What is the "over-under" on this?  I'd say somewhere between 1 and 6 months of his resignation date.  As John McLaughlin says, "a metaphysical certitude"!!!

Bye bye! :)

I'm not buying it.  To spend time with his family?  When his son's away at college?  That dog don't hunt.  If he had said "to avoid embarrassing the administration with my indictment," perhaps I'd find it more plausible.

I  am thinking the scene where the rats are fleeing down the  hallway...........trying to leave the ship, just as doomed as the 1512 humans.

Rove had many reasons to leave, like trying to duck Congressional investigations, but he sees the GOP inevitably hitting an iceberg in '08 just like the rest of us do.  Time to go cash in with corporate consulting.

*"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."

*"We will f**k him. Do you hear me? We will f**k him. We will ruin him. Like no one has ever f**ked him." -to an aide about some political stratagem in some state that had gone awry and a political operative who had displeased him

*"Come on, everybody. Go Howard Dean!"

*"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing."

Source: About.com

I hope that I am dead wrong, but as Rove is precipitously pushed out the White House door, this thought (cross-posted at TPMMuckraker) occurred to me:

Remember that Rove seemed to be the only serious political and policy force on the Bush side of the White House. Bush's personal staff members, as well as his cabinet secretaries, have been, except for Rove, an exceptionally lightweight crew--pretty much Harding caliber.

Policy, both foreign and domestic, has for the most part been forfeited to VP Cheney and his current Chief of Staff, David Addington (torture memo, Iraq invasion, warrantless wiretapping, secret prisons, suspending habeas corpus, destroying the environment at the behest of corporatist interests, etc.).

Rove, though he got "The Math" a little confused in the 2006 elections, was still capable of looking at the political landscape with at least a tenuous link to reality. He may have had the foresight to see that yet another "preemptive war"--the next one against Iran--would likely be an Iraq-style protacted disaster or worse, would unhinge the U.S. economy for the next generation, and would discredit the currently ascendant neocon version of Republicanism for possibly decades to come.

Could Rove have been vigorously arguing within the White House against escalating tensions with Iran? Could he have just now lost this battle with Cheney and Addington?

Is the weak, millennialist, and intellectually impaired Bush now completely in the thrall of Cheney, Addington, and the remaining neocon agenda, i.e., "bomb, bomb Iran?" Have the delusionists just completed their seizure of the throne?

Valiant Shield, a massive air and naval exercise involving three carrier strike forces (Stennis, Nimitz, and Kitty Hawk) is concluding near Guam this week. Will those carrier strike forces now be sent to the Gulf? Watch closely. Very closely.
 

is what I, too, fear, given Bush's impaired cognition and his apparent willingness to be mesmerized by Dick. Don't forget the recent strong-armed passage of the FISA so-called reform bill which granted unheard of powers to Bush and Gonzales, and the ramping up of gut-feeling terrorist attack... It is as if they are clearing the deck to pull off the long-anticipated Armageddon (or, if you are a cynical neo-con who has been "using" the millenialist evangelicals, then it is pulling off the long-planned purification of the Middle East). Has Bush gone to cut bush in Crawford, so he's out of harm's way down yonder?

well, that explains it!

That Rove was politically brilliant is undeniable, but that he had any positive impact on government policy is purely speculative.  Don't forget that he was the one in charge of cleaning up the Katrina mess...which still hasn't been cleaned up.

This gives him 16 months to sell his access to the White House and make a truck full of money.  If he finds that he really misses politics, there will still be enough time to go in and "rescue" a campaign.

As much as I'd have preferred to see him leaving the WH in cuffs, I imagine he's leaving of his own volition, for pretty much the stated reasons. 

All this means is that Rove is now available for 2008.  After a short break, he'll be soliciting bids from the 2 1/2 major players (Romney, Giuliani, and what's left of the McCain campaign).  He's still mostly respected on their side, and he'll be a serious problem for ours.

WH CoS Josh Bolten told senior aides that if they stayed on board past Labor Day 2007, they would be obliged to stay through the rest of the President's term in January 2009. I think Rove just wanted options.

And there is absolutely no doubt that his influence, over Bush and especially over the Republican Party in general, was majorly overblown. His name became a buzzword for "dirty GOP tricks", from the White House down into local races that Rove probably had never heard about.

Karl must save his legacy.  GWB = old news.  Time to start whipping the party into shape.  Maybe even see what's up with Jeb.

He is a colossal scumbag -- of the highest magnitude. I'd use more sailor-like prose, but, because of the new "no profanity" rule, I feel I am awfully constrained.

He, GWB, and Tom DeLay need to be tarred -- forever -- as the people that decided politics was about division, cynicism, outright lying, and pay-to-play corruption. Government of, by, and for the donors, and laws be damned.

I think the comparison between Bush/Rove and McKinley/Hanna is an apt one -- and it is not a compliment, as Rove would have you believe. McKinley was assassinated, so his historical awfulness is often minimized, but he was one of the architects of the original "let's Christianize and Democratize the Savages" doctrines (the Philippines and the Dominican Republic of the Spanish-American War; luckily, he was followed by Teddy Roosevelt, so hopefully that paradigm happens again, although I don't see any real TR analogs at this point in the Dem candidates).

The investigatory committees of the Congress need to find a way to obtain as much evidence of Rove's activities as possible, even if it's after Bush leaves office. These people need to be held responsible for their crimes.

"but, because of the new "no profanity" rule, I feel I am awfully constrained."

Please refer to the rule by it's proper name - The MOHAWK rule.

You're welcome.

The public Rove has become a liability, and an election is coming up. No doubt he will be involved in some vote suppression scam in the near future. You just can't keep people like him down. Like ticks and fleas these parasites just keep coming back.

When people resign to look for better options, they say so. Using the "sake of my family" excuse normally means something that would humiliate their families. It also indicates that they are going to be in hiding for a while.

I heard Rove on the radio, and he sounded upset. If he was truly retiring, he would have sounded a lot more happier.

I am sure that we will now within seven years. :)

when they end up on the losing end of a power struggle. Did we just witness the ultimate victory of Cheney and Addington over Bush's remaining loyalists at the White House?

Your time here is done. in 17 months bushes and cheneys time will be done.

Then the historians will have to invent new ways of describing Bad presedencys
bad spelling, but I just got out of  fairfax hospital! still feeling groggy

This may lead to transparency of decision making - if only due to the fact there are so few people left at the WH.

I don't think anyone really knows Rove.  He is not the kind of guy the entitled society of Bush embrace except for their ability to handle work too dirty for their own.  In Texas, I imagine his healthy future will depend on keeping the dirt under the carpet.

Rove's wife once commented that he was so competitive, he could make her cry over a game of croquet.  Also, that he knew hundreds of people but has few real friends.

Perhaps over time we will understand why "W" insisted that Rove sell his political consulting business before coming to DC.  I suspect it was the price of admission to the Bush WH.  Even with that teary a goodbye - Karl knows he was an employee and not an equal.

So how does an uber-competitive guy handle that?