Analysis: Rove Flap Gives Dems Ammo

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove listens as President Bush, not shown, makes remarks to the media in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington in this April 2, 2007 file photo. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File) (Gerald Herbert - AP)

Despite Rove's reputation as a political grand master, there is not exactly a rush to his door among the current large field of Republican presidential hopefuls.

Democrats have had Rove in their cross hairs before; he always has slipped away.

He was implicated in the CIA leak case as someone who had passed on the identity of CIA undercover agent Valerie Plame to reporters. But he never was charged and never called to testify in the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff. Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice and is awaiting sentencing.

Rove also managed to emerge unscathed from investigations of administration and congressional ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

If Rove deliberately deleted e-mails relating to the firing of the prosecutors, Democrats suggest, he could run afoul of a 1978 law that requires the White House to keep documents that relate to presidential actions, decisions and deliberations.

Republican strategist Rich Galen says Democrats could make the same mistakes that Republicans made under House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., in going after President Clinton after winning control of the House.

"That's what got us in big trouble in 1998 (midterm elections, when Republicans lost seats) and ultimately cost Newt his job as speaker. We so solely focused on going after Bill Clinton that people said, in essence, `We hired you to solve stuff _ and not to spend all day, every day, trying to figure out how to make Bill Clinton's life miserable,'" said Galen, who worked for Gingrich when he was speaker.

Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, denies that his client deleted his own e-mails from a Republican-sponsored computer system. "His understanding, starting very, very early in the administration was that those e-mails were being archived," Luskin said.

Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University, said the controversy over the missing Rove e-mails is another sign of "the downward spiral of an old, tired administration."

It comes as public support for the war in Iraq continues to erode, Bush's approval ratings are in the mid-30s and the administration is embroiled in multiple scandals and ethics investigations.

"They've got serious combat fatigue after six years in office," said Baker. "The forces there are getting very thin."

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EDITOR'S NOTE _ Tom Raum has covered Washington for The Associated Press since 1973, including five presidencies.