Revenge may be sweet.......

.....but winning is sweeter.
I suggested a few weeks ago that Karl Rove going free might not be such a bad thing. Over at Salon Walter Shapiro agrees.

But beyond the partisan sound bites, there is a compelling argument that the nation -- and possibly even the Democrats -- is better off with Rove free to roam the West Wing plotting strategy for the 2006 Republican campaigns rather than hunkered down in his lawyer's office preparing for the trial of century.

[.....]

Rove was not exactly doing hard time on a federal rock pile when Bush's popularity plunged to around 35 percent. It was Rove's handiwork to make Social Security privatization the signature issue of Bush's second term. The disastrous fate of that political gambit, combined with the Iraq war, turned Bush into a lame-duck president before his time. As a political strategist, Rove runs the gamut of issues from A (national security) to B (tax cuts). Six years into his tenure in the White House, Rove may be running on empty, just like the president whom he serves.

Fitzgerald, by not indicting Rove, may have saved the Democrats from getting too caught up in the politics of vengeance. There was always an analogy to Madame Defarge sitting by the guillotine knitting in the way that Bush haters reveled in every unreliable rumor about a Rove indictment.

There is plenty of evidence that Roves's brand of politics, divide and conquer, is wearing thin. All you have to do is look at Social Security and the Terri Schiavo debacle. Roves brand of politics also depends on credibility which the administration and the Republicans no longer have. A majority of the American people see their economic fortunes in decline, in spite of all the happy number spinning from the administration. The majority of Americans now think the Iraq war was a mistake and that there is no "light at the end of the tunnel". With that in place it becomes likely that Karl Rove's politics will backfire.

Over at The Moderate Voice Jeremy Dibbell reminds us that we can see this happening in the center-west.

From Kansas to Montana, voters and centrist political leaders are realizing that the big-government, wedge-issue style of the current national GOP just isn't working. If the party doesn't start to change, and quickly, it could find it's missed the boat.

With Karl Rove running the show that wedge-issue style is what we will continue to see from the Republicans.

As much as I would like to see the sorry excuse for pond scum do some hard time let him continue to dig the hole that the Bush administration is sinking into.