Judiciary
Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.).
Other Democrats blasted Rove as an apostle of division. "Karl Rove was an
architect of a political strategy that has left the country more divided, the
special interests more powerful and the American people more shut out from
their government than any time in memory," said Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.).
Former senator John Edwards (N.C.) was more succinct: "Goodbye, good riddance."
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