WASHINGTON, 15 August 2007 — Political opponents feted the resignation of master White House strategist Karl Rove, as a leading US daily yesterday urged Congress to press forward with its probe of President George W. Bush’s trusted adviser.
The influential New York Times called on lawmakers to pursue its investigation into Rove’s role in the firings of several federal prosecutors and other efforts to politicize government in Washington.
“Congress needs to use all its power to bring Mr. Rove back to Washington to testify — in public and under oath — about how he used his office to put politics above the interests of the American people,” the Times’ editors wrote, yesterday, one day after Rove announced his departure, which is effective Aug. 31.
Rove is the latest key aide to leave Bush’s side, reflecting the US leader’s waning powers in the twilight of his second term.
The architect of Bush’s 2000 and 2004 election triumphs, and the Republican rout in 2002 congressional polls, said he would quit as deputy White House chief of staff on Aug. 31, and paid tribute to his boss’ “farsighted courage.”
Democrats, who avenged their string of defeats to Rove only by seizing control of both chambers of Congress last year, cheered his departure.
“Goodbye, good riddance,” said Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards in a terse statement.
Another 2008 Democratic hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, was also scathing.
“Karl Rove was an architect of a political strategy that has left the country more divided, the special interests more powerful, and the American people more shut out from their government than any time in memory,” he said.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, who subpoenaed Rove in a row over the firing of federal prosecutors, which critics say was for political ends, accused Rove of putting himself above the law.
“There is a cloud over this White House, and a gathering storm. A similar cloud envelopes Mr. Rove, even as he leaves the White House,” Leahy said.
The Washington Post noted yesterday however that partisan machinations did not secure lasting control of Congress — led since the beginning of the year by opposition Democrats — for Bush’s Republican party.
“He should be judged on his own terms — as the would-be architect of a long-lasting Republican majority,” the newspaper opined.
