Karl, we hardly knew ye

A lot of left wingers are going to be real happy that Karl Rove is going back to Texas to "spend time with his family". I'm not one of them. Karl doesn't make political policy or decisions. I don't think he's personally political at all. He works with public relations and advertising. He didn't have anything to do with the war. he got involved with Plamegate only after it became a public relations problem. He is a master of dirty tricks and personal smears but that is the meat and potatoes of partisan politics today, on both sides of the fence. You can't criticize him because he's better at it than anybody else.

Karl was responsible for the perception that GWB was a regular guy, down to earth, self depreciating, with a wry sense of humor. I think that in coaching the President to show these traits to the public, some of them might actually have rubbed off on the unfortunate dolt. It might have at least, temporarily, made him a better, more reflective and empathetic person. Who will do that for him now?

In his public life, Karl has been positively shy. He does not make bellicose, doctrinaire, pronouncements. He doesn't respond to personal attacks. He is not afraid of innocent sponaneity. I thought his pogo dance, on the podium of the recent Washington annual press dinner, did more for the image of the administration, than a hundred "mission accomplished" speeches ever could.

He doesn't cultivate that macho, "chickenhawk", schtick. He doesn't gild his image with phony academic degrees. He doesn't make a beeline for the spotlight at every opportunity. He never portrays himself as the long suffering martyr. In short, he never does for himself, the things he is so good at doing for others.

Karl, we hardly knew ye.