Making Friends

Via The New Republic:

Dick Armey, the House Republican majority leader when Bush took office (and no more a shrinking violet than DeLay), told me a story that captures the exquisite pettiness of most members of Congress and the arrogance that made Bush and Rove so inept at handling them. "For all the years he was president," Armey told me, "Bill Clinton and I had a little thing we'd do where every time I went to the White House, I would take the little name tag they give you and pass it to the president, who, without saying a word, would sign and date it. Bill Clinton and I didn't like each other. He said I was his least-favorite member of Congress. But he knew that when I left his office, the first schoolkid I came across would be given that card, and some kid who had come to Washington with his mama would go home with the president's autograph. I think Clinton thought it was a nice thing to do for some kid, and he was happy to do it." Armey said that when he went to his first meeting in the White House with President Bush, he explained the tradition with Clinton and asked the president if he would care to continue it. "Bush refused to sign the card. Rove, who was sitting across the table, said, 'It would probably wind up on eBay,'" Armey continued.

I know I just had something about Anecdotal Reporting, but I had to post this anway. I do see the irony, really.

Karl Rove Resigns

Via NY Times:

Karl Rove, the political adviser who masterminded President George W. Bush’s two winning presidential campaigns and secured his own place in history as a political strategist with extraordinary influence within the White House, is resigning, the White House confirmed today.

I wish I could find the ding dong the witch is dead music, but, you'll just have to imagine it. The smear campaigns orchestrated by this man are only the main things that we know. I don't even want to know what else he's done... Despite this resignation, I'm sure we will see him again in a few months once the candidates are selected, watch the shadows behind the republican candidate, you'll see him. I do like this comment though, that he just tossed in there:

In his exit interview today, which was with the editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal, Paul Gigot, Mr. Rove had a parting shot for his political nemeses, telling Mr. Gigot that he believed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton would be the Democratic nominee but called her a “tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate,” and predicted a Republican victory in the 2008 presidential race. It is the sort of political boasting that had become Mr. Rove’s hallmark.

While I agree that it is very likely that Ms. Clinton will be the democratic candidate, I do not think she is fatally flawed nor do I think there is any reason to predict a republican victory. Despite that, we must not forget that it is possible, and cannot take a democratic victory for granted.