Lots of rumors lately about the future of Karl Rove. The NYT maintains he's staying. Bush wants him. That's great. Karl can keep doing for Bush and the GOP what he's done for them for the past two year. It takes a lot of work to get your boss down to a 33% approval rating and to lose both the House and the Senate:
White House officials say President Bush has every intention of keeping Mr. Rove on through the rest of his term. And Mr. Rove’s associates say he intends to stay, with the goal of at least salvaging Mr. Bush’s legacy and, in the process, his own.Rove's got one way of playing politics. Appease the theocrats and scare the rest of the country. Doesn't work anymore, but he can't change.
But serious questions remain about how much influence Mr. Rove can wield and how high a profile he can assume in Washington after being so closely identified with this year’s Republican losses, not to mention six years of often brutal attacks on the same Democrats in line to control Congress for the remainder of Mr. Bush’s presidency.
Things have not gotten off to a great start since the election. Democrats are taking Mr. Rove’s continued influence at the White House — as well as some of its recent moves, like nominating conservative judges for the federal bench — as a sign that Mr. Bush’s conciliatory pledges of bipartisanship will prove to be fleeting.
