Rove, Plame problems and the Bush relationship

Newsweek has a very good article on the Rove – Plame issue by Howard Fineman. It discusses the fact that the Bush White House makes no distinction between politics and National Security, as well as the close relationship between Bush and Rove. Here are just a few points from it that seem especially relevant.

It's unlikely that any White House officials considered that they were doing anything illegal in going after Joe Wilson. Indeed, the line between national security and politics had long since been all but erased by the Bush administration. In the months after 9/11, the Republican National Committee, a part of Rove's empire, had sent out a fund-raising letter that showed the president aboard Air Force One in the hours after the attack. Democrats howled, but that was the Bush Rove was selling in the re-election campaign: commander in chief. Now Wilson was getting in the way of that glorious story, essentially accusing the administration of having blundered or lied the country into war.

White House officials assembled a briefing book, which they faxed to the Bush entourage in Africa. The book was primarily prepared by her National Security Council staff. It contained classified information—perhaps including all or part of the memo from State. The entire binder was labeled TOP SECRET.

…no one in the administration seems to have noticed the irony—or the legal danger—in assembling a TOP SECRET briefing book as guidance for the Sunday talk shows.

Consider this confirmation of my earlier assertion that politics is all there is in the White House, to the exclusion of policy or governance.

Then there is also the question about whether the ruckus will get so strong that Rove has to resign his position in the White House.

On the way to Austin and then to Washington, Bush and Rove developed a relationship unlike any other in modern politics. They were brothers, but not quite; master and servant, but not quite; king and court jester, but not quite—and tied together by what looks like an unshakable bond of mutual loyalty. Outsiders thought it might be tested after Bush was clobbered in the 2000 New Hampshire primary by John McCain. Rove had badly underestimated the senator there. In similar situations, handlers have offered to resign. Asked by NEWSWEEK if he would do so, Rove exploded in a mix of derision, pity and anger. "I can't believe you're asking that!" he shouted. "Of course not!"

Based on this (among other things) it is my opinion that Rove will remain in the White House unless he is indicted by Fitzgerald. Even then, if he resigns he will remain the single strongest advisor to G. W. Bush, and that is the source of his power.

Then, the article provides some hint as to why the entire Republican Party is currently going to bat for a man who may well be indicted for passing classified material to members of the press for purely political reasons.

...the GOP machine he had built began clanking into gear. Rove has friends all over town, and the country—people he's put in office and, with ruthless efficiency, into key government and lobbying jobs. But they were slow to react, perhaps in part because the apparatus is built to attack more than defend.

This is saying that Rove IS the Republican Party. He tells the party leaders which way to jump and they start up before asking how high.

The question is - what happens to the Republican Party if Rove - the modern Universal Spider goes down in flames?

My opinion is that the Republicans will hiccup, probably stumble - then go on almost as well and as nastily as before. My other opinion is that the Democrats will not get sufficiently organized to take advantage of the missteps. Much as OI respect what I have seen from Howard Dean and Harry Reid, the Democrats have too many people like Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman who are so damned full of themselves and trapped in the old Washington ways that they are untrainable and cannot adapt to the new, 21st century politics.

America will be a lot better off without Rove, however.