The Bloom is off the Turd

It's not news at this point, but Karl Rove's resigned. The dead of August being the perfect time for him to slip away. Well after the 2006 debacle and while most of the country is sleeping through summer vacation, but well before the final curtain closes on the administration he helped forge. He and Bush, after all, were an inseparable political team ever since Bush's days in Texas. But now, with Bush himself eying the calender, Rove's decided it's time to cash out. To move onto the lucrative speaking circuit – the salary for a presidential aide is nothing compared to what he'll make at corporate functions and the like, I'm sure. Or, my personal favorite, he's going to cloak himself in darkness and secrecy and join some kind of shadowy, underground political hit squad designed to bring down whoever winds up being the Democratic nominee. The Skull and Swift Boats or something.

Whatever, I don't actually care what happens to Rove, except that one day, he's brought to account for what he's put this country through. This world or the next, he'll face the music one of these days. What I am interested in, though, is his legacy. The Rovian brand of politics has been fairly well discredited by the events of 2006, but that doesn't mean that it has no lessons that can't be learned, can't be built upon, to form a better, stronger campaign. Others will do a better job of that than I will (Although you'll need a subscription if you want to read that article, sorry.), too, but I think the important thing to remember is that Rove's failings came not because of the politics but the policy. He could win elections but he couldn't govern because of the corrupt intellectual underpinnings of the conservative movement and that led to the whole ponzi scheme of a Bush presidency crashing down around all our ears. But for all he's been villified, Rove's body has been extremely effective – witness the latest FISA bill that the lame duck Bush was able to ram through Congress.

And the reason for that is quite simple: Rove played to win.

All the time, every time. It doesn't make you invincible but it does mean you're going to win a lot more than when you're playing not to lose.