[GOP Corruption]

Rove's Political Epitaph.

Rove was "exonerated" today--sort of.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has told White House aide Karl Rove that he does not expect to seek charges against him in connection with the CIA leak case, Rove's lawyer said today.

It comes down to this: for the Bushies, not getting indicted is the high bar of excellence. Ah, thank God Bush has brought honor back to the White House. But what of Bush's Brain, the hallowed Turd Blossom--how will history record his deeds?

The presidency of George W. Bush will be remembered for a number of amazing acts of incompetence, but its real legacy will be the way in which it functioned. For the first time in the Republic's history, lawmaking became a function of domestic politics. Governing was abandoned in favor of initiatives that would bolster the base's faith (often literally), punish opponents (sometimes but not always Democrats), and strengthen the GOP's hold on power. There is barely a single initiative mounted by the White House in the past five years that didn't have these explicitly political goals, and if actual governance happened, it was a random and unplanned occurance. This legacy can be traced largely to Karl Rove.

It is not clear how many laws the White House has broken, or how many people were involved in perpetrating them. But from the Iraq invasion to the K Street Project, Karl Rove was in the center of them all. He was the mastermind of many, and his intention was to thwart his foes--and thereby thwart the democratic process--which elevates him from a petty crook to something rather more dramatic. The crimes he committed were not so much the crimes against the Constitution, but against the heart of our democratic processs.

He was extremely gifted, too. He managed to get Bush elected twice (yes, through dirty tricks, but so what--that actually enhances his role), mortally wounded a number of political enemies, and firmly established radicals in the government.

The righties, insensitive (thanks much to Karl!) to anything that refutes the script, are gleeful today. Their man has avoided jail time. Increasingly, as the evidence of his influence dribbles out over the next decade and it becomes clear just how corrupt, powerful, and cancerous he was, that will be his main epitaph: "never indicted."

Congratulations, Bushies, you've set a hell of an example.