Rove Tuesday

The Bush White House continues to try and figure out how to handle the media storm revolving around the unfortunate Karl Rove. With George Bush refusing to cashier his chief advisor (for now anyways) the media is having a field day in making all of the Presidents men feel a tad uncomfortable.

Rove who seems to be a lightning rod for discontent with the Bush agenda has been on the hotplate for a number of days now, chiefly because of his outing of a CIA operative who just happened to be married to one of the administrations main critics. The CIA member Valerie Plame found her name splattered across the newspapers courtesy of a Robert Novak piece, which outlined the path taken by her husband, retired diplomat Joseph Wilson who was charged with seeking out Iraqi weapons of mass destruction back in 2002.

Wilson would go on to be a harsh critic of the US Governments involvement in the war in Iraq over the WMD issue. Ms. Plame's moment of fame came in one simple line outlining her role as a CIA operative on weapons of mass destruction. And with that one assumes her role as an undercover seeker of WMD's, nuclear fission and stray buckshot has come to an end. Rove had involved himself in a background piece two days earlier with Time magazines Matthew Cooper, so his chances of plausible deniability seem slim to say the least.

The outcry has been vociferous that Rove must go, in fact he may find himself in violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection act of 1982, which if he is convicted under may send him off to a federal establishment of pentinence, though one suspects not one on an American portion of an Island that starts with a C ends with an A and is famous for cigars. As Timothy Noah writes in his entertaining examination of the issue with the wonderful title of Turd Blossom must go, Rove should be gone today, indeed he should have been gone a number of yesterdays ago for his abuse of power to smear a political rival while at the same time endangering a member of the US Intelligence community.

For his work in assisting the Republican friendly media with their talking points, Rove has found himself in the midst of an uproar that very well may end his occupation of a West Wing office. At the moment a Grand Jury is considering the evidence to decide if any member of the Administration acted improperly in the entire affair. Republican operatives have been steadfast in their support for the architect of Bush's two consecutive terms, claiming that the uproar is nothing but a Democratic smear campaign on a great Republican. But one wonders how long they'll stand by their man should Rove start to take on water and begin to list. (most likely to the right if one was to take bets)

Loyalty is apparently a quality that the Bush crew take seriously so there may still be some strategy to come out that will save the day for Rove and keep his seat at the Presidential inner office. But when push comes to shove in the past, Bush has distanced himself from those caught up in uncomfortable situations. Just ask Kenneth Lay who once thought of himself as a Bush intimate and found himself off the public radar when he ran into his Enron troubles. He may still make some calls to the President and offer advice, but you'd be hard pressed to find a log of any correspondence between the two.

Will Karl Rove follow in Kenny boys footsteps? If the Democrats and an answer seeking media who don't like to be ignored have their way, Rove will be off the Administration depth chart in short order. Rove has made many enemies (most recently with his Liberals and 9/11comments) while shepherding his student through the governance of America, his political skill able to deflect many messy problems from his boss. With the Wilson/Plame story, Rove finally he may have made that one step that he can't undo.

Shrove Tuesday is traditionally a day of atonement for ones sins and a chance to repent for them, providing an opportunity to commence with a more ethical life. Rove Tuesday is just another day of denial, with nothing to apologize for and nothing to accept blame for.

Repentance and ethics apparently have no place in the office of the deputy chief of staff in charge of policy.