Will Rove go under the bus next?

The Washington Post is speculating that, even barring indictments or convictions for Uncle Karl, Bush may be forced to cut him loose if he's to come close to washing some of the messier stains off of his administration in the second term.

Top White House aides are privately discussing the future of Karl Rove, with some expressing doubt that President Bush can move beyond the damaging CIA leak case as long as his closest political strategist remains in the administration.

If Rove stays, which colleagues say remains his intention, he may at a minimum have to issue a formal apology for misleading colleagues and the public about his role in conversations that led to the unmasking of CIA operative Valerie Plame, according to senior Republican sources familiar with White House deliberations.

I find the scenario where Rove issues a public apology to be unlikely in the extreme. That's the antithesis of the Bush way of doing things. Never admit a mistake of any kind at any time. Always find somebody else to blame. To allow Karl to stand up on TV and say that he'd done some things that were "wrong", as the President's top advisor, that makes Bush look as if he might have been wrong. That can't be allowed.

Far more likely.... Rove will suddenly have to leave office for "personal reasons" or "health reasons", and will likely get the Presdiential Medal of Freedom from his boss on the way out the door (along with a quickie pardon if an indictment shows up further down the road) and he'll sail off into retirement scott free.

Technorati Tags

Rove