The Mark of Rove

Bush's brain is gone. Since he doesn't have one of his own, he needed someone else's to hatch his criminal schemes. White House deputy chief of staff Karl Christian Rove will resign on August 31, leaving Bush brainless, 18 months before his term ends. His legacy: incompetence and duplicity. (The Guardian: “Not the legacy he had in mind”), (The Independent: “Bush's brain goes missing as Karl Rove retires”), (The Times: “End of ‘Bush’s brain’ will bring down the curtain on lame-duck President”).

In fact, without Rove, Bush wouldn't be president. Rove schemed and cheated to first make Bush governor of Texas in 1994 and in 2000 steal the elections from Al Gore, repeating the dirty trick in 2004 to overcome John Kerry. Bush was never elected by the American people. Twice he stole an election, and couldn't have done it without Rove. Bush is not up for re-election and Rove is not to become another Republican's brain. Primarily because none of the candidates wants him. Roping in Rove would be poison, his magic has expired and would only guarantee defeat. His devious role was coming to an end, becoming ever more exposed. Better cut and run before it becomes too hot.

In fact, everything Bush does has the Mark of Rove stamped all over it. Of course, criminals abound in the salons of the neo-cons: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bolton, Podoretz, Libby, the list is long. Rove isn't the only one, but he certainly is one of the major masterminds, although not as well known as many others. Read up on it in James Moore and Wayne Slater's eye-opening book “Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential”.

Now he will retire to Texas to write his memoirs and shoot pigeons. He says he wants to spend more time with his family. He shouldn't be allowed to. Bad guys like Rove commit crime after crime, get away with it and retire in peace, never mind the wars they have inflicted on the planet. Can the 650,000 murdered Iraqis (or is it 700,000 by now?) “spend more time with the family”? Unless perhaps in the company of Allah?

Rove should not be allowed to get away with it. Bush is getting weaker day by day and is not capable anymore of protecting his cronies. If the Democrats are worth more than a dime, they should pound Rove to pieces. There is enough evidence of his crimes to fill a whole library. Surely there must be a way to have him arrested? Let's wait and see what will happen to Bush's brain outside its White House skull.

He has been implicated in the theft of two elections, the leaking of the identity of CIA-agent Valerie Plame and the politically motivated sacking of 8 federal prosecutors. All domestic crimes. Isn't this enough to lock him up for the rest of his earthly days? In an interview with the Washington Post, Rove said he expected Bush's poll ratings and conditions in Iraq to improve. Now, that's not a very clever prediction for such a famous brain. For the Americans, the situation in Iraq will never, ever, improve. Bush's rating may go up – briefly – if he decides to attack Iran, because the brain-dead part of Americans will rally around their C-in-C. But the resulting catastrophe will seal Bush's fate.

The BBC concluded one of its dispatches: “To his critics he will always be an evil genius; to his intimates, an irreplaceable friend.” That may be not too far off the mark. But The Guardian adds that in the end Rove has failed to engineer “a paradigm shift towards hegemonic conservative government”, and that's why he's leaving. He wanted to leave behind a permanent Republican ruling majority, but today the Republican party's popularity is at its lowest point in two decades. And now, Bush's brain goes missing. It has failed. It is dead. The Rasputin of the White House, with a sinister Svengali-like power, is absconding to Texas. But he has not been brought to justice. There's still some unfinished business...