The mark of Rove

KARL ROVE is a skilled political tactician who helped George Bush win two races for governor of Texas and two as president. In Washington, Rove, who announced his resignation yesterday, tried to use the same take-no-prisoners techniques in governing. They failed. His inability to get Congress to privatize Social Security or reform immigration will leave his boss, President Bush, with a meager legacy of domestic policy accomplishments, and no prospect for the historic political realignment in favor of the Republicans that Rove hoped to achieve.

The question mark over "the Rove presidency" -- the headline of an article in the September Atlantic Monthly by Joshua Green -- is whether the former direct-mail specialist from Texas would have succeeded in his vaulting ambition if the administration had not lurched into the quagmire of the Iraq war. The war shredded Bush's approval ratings, weakened his clout with Congress, and led directly to the Valerie Plame affair. Leaks by Rove and others of her position with the Central Intelligence Agency forced Rove to testify five times before a grand jury about his role in the White House's effort to discredit Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, for his criticism of manipulated evidence justifying the war.

Even without the war, however, it is difficult to see Rove, who was made Bush's deputy chief of staff for policy after the 2004 election, engineering majorities in Congress on complex issues such as Social Security or immigration reform. Rove's specialty was in using divisive issues such as abortion, gay rights, and gun control to galvanize the Republican Party's conservative base to vote in national elections. He arrived in Washington with no experience in the much different work of getting powerful congressmen to compromise on issues, such as Social Security reform, that are of concern to mainstream voters of both parties.

A second-term fiasco that has made the White House political operation look particularly inept has been the sacking of the nine US attorneys, all originally appointed by Bush. Most of the nine ended up on the hit list after prosecuting GOP officeholders or choosing not to bring charges in cases of alleged voting fraud by Democrats. Rove has refused to testify before Congress about the firings, but he probably had at least foreknowledge of the purge. Whatever the intent of the firings, they have politicized the Justice Department and made Attorney General Alberto Gonzales look ineffectual and duplicitous.

American history is replete with kingmakers expert at using political acumen to help candidates win elections. Most, though, have known their limitations and not tried to play major policy-making roles in the White House. Rove's mistake was in letting his ambition blind him to his shortcomings.