Anyone who would be surprised that Karl Rove had a hand in pursuing the firings of US Attorneys really hasn't been paying attention (and anyone who doesn't why that's a problem is really starting from Square One). But it's worth point out, again, that the Bush folks are still not in front of this story - revelations are driving the coverage and the drip-drip of new facets to this are not helping Alberto Gonzales or the Administration get out from under the cloud. Add to it that conservatives haven't been Gonzales fans all along, and his ability to cling to his job may be evaporating.
But more than anything, it's a real measure of the changed fortunes for Bush and Republicans in general that Rove appears touchable. Up until this week, it would have been impossible to imagine a scenario where Democrats could engineer a grilling of Rove in front of a hostile Congressional committee. Now it seems likely, and chances are it will not go well. It's redundant to point out that the mistake of putting Rove in the White House operation was obvious from the start; there should be at least a fig leaf of distance between the bald political calculations of operatives like Rove and the day to day business of governing. I don't think Democrats can collect Rove's scalp yet - that, honestly, is the secret fantasy here for us, why pretend otherwise - but watching Rove squirm and forcing Gonzales out would probably be satisfying too.
And by the way... I think the point is that this story has ceased to be about anything besides the Bush Administration being wounded, and to stanch the bleeding, someone will have to go, and Kyle Sampson is not enough (nor is posthumously laying this on Harriet Miers, now that so many other hands have been indicated). Still faced with the question of whether the firings were themselves justified... the answer is probably not, but they certainly are the President's prerogative. If we (Democrats) don't like the politicizing of the law and law enforcement - I never have - we'd better be prepared to stand up to that; if a potential Hillary Clinton administration will repeat the Janet Reno step of firing all 93 Attorneys, somebody's going to have to explain how that's different from what Bush has just done. Indeed it's a reason to hope that the real big change with the next election will be someone who's more about governing than partisan politics, and we won't have the political string pullers right behind the President. But I'm not sure that's a reasonable hope.
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