Ro Ro Rove

Larry C Johnson

So Karl wants to spend more time with his family? Maybe folks ought to ask whether the family wants to spend time with him. Josh Marshall at Talkinpointsmemo.com correctly notes:

Of course, if there’s more to this resignation, it’s not necessarily that easy to narrow down the list of possibilities since Rove is connected to pretty much every instance of high-level wrongdoing. And then there’s the extra added wrinkle that if anything the White House’s ability to keep Rove off the witness stand is decreased, if only marginally, by his leaving the White House. With the recent news of cutbacks on funding of human intelligence in the intel budget, there’s the possibility that there were no more CIA agents whose cover could be blown and he decided to move on to greener pastures.

Jack Abramhoff has been telling friends and family in the last few months that Karl Rove was going down because he is implicated in the bribery investigations. This much I know–Abramhoff has been talking freely and fully to the FBI about Rove and what he knew and when he knew it. Whether that translates into an indictment remains to be seen.

Then there is the Rove role in outing Valerie Plame. He was not indicted but that was only because he finally found a way to tell something approximating the truth after several appearances before the grand jury. Joe and Val released this statement today:

Karl Rove’s resignation signals the final chapter in the Bush administration’s betrayal of the identity of a covert CIA officer. When this breach of national security occurred, the President promised the American people that anybody in his administration responsible for the leak would be removed. Rove, identified by the prosecutors as one of the leakers, not only was not summarily dismissed, but has been allowed to leave on his own terms, to praise from the President. This sordid tale of compromising national security to cover-up and distract from the false rationale for the invasion of Iraq will forever remain in history a black mark on the Bush presidency.

Good bye and good riddance Karl. You’ve helped make America a worse place to live and raise a family. Here’s hoping you get the karma you so richly deserve.