'Brain' leaves much damage

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published August 21, 2007

Karl Rove, the man once referred to as "Bush's Brain," is leaving Washington to spend more time with his family in Texas. He has been hailed as a political genius, and his farewell media tour over the weekend largely focused on the mark he left on national politics and the Republican Party. But Rove's lasting legacy will be the harm he did to the integrity and objectivity of the federal government.

Rove was at heart a political operative who knew how to win elections with George W. Bush as the candidate, ethics aside. But when he set foot in the White House, Rove brought his hardball politics with him and injected partisanship into government on a scale not seen in modern times.

The Democratically led Congress is just unearthing some of the ways Rove helped politicize the federal government in areas ranging from the Justice Department to environmental regulation. He continues to show his contempt for Congress, most recently by ignoring a subpoena from a Senate committee. His argument over the weekend that the White House offered a private meeting with members of Congress is good spin, but it is far short of a public accounting that should be heard and evaluated by all.

What is clear is that Rove was a puppet-master of sorts, pulling strings at various federal agencies and departments to make them responsive to the electoral needs of Republican candidates. Take, for example, the PowerPoint presentation made by Rove deputy J. Scott Jennings to the head of the General Services Administration and other agency officials. It discussed the targeting of 20 Democratic congressional candidates in the next election. Officials at the Justice Department were also subject to political briefings, some led by Rove himself.

It is against the law to use federal agencies to advance partisan politics, but Rove has never let such legal niceties get in the way.

Perhaps most disturbing is the mounting circumstantial evidence that points to Rove as being instrumental in the decision to fire nine U.S. attorneys. This appears to have been an effort to use the power of federal law enforcement for partisan ends. Those U.S. attorneys who resisted going after Democrats or refused to give Republican wrongdoers a pass were shown the door.

For all the destruction Rove caused, he did not ultimately succeed in cementing a permanent Republican majority by keeping the party base energized and picking off slivers of other constituencies. But he will be remembered for his attempts to do so, and the government institutions he diminished in his wake.

[Last modified August 20, 2007, 21:33:02]