SWEET headline: "Rove scandal chipping at Bush agenda" (Australia)

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Rove scandal chipping at Bush agenda
Ian Bremmer
July 25, 2005

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16034173%255E2703,00.html

THE main reason the growing scandal around Karl Rove matters - aside from the fact that a senior White House official may have committed a felony - is that it damages George W. Bush's declining political capital.

From social security reform to Iranian nuclear proliferation, from Supreme Court nominations to US-China confrontation, a president needs domestic political capital to achieve his policy goals. Bush's chip stack is clearly shrinking.

Most second-term presidents have 18months to govern before lame-duck status sets in. Bush is already wrestling with Congress on foreign and domestic priorities. The battle over Rove's possible involvement in a felony dangerously distracts the White House and is likely to undermine support for the President's agenda.

Rove, the man credited with Bush's winning campaign strategies in 2000 and last year, has been dogged by charges he leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent to at least three journalists. One, Robert Novak, published the agent's name in his syndicated column. A second, The New York Times correspondent Judith Miller, is in jail for refusing to reveal who gave her the agent's name. The third, Time magazine's Matthew Cooper, avoided jail when Rove, his source, released him from a confidentiality deal, allowing him to testify before a grand jury. Time also handed over Cooper's notes and emails relating to the leak.

[calimary]

1. LOVE it! The "man" bush loves the most and to whom bush owes the

most - will be his undoing.

SWEET indeed! May kkkarl be the mill stone around your neck, george...especially as you get thrown overboard.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Love this copy:

"...aside from the fact that a senior White House official may have committed a felony..."


It's just an aside...so stop saying that!

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

3. The thing that will decide this, one way or another...

...will be Bush's vulnerability.

If he BELIEVES he's getting damaged, Rove will be gone.

Do I believe that a Rove dismissal...either a resignation or firing...would mean NO Rove participation in Bush's affairs? Absolutely not. They'll just pay him under the counter. NO ONE knows how to sodomize his fellow man as well as Karl, and Bush WILL NOT give that up.

Right now, Bush's arrogance prevents him from seeing this for what it really is. He believes that a smile and a smirk and a fake Texas swagger in his step will wipe all of this away.