More on Green on Rove

Green leaves a couple of loose ends.

It's not clear why Bush abandoned the moderate style that worked with No Child Left Behind. One of the big what-ifs of his presidency is how things might have turned out had he stuck with it... Instead of modest bipartisanship, the administration's preferred style of governing became something much closer to the way Rove runs campaigns: Steamroll the opposition whenever possible, and reach across the aisle only in the rare cases, like No Child Left Behind, when it is absolutely necessary. The large tax cut that Bush pursued and won on an almost party-line vote just afterward is a model of this confrontational style. Its limitations would become apparent.

The reason Bush abandoned the moderate style is clear to me, at least. Bush is an empty suit, incapable of running the office of the presidency. Rove was left to pursue his objective of destroying the Democratic Party and ensuring Republican control of government for a generation by pushing five issues: education standards, faith-based initiatives, privatization of Social Security, health savings accounts in place of Medicare, and immigration reform. Each of these programs would siphon off support from Democratic voters and leave the Democratic party without a popular platform to run on. And Rove would push these initiatives in the most partisan way possible so as to deny Democrats any credit for the changes that would be made. Meanwhile, Cheney was left to deal with tax cuts, environmental policy, and foreign policy. In each of these areas Cheney's beliefs ran to the hard right, guaranteeing confrontation with Congress. At any time Bush could have stepped in and steered his administration to a more moderate course. But he is too weak, clueless, and indifferent to do so.

Crazy thing is, despite all the talk in 2002 of a "Republican reallignment," none of the Administration's initiatives above had popular support. The political center of the country was in 2000 and is today, probably, basically moderate Republican. Had Bush governed like a moderate Republican, he might have achieved the reallignment Rove sought.

Bush is curiously missing from Green's article as an active player. Take the oft-cited passage about Hurricane Katrina:

Less examined is the role Rove played in the defining moment of the administration's response [to Katrina]: when Air Force One flew over Louisiana and Bush gazed down from on high at the wreckage without ordering his plane down. Bush advisers Matthew Dowd and Dan Bartlett wanted the president on the ground immediately, one Bush official told me, but were overruled by Rove for reasons that are still unclear: "Karl did not want the plane to land in Louisiana." Rove's political acumen seemed to be deserting him altogether.

Perhaps someone should ask Bush why he didn't order the plane down. A real president would have.

Throughout his time with Bush Rove had one loyalty - not to the country or even to the president, but to himself, or rather his vision of forcing a Republican reallignment. I don't believe for one minute that his resignation was motivated by a desire to "spend more time with his family." He's going to spend the next year and a half trying to salvage what remains of his legacy by doing everything he can to prevent Democrats from winning the presidency or expanding their control of Congress in 2008. His savage attacks on Hillary Clinton the other day is a taste of things to come.