The old newspaper editor’s adage is that every story has a who, what, where, when, how, and why. Different people will tell you that one of the six is more important that the others and will give you different answers.
The optimist will tell you the true heart of the story is “why?”. Why did the person do that? Why did they act the way they did? Why does this matter to me?
But the cynic, for example, will tell you the only thing that matters in 2007 is “how”. How did this person almost get away with it? How did they come up with this plan? How could they have made it better?
Normally when the “who” is Karl Rove, I’d say the story was indeed “how”. But for the “what” of his resignation, the clear story is actually “why”.
So what are Rove’s motivations? Let’s look at what we do know:
1) Rove has known Dubya for thirty plus years. Pretty much no human being on earth has been more loyal to Dubya than Karl Rove. And we know this President has above all valued loyalty as the top of his list of criteria.
2) Rove knows where the bodies are buried. Rove’s duties have always been pulling the strings. He’s a fixer, an information broker and manipulator. The President’s dirty secrets have always been his trade, and protecting him is paramount to Bush.
3) Rove isn’t a quitter. Karl Rove resigning to be with his family would be like Tiger Woods giving up golf to be with his wife and daughter…pretty much inconceivable for a guy at the top of his game. Rove’s game is the power behind the throne, and no throne is more gilded than that of POTUS.
So, given those facts about Rove, the question becomes “Why?” Why leave now? More details are needed to reveal his motivations, but some of them can be gleaned from asking some investigative questions.
1) What can Rove do outside the White House (that he couldn’t do inside?) That seems to be question one in my mind. In the White House, Rove would enjoy unprecedented access, attention, and protection from the unitary executive…but also scrutiny, oversight, and investigation. It’s one thing that Sen. Leahy is vowing to press on to get Rove to testify now, but something changed in the balance of this part of the equation. Today’s announcement that he’s granting his first interview since the resignation to Comedian Rush Limbaugh is a major clue.
2) Why would Rove leave before the biggest event of Bush’s second term, the “September Report?” If Bush ever needed Rove’s political connections and mini-Machiavellian style, it would be in the hard sell of continuing and expanding the Long War to the American public. And yet at the time Bush would need Rove the most, he’s leaving. Specifically, he’s leaving at the end of August. Somehow, this figures into the equation as well. Things aren’t going too well in Iraq as of late.
3) How does Rove get away with leaving the scene of the crime? For all intents and purposes, Rove is getting away from a hit and run of the entire GOP. If anything, they should be furious with Rove for losing the 2006 elections to the Dems and putting the President in a situation where the GOP can’t possibly win in 2008…and yet Rove gets hagiography after hagiography from the right-wing…but it’s not fooling everyone.
So the real issue is not “Why did Rove resign” but “What’s his next scheme?”