Karl Rove to hit the road

So Karl Rove, perhaps President Bush's most important political and policy adviser, and the man in the Bush administration who has been most feared by Democrats, will resign at the end of August. One can't blame him. I get the sense he's tired of the Washington pressure-cooker, though I don't think it was a resignation under pressure. I think President Bush would have loved to have him stay until the end. But it's not to be. Obviously the Rove-ian legacy will be debated for years to come. He'll certainly go down in history. He helped get President Bush elected twice, in a tough environment. Bush accepted much of Rove's political and policy advice. Yes, things didn't go well politically in 2006. And Iraq has been and will be a struggle, though I think it's turning around. On the whole, conservatives should be grateful to Karl Rove. He modernized the Republican Party political machine, especially it's get-out-the-vote operation (and the Right needed someone to take them by the hand into that part of the 21st century). Further, Karl Rove always pushed for tax cuts, and believed in them--and conservatives must always honor those who urge that private individuals be free to keep more of their own money (read: property). It's one of the bedrocks of conservatism. Karl Rove understood it.