Rove's Dismal Legacy

"Because based on Rove's history, the whole thing may well have been his idea -- and may be even more complicated than it initially appeared."

On May 4 I took note of an emergency meeting at the White House where Rove gave top Justice Department officials marching orders that, depending on what you believe, either instructed them to tell the whole truth or to cover up his own involvement.

I wrote on Aug. 2 about how the White House is maintaining that Rove has absolute immunity from congressional oversight.

Here's more on Rove as media critic; and Rove as rapper.

The Green Indictment

In a timely piece in the Atlantic (subscription required) Joshua Green reviews what he calls "The Rove Presidency": "Rove has always cast himself not merely as a campaign manager but as someone with a mind for policy and for history's deeper currents -- as someone, in other words, with the wherewithal not just to exploit the political landscape but to reshape it."

But by late 2005, "the administration was crumbling. Social Security had gone nowhere. Hurricane Katrina, the worsening war in Iraq, and the disastrous nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court shattered the illusion of stern competence that had helped reelect Bush. What surprised everybody was how suddenly it happened; for a while, many devotees of the Cult of Rove seemed not to accept that it had. As recently as last fall, serious journalists were churning out soaring encomiums to Rove and his methods with titles like One Party Country and The Way to Win. In retrospect, everyone should have been focusing less on how those methods were used to win elections and more on why they couldn't deliver once the elections were over.

"The story of why an ambitious Republican president working with a Republican Congress failed to achieve most of what he set out to do finds Rove at center stage. A big paradox of Bush's presidency is that Rove, who had maybe the best purely political mind in a generation and almost limitless opportunities to apply it from the very outset, managed to steer the administration toward disaster."

Green argues that Rove's contempt for Congressional Republicans (not to mention Democrats) and his obsession with redesigning Social Security (even after others recognized it as a lost cause) were key to his overall failure.

Green concludes: "The Bush administration made a virtual religion of the belief that if you act boldly, others will follow in your wake. That certainly proved to be the case with Karl Rove, for a time. But for all the fascination with what Rove was doing and thinking, little attention was given to whether or not it was working and why. This neglect encompasses many people, though one person with far greater consequences than all the others."

The Coverage

Lots more tomorrow, of course. In the meantime, here's coverage from The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Associated Press, Reuters, and Bloomberg.

The Return of the Draft?

Josh White writes in The Washington Post that "the White House war czar said in a radio interview that he believes it makes sense militarily to consider a draft as an option for relieving war-related stresses on U.S. forces.

"Though Bush administration officials and U.S. military leaders have long shunned the notion of reinstating a draft, Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, Bush's top military adviser on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said yesterday that the draft has 'always been an option on the table' and that it 'makes sense to certainly consider it.'

"In an interview on National Public Radio's 'All Things Considered,' Lute said the military is competing for a 'very narrow slice' of high school graduates and that the draft is one of several options to prevent the military from breaking. . . .

"National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Lute's comments were consistent with President Bush's stated policy in regard to any potential use of the draft. 'The president believes an all-volunteer military serves the country well, and there is no discussion of returning to a draft,' Johndroe said."

Cheney, Iran and Congress

Matt Stearns writes for McClatchy Newspapers: "Taking military action against Iran could put President Bush on a collision course with Congress, leading Democrats and a Republican lawmaker cautioned Friday following Bush's threat of unspecified consequences for alleged Iranian meddling in Iraq.

"It's been the consensus for months among the Democrats who hold the majority that Bush must get congressional authorization before any military strike.

"But the authorization would be no easy sell. Two knowledgeable U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because intelligence on Iran is highly classified, said that the administration so far doesn't have 'smoking-gun' evidence that could be used publicly to justify an air attack."

(The McClatchy story I quoted in Friday's column said Cheney has proposed launching air strikes at suspected training camps in Iraq run by a unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. But a corrected version of the story says those suspected camps are actually in Iran.)

Stearns writes about a proposed Senate bill that would prevent money from being used for a strike against Iran without congressional approval. But in the meantime: "Should Bush simply pursue a strike against Iran without seeking congressional authorization, it would cause 'an uproar over here. It would be a serious breach of (the limits on) executive power,' said a military affairs aide to a Democratic senator.

"Nevertheless, Bush and Vice President Cheney take a broad view of executive power, and it's unclear what consequences Bush would face if he were to take action without authorization."

FISA Watch

Jonathan Alter writes for Newsweek: "I hate to sound melodramatic about it, but while everyone was at the beach or 'The Simpsons Movie' on the first weekend in August, the U.S. government shredded the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, the one requiring court-approved 'probable cause' before Americans can be searched or spied upon. This is not the feverish imagination of left-wing bloggers and the ACLU. It's the plain truth of where we've come as a country, at the behest of a president who has betrayed his oath to defend the Constitution and with the acquiescence of Democratic congressional leaders who know better. Historians will likely see this episode as a classic case of fear -- both physical and political -- trumping principle amid the ancient tension between personal freedom and national security."

Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus write in The Washington Post: "Until September -- and possibly for much longer -- the new law will enable the high-tech collection of foreign communications without judicial scrutiny on a vastly larger scale than previously possible, allowing billions of phone calls and e-mails inside as well as outside the United States to be routinely screened for possible links to terrorism and other security threats.

"Congressional, administration and intelligence officials last week described the events leading up to the approval of this surveillance, including a remarkable series of confrontations that ended with McConnell and the White House outmaneuvering the Democratic-controlled Congress, partly by capitalizing on fresh reports of a growing terrorism threat."

Warrick and Pincus write that Democratic leaders demanded something in return for their approval of a narrow expansion of FISA: "[T]he release of long-sought administration documents describing the controversial warrantless wiretapping program Bush had authorized in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks."

The White House said no, and steamrolled the Democrats into approving a vast expansion anyway.

Eric Lichtblau, James Risen and Mark Mazzetti write: "The White House, [Democratic Senator Russel] Feingold said Friday in an interview, 'has identified the one major remaining weakness in the Democratic Party, and that's its unwillingness to stand up to the administration when it's making a power grab regarding terrorism and national security.'

'They have figured out that all they have to do is start talking about an imminent terrorist threat, back it up against a Congressional recess, and they know the Democrats will cave,' he added."

French Weekend

Bob Drogin writes in the Los Angeles Times: "President Bush, who prides himself on building personal ties to foreign leaders, launched a bit of hamburger diplomacy Saturday as he welcomed the newly elected president of France to an informal lunch and private chat at the Bush family compound here."

Anne E. Kornblut writes in The Washington Post: "Might the president at least speak a few words of French, as a gesture toward the new U.S.-French thaw?

"'No, I can't,' Bush said. 'I can barely speak English.'"

Here's the transcript.

Recess Watch

Erin P. Billings writes for Roll Call (subscription required): "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has quietly shelved plans to hold the Senate in pro forma session this month after the White House agreed to refrain from making any executive appointments during the Senators' August break."

Vacation President

Julie Mason writes for the Houston Chronicle: "President Bush tries to set an example for Americans whenever he can, in terms of physical fitness, faith, optimism and a certain overall moral rectitude. He also sets an excellent example on taking vacation.

"On Thursday, Bush left for a weekend in Kennebunkport, Maine, and his family's summer compound, Walker's Point. On Monday, he heads to his Crawford retreat, where he has spent all or part of 418 days of his presidency, according to Mark Knoller, a CBS News White House correspondent and meticulous record-keeper."