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Karl Rove leaving the White House
WASHINGTON - Karl Rove, President Bush's close
friend and chief political strategist, plans to leave the White
House at the end of August, joining a lengthening line of senior
officials heading for the exits in the final 1 1/2 years of the
administration.
A longtime member of Bush's inner circle, Rove was nicknamed "the
architect" by the president for designing the strategy that twice
won him the White House.
Karl Rove, “the architect’’ of President Bush’s
election and reelection campaigns, plans to leave the White House at
the end of August – adding to an exodus of longtime Bush friends and
advisors stepping down before the end of the president’s term next
year.
Rove has not only steered Bush to remarkable political successes,
but also weathered some of the roughest controversies of the
administration – from his role in discussions with reporters who
wrote about the identity of a CIA agent – he was never charged with
any crime -- to his unknown involvement in the firing of federal
prosecutors – with the Senate Judiciary Committee now weighing what
to do about a subpoena for Rove’s testimony in its investigation
that the White House has refused to honor.
Rove serves as chief political adviser and deputy chief of staff,
with a political office in the West Wing that operates much like a
war room on the American political front.
Rove has steered his party’s highly developed “micro-targeting’’
campaign of communications with likely voters and swing voters for
not only the president’s elections, but also for congressional
candidates – and he would argue that the party’s loss of Congress in
the midterm elections of 2006 was only a marginal loss, counted in
small margins of defeat in several districts around the country – a
reversible loss, in the mind of Rove.
Yet Rove is also weary – claiming now that he’d like more time to
spend with his family. This is a common refrain cited by many
leaving the White House near the end of the president’s term – most
recently presidential counselor Dan Bartlett.
“Obviously it's a big loss to us," White House deputy press
secretary Dana Perino said. "He's a great colleague, a good friend,
and a brilliant mind. He will be greatly missed, but we know he
wouldn't be going if he wasn't sure this was the right time to be
giving more to his family, his wife Darby and their son. He will
continue to be one of the president's greatest friends."
Since Democrats won control of Congress in November, several other
high-level administration officials have stepped out.
That includes Bartlett, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld,
budget director Rob Portman, White House counsel Harrier Miers,
political director Sara Taylor and deputy national security advisers
J.D. Crouch and Meghan O'Sullivan. |
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