More conservative opinion on Rove

Well, for political conservatives he may not seem like the real thing since he hates George II, but Andrew Sullivan is a dyed in the wool conservative of the philosophical type. He doesn't think much of Rove either. Here is his sendoff of the Mayberry Machiavelli. I personally think it is a nice little summary.

The man's legacy is a conservative movement largely discredited and disunited, a president with lower consistent approval ratings than any in modern history, a generational shift to the Democrats, a resurgent al Qaeda, an endless catastrophe in Iraq, a long hard struggle in Afghanistan, a fiscal legacy that means bankrupting America within a decade, and the poisoning of American religion with politics and vice-versa. For this, he got two terms of power - which the GOP used mainly to enrich themselves, their clients and to expand government's reach and and drain on the productive sector. In the re-election, the president with a relatively strong economy, and a war in progress, managed to eke out 51 percent. Why? Because Rove preferred to divide the country and get his 51 percent, than unite it and get America's 60. In a time of grave danger and war, Rove picked party over country. Such a choice was and remains despicable.

I have always been curious how true conservatives could not hate the fellow who stopped the rightward drift of the American public dead in its tracks.

But I might be wrong about that.

Rove wants to spend time with his family

Claims it is because his son is going off to college so they want to spend a lot more time together. Now admittedly it is a long time since I went off to college but I don't remember going with the idea that I should spend as much time as possible with the dear old Mater and Pater. But maybe I was just weird. Anyway, that's the excuse (or reason) that Rove is floating to explain his departure from the White House. For those of us more familiar with the aquatic habits of seagoing rodents another explanation springs to mind.

Still, I am a wishy-washy liberal and I don't want it said that I am allowing my political biases to cloud my assessment of this brave public servant. Here is Michelle Malkin's ode to the departing Rove. And Michelle is as close to a rabid conservative Repub I can imagine.

btw, the picture on Michelle's post shows that old Repubs CAN get down. It clearly brings tears to the eyes of the guy standing behind Rove to your left.

Karl Rove and work

Over on National Review Online's in house blog, 'The Corner,' Mark Krikorian has a post about honest work, among other things. He spins it off from an alleged quote of Karl Rove's which may or may not mean something. What I think it means, though, is that we are moving rapidly towards a society like that of the Late Great Roman Empire - a society of Potentiores and Humiliores. This is most visible among Republicans at the moment, but it is true of both parties and of all our political and economic elites.

Anyway, check out the post. Oh, and keep in mind that many of the other bloggers at National Review have criticized it in several ways.