Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
Karl Rove to Resign At the End of August — Karl Rove, President Bush's longtime political adviser, is resigning as White House deputy chief of staff effective Aug. 31, and returning to Texas, he said in an interview with Paul Gigot, editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page.
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Paul A. Gigot / Wall Street Journal:
'The Mark of Rove' — These are the days of Republican doubt, with President Bush fighting an unpopular war, Congress in opposition hands, and a 2008 presidential field trailing Democrats in nearly every poll. But don't tell that to Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's political alter ego …
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Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:
Karl Rove, Top Strategist, Is Leaving the White House — By JIM RUTENBERG and STEVEN LEE MYERS WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 — 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 …
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CNN:
Karl Rove to leave White House — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Karl Rove, President Bush's senior political adviser, will voluntarily step down from his White House post at the end of the month, senior administration officials said Monday. — "Obviously it's a big loss to us, said deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino. "
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Washington Post:
Karl Rove, Adviser to President Bush, to Quit — Karl Rove, chief architect of the Bush presidency and the premier Republican strategist of the last decade, will step down as White House deputy chief of staff Aug. 31. — Rove revealed his plans to the Wall Street Journal …
Emptywheel / The Next Hurrah:
My Guesses on Why Rove Resigned — By now you've heard the news: Rove is stepping down. So here's my treatment of possible reasons why he's leaving, in reverse order of their likelihood: — Time with the Family — As he said to the WSJ, he wants to spend more time with this family.
Discussion:
The Hill, The Seminal, The Lede, Ezra Klein, MSNBC, Prairie Weather, Firedoglake and The Sideshow
Adam Nagourney / New York Times:
The Rove Legacy — Karl Rove leaves the White House in anything but victory. His legendary reputation was seriously diminished by the Republican defeat in the 2006 midterm elections, and has been eroded almost every day since then, as President Bush has struggled through his second term.
Real Clear Politics:
On Karl Rove — Before taking my job as director of the Office of the Office of Strategic Initiatives - I had until then been deputy director for Presidential speechwriting — I asked others who knew Karl Rove about him; after all, I didn't know Karl all that well and I was about to work directly for him.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
EXIT ROVE — So Karl Rove is resigning. I got up in the middle …
EXIT ROVE — So Karl Rove is resigning. I got up in the middle …
Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:
Sudden Timing Of Karl Rove's Departure Surprises And Intrigues Most
Sudden Timing Of Karl Rove's Departure Surprises And Intrigues Most
USA Today:
Major attacks decline in Iraq — The number of truck bombs and other large al-Qaeda-style attacks in Iraq have declined nearly 50% since the United States started increasing troop levels in Iraq about six months ago, according to the U.S. military command in Iraq.
New York Times:
Wrong Way Out of Iraq — As Americans argue about how to bring the troops home from Iraq, British forces are already partway out the door. Four years ago, there were some 30,000 British ground troops in southern Iraq. By the end of this summer, there will be 5,000. None will be based in urban areas.
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Michael Yon:
Three Marks on the Horizon — Almost everyone (by now) must have heard about the "lazy" Iraqi parliament members who, like so many Neros fiddling while Rome burns around them, are taking a month off. Yet comparatively few Americans will ever hear or read about IA Scorpion Company Commander Captain Baker …
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: It's All About Them — Will we elect another narcissist in chief?
Brian C. Mooney / Boston Globe:
Giuliani continues his conservative shift — Favors fewer rights for same-sex unions — Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani continues to discard the moderate and liberal positions of his past. The latest is civil unions for same-sex couples, which the Republican presidential candidate has been backing away from in recent months.
Gina Kolata / New York Times:
The Myth, the Math, the Sex — EVERYONE knows men are promiscuous by nature. It's part of the genetic strategy that evolved to help men spread their genes far and wide. The strategy is different for a woman, who has to go through so much just to have a baby and then nurture it.
Rob Stein / Washington Post:
America Loses Its Stature as Tallest Country — Pundits often opine that America's stature is declining on the global stage. It turns out that Americans — literally — are not standing as tall, compared with the rest of the world, as they used to. — U.S. adults lost their position …