COLUMN: 08-15-2007

The announcement that Karl Rove is leaving the White House requires a look back at his legacy. Far from being the genius indicated by his Republican supporters (or the evil genius indicated by his Democratic opponents), he is purely the lowest form of political exploiter: a demagogue. He used President Bush's faith to gain the support of America's faithful. Similarly, he played up the American people's fear of terrorism to re-elect President Bush in 2004. In both cases, the administration did little to actually support the positions of the groups they were appealing to: the religious groups' agenda was sidetracked behind that of the business interests and the security situation has been made immeasurably worse by the Iraq War (a war of choice inflicted upon America and the world by this administration). For all the talk of compassionate conservatism and the president being a uniter and not a divider, Karl Rove has shaped the politics of this administration that values personal loyalty above all else, including truth, integrity, or any of the other moral values that Republicans are supposed to espouse and derive from their position as the party of religious conservatives. He (and the rest of the Bush administration) will surely be remembered as among the worst leadership in the history of our nation.