The View From Here . . .
By Bob Morgan, Jr.

The departure of Karl Rove as President Bush's political counselor certainly marks the end of a remarkable era in politics.

Admired by Republicans as "The Architect" and derided by liberals as "Bush's Brain," Mr. Rove presided over a very well organized operation that helped get President Bush elected in 2000 and then won a stunning victory in the 2002 Congressional election, when Republicans defied history by making gains, including retaking the Senate.

In 2004, Mr. Rove was the principal manager of the President's reelection campaign, winning a close and tense election against John Kerry. Mr. Bush's supporters managed to keep Mr. Kerry on the defensive for much of the campaign, with a particular focus on the Democrat's amorphous position on Iraq and his tendency to, as the Bush partisans put it, "flip flop." Mr. Kerry's improvident remark that he voted for the $87 billion to support the war before he voted against it was used to solidify his image as an indecisive leader.

But the biggest success of Mr. Rove's management of the 2004 Bush campaign was in turnout. Very much angered by the disputed 2000 election, Democrats launched a highly successful effort to recruit more like-minded voters to the polls. Indeed, 8 million more voters cast their ballots for Mr. Kerry than for 2000 Democratic nominee, Al Gore. Nevertheless, Mr. Rove's GOP efforts proved even better, as Mr. Bush received 11.5 million additional votes. The Republican drive targeted more religious voters and individuals residing in new "exurbs" on the fringes of metropolitan areas. Indeed, Mr. Bush managed to carry 97 of the 100 fastest growing counties in the United States.

As Mark Halpern and John F. Harris point out in The Way to Win (Random House 2006), Mr. Rove was able to build victories through a number of tactics, and not just the bare knuckle methods. For example, his media operation in the 2000 campaign was successful, with Mr. Bush maintaining good personal relations with reporters. Mr. Rove also was able to build cohesion within his political team and keep infighting and public disputes to a minimum.

Obviously, if Mr. Rove deserves a good deal of the credit for extraordinary political successes in 2000, 2002 and 2004. He also deserve some of the blame for the Republican reverses in 2006, especially since he was a policy as well as political adviser of the President. While the single largest reason for the Democratic victory was the war in Iraq, which even President Bush admits was not going well in that year, there were a few seeming lapses in GOP political strategy that also played a role.

Some of the political issues that plagued the Republicans in 2005-06 included the aborted Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination, President's excessively long vacation in 2005 (with Cindy Sheehan camped outside), a Social Security reform plan that failed to gain traction and perception of a botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

But perhaps most important, Republicans suffered from a perception of corruption and sleaze. A number of members of Congress were convicted of corruption (one drawing an eight year sentence), while others had personal or ethical problems, including inappropriate involvement with Congressional pages. Mr. Rove, perhaps distracted by the Valerie Plame investigation, should have exerted his influence to remove tainted candidates that hurt the party's image.

Rove was a not a magician and he may not have achieved his goal of a permanent Republican majority. But he was a formidable force in American politics and it will be a while before we see his equal.