SF Gate: Short of grand jury indictment, no one expects Bush to fire Rove

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/14/MNGR7DNPP01.DTL&feed=rss.news



Washington -- President Bush promised months ago to fire anyone from his administration who leaked the identity of a spy. Yet no one expects Bush to fire Karl Rove anytime soon, short of a grand jury indictment. Czar of White House policy and message, mastermind behind Bush's winning campaigns for the Texas governorship and two presidential terms, architect of the "new Republican majority," Rove is nearly as central to Bush's presidency as Bush himself.

For Bush, Rove is "the next most important person, beyond his wife, in his life," said James A. Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University in Washington, D.C. Bush is famously loyal to friends, and Rove is the closest of friends, going back to Bush's graduate-school days at Harvard. Admiring enemies call him "Bush's brain."

"Karl Rove is a combination of Svengali, Rasputin and the Man Behind the Curtain in this administration," said Marshall Wittmann, senior fellow at the centrist Democratic Progressive Policy Institute, a former aide to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and a member of Bush's father's administration.

"For this president, and for that matter, the Republican Party as a whole, Rove is the master policy maker and master strategist," Wittmann said. "It would be a crippling blow if he had to leave the administration, and that's why he will not leave short of an indictment."

[napi21]

1. I'm sure lots of politicians said similar things about

Jack Abermoth (sp) too..."We can't do without him!" But it's lookin like the;re going to have to find a way, huh?

[LiberalEsto]

2. If B*sh won't fire Rove

then it's time to fire B*sh!

[woodsprite]

3. In that pic, doesn't Rove look like

he's thinking "You better get this right, you assbite"? His squinty little eyes are glaring right at the back of *'s head.

I gotta try to get another LTTE in and see if it get's printed. Today there was a letter that said we should be bombing Iraq from the air to get all the terrorists. That was the only one I noticed regarding anything non-local. The New-Journal (Gannett) so far seems to be ignoring it.

[indepat]

4. In the least W might consider reaming Rove out for his little personal

initiative/vendetta which turned out to be indiscreet, telling him to get clearance before free-lancing.