Rove's Dilemma

Jim Rutenberg and Steven Lee Myers write in the New York Times: "On Tuesday, several White House officials acknowledged with unusual candor that with just 17 months remaining in Mr. Bush's final term, there is little time for new ideas. Nor is there much time to realize the long list of unaccomplished presidential proposals.

"'There's no question the window is narrowing,' said Joel D. Kaplan, the deputy chief of staff for policy. 'But,' he added, 'it's not closed.'

"Mr. Kaplan said the president would seek to use executive orders and other administrative powers aggressively to push his agenda where Congress has not, just as he did last week in directing several agencies to strengthen enforcement against employers of illegal immigrants, which he had initially sought to do through the failed immigration bill. . . .

"But aides acknowledged that Mr. Bush's more ambitious goals would still require the approval of Congress. The Democratic majority is likely to fight Mr. Bush on budgetary matters and, perhaps most important at the White House, challenge him over his conduct of the war in Iraq."

Karl Who?

Peter Wallsten writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Not to be 'ungenerous or self-centered,' said White House Counselor Ed Gillespie, but he thinks some people overestimate Karl Rove's importance. After all, Gillespie pointed out, during the 2004 presidential campaign he headed the Republican National Committee, the heart of the party's operations. And he talked to Rove only 'from time to time.'

"Another White House official, asked what it would mean to lose the legendary strategist, whose departure was announced Monday, recalled that Rove had started the staff's 'ice-cream Fridays.'

"As one of the most powerful and controversial presidential advisors in modern history heads out the door, the White House is engaged in an unusual game of double spin: While President Bush bear-hugged Rove and showered him with praise in a South Lawn ceremony, officials like Gillespie quietly began to whittle down Rove's image as the man who played a key role in almost every major decision of the Bush era. . . .

"White House aides deny they are engaging in spin. Spokeswoman Dana Perino said she was just trying to humanize Rove when she told a Fox News interviewer about his creation of the ice-cream tradition. And she said any attempt to downplay Rove's role was only meant to counteract misimpressions fostered by the news media and Rove's critics."

The Return of Karen Hughes?

U.S. News reports that "insiders" are saying "that Karen Hughes, one of Bush's closest confidantes, could be reassigned from the State Department back to the White House, where she served as communications czar during Bush's first term."

Editorial Watch

The Kansas City Star: "The mistake was in bringing Karl Rove into the White House in the first place. A political strategist who specializes in cheap rhetoric and low blows, Rove should have been kept at a safe distance by President Bush when it came to actually running the country.

"Instead, Bush allowed him free rein in the upper echelons of his administration. There Rove tainted important policy decisions with relentless political calculation. . . .

"[W]ith Democrats running Congress and the unpleasant consequences of the administration's many ill-advised policies now rolling in, the White House has been forced into a more defensive and sometimes even conciliatory role.