Goodbye Is Good News

Winston-Salem Journal

Karl Rove, the White House political director and a deputy chief of staff, will resign at the end of the month.

Good riddance.

Rove, who has been President Bush’s closest political adviser since the president’s Texas governorship, has made it his mission to create a Republican national majority.

In defense of Karl Rove, it was his job to create a Republican national majority.

Two current controversies are typical Rove messes: The leaking of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s name to the press and the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. National intelligence and criminal prosecution should be run by professionals in those fields, not by political operatives. Yet Rove was involved in both situations.

This might be news to the Journal's editorial board, but Karl Rove didn't leak Valerie Plame's name to the press. In other news, U.S. attorneys work at the pleasure of the president... The president can fire an U.S. Attorney if he doesn't like their hair color. When Bill Clinton became president in '93, he fired every U.S. Attorney and put his own people in those jobs. Bush should have fired more than eight, and he should have done it in '01 instead of last year.