Fed up with Bush’s pit-bull, many glad to see him fade to black
By Jeffrey Jolson
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 8/13/07 — To the delight of most Hollywood and anti-war activists, as well as democrats in general, Karl Rove, President Bush’s longtime political adviser, is resigning as White House deputy chief of staff effective at the end of this month.
Many consider the embattled advisor to be Bush’s heavy-handed political enforcer who has manipulated everything from the misinformation on the Iraq war to the ouster of “non-Bushies” in the Attorney General’s office and the outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative.
The latter scandal is to become a major motion picture.
Celebrities with a cause have made his exit a cause célèbre from Sheryl Crow who confronted him at a recent banquet, to actors and satirists whose every anti-war or anti-Bush speech includes shock at what they consider latest Rove atrocity. He is regularly portrayed as a dangerous buffoon on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” and others from Leno to “American Dad.”
As the Washington Post described him, “Rove is the pudgy uber-operative also known as Bush’s Brain, who helped put a brush-clearing conservative Christian into the White House by bad-mouthing the liberal elites of this world.”
“I just think it’s time,” Mr. Rove said in an interview to be published today in the Wall Street Journal. “There’s always something that can keep you here, and as much as I’d like to be here, I’ve got to do this for the sake of my family.” Mr. Rove and his wife have a home in Ingram, Texas, and a son who attends college in nearby San Antonio.
Rove, who has held a senior post in the White House since President Bush took office in January 2001, told the WSJ that he first thought of leaving Washington a year ago, but delayed his departure as, first, Democrats took Congress, and then as the White House tackled debates on immigration and Iraq, he said. He said he decided to leave after White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten told senior aides that if they stayed past Labor Day they would be obliged to remain through the end of the president’s term in January 2009.
In the interview, Rove said he expects Democrats to give the 2008 presidential nomination to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom he described as “a tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate.” He also said Republicans have “a very good chance” to hold onto the White House in next year’s elections.
As he is a lightning rod for Democratic attacks on Bush, he said he expects the president’s approval rating to rise again, and that conditions in Iraq will improve as the U.S. military surge continues. Rove further told the financial paper, recently bought by Rupert Murdoch, that he expects Democrats to be divided this fall in the battle over warrantless wiretapping, while the budget battle — and a series of presidential vetoes — should help Republicans gain an edge on spending restraint and taxes.
Rove has advised Mr. Bush for more than a decade since he first ran for Governor of Texas and serving as chief strategist in his presidential campaign in 2000.
Crow cornered Rove at a Washington gala about global warming. After what was characterized as a heated exchange, Crow said, “You can’t speak to us like that, you work for us.” Rove replied “I don’t work for you, I work for the American people.” To which Sheryl replied, “We are the American people.”
Rove’s most YouTubed and ridiculed public appearance was at the White House Correspondents Dinner, where he did a mock rap routine, congratulating himself for being a pitiless power-manipulator.
“Listen up suckas, don’t get the jitters,” Rove rapped and danced, “but MC Rove tears the heads off of critters.” And when asked if he has any hobbies, Rove said he enjoys “ripping the tops off of animals” and demonstrated with his hands.
His ill-conceived bragging while facing subpoenas from Congress may be okay with Hollywood — as long as he dances out the door.