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There was no dispute about the Story of the Day. The three networks unanimously led from the White House with the announcement that political operative Karl Rove has resigned. The advisor George Bush himself designated as "the architect" of his re-election victory over Democrat John Kerry will be "movin' on down the road" as the President put it.

NBC's Kelly O'Donnell zeroed in on what Rove's departure signifies for the remainder of the Bush Presidency: she called it a "key signal" that it has reached "lame duck status." The timing was dictated by White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, CBS' Jim Axelrod explained: he set a Labor Day deadline "to leave or work through the end of the term." Rove's resignation "marks a new, less ambitious Bush Presidency," Axelrod said politely while ABC's George Stephanopoulos was as blunt as NBC's O'Donnell: "The President's second-term domestic agenda--immigration reform, Social Security reform, tax reform--is dead."

Correspondents looked back on both successes and frustrations in the Texan's 14 years as the "most influential and controversial strategist," as NBC's O'Donnell put it, to Bush the candidate, the governor and the President. Success consisted of a string of election victories relying on "his signature move," according to ABC's David Wright (subscription required), a "political jujitsu, turning an opponents strengths against him." Rove's attack on Kerry's war record was "an audacious move considering Bush's Vietnam War record was weak." Yet when the midterms of 2006 came along, "not even Karl Rove could spin the Iraq War as a success."

Rove's long term ambition for a permanent partisan realignment with Republicans as the national majority party has not been realized. An analysis by CBS' Jeff Greenfield argued that his need to build a coalition with reforms using "traditionally Democratic themes" was undercut by his "much more partisan approach" at election time. All three networks quoted his denigration of liberals as desiring to "offer therapy and understanding" to the terrorist attackers of September 11th, 2001. ABC's Stephanopoulos observed that Democrats think of Rove as "the enemy;" in the past four years registration in the Republican Party has fallen from 31% to 25% while that for the Democrats his risen from31% to 34%; and "all the groups he has been trying to get--independents, young voters, Hispanics--are going to the Democrats." How has Rove left the Republican Party? A high-ranking GOPer replied to CBS' Axelrod: "In tatters."

CBS' in-house analyst Nicolle Wallace, a former Rove colleague, told anchor Katie Couric that the Presidential campaigns were "grueling" for Rove and that he saw himself "as the guy who took arrows for the President." He has been "on the defense," noted ABC's Wright, because of investigations into that CIA agent's leaked identity and those firings of the US Attorneys. Rove told NBC's O'Donnell that he now "plans to write a book, with the full encouragement of the President." As for the 2008 Republican field, he told NBC's David Gregory (at the tail of the O'Donnell videostream) that he has "a lot of friends in these campaigns and would be willing to offer an opinion."

Andrew Tyndall 8/14/07 9:23:14 pm

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