The resignation of "Bush's Brain" Karl Rove is not a cause for celebration.  Rather it is a warning, a dangerous signal of what is about to come.  Karl Rove is a devotee of Machiavelli and never makes a move without thinking it through to find some advantage in it and guarantee a favorable outcome for him.  To be sure his genius has not been infallible and he has been wrong on occasion.  Rove's hype and predictions have not always matched his numerical predictions, but he is the master of the 51% win.  Rove's genius (and that is the last time I will afford that sobriquet to Karl Rove), his singular evil idiosyncrasy is that he knew that he didn't need a clear victory to win an issue.  Often, it was sufficient for him to simply muddy the waters by casting dispersions, half-truths, and misdirection to cause that momentary hesitation in his opponents that allowed for second guessing, confusion, or for him to execute his master plan.  Karl Rove personifies that loathsome "Man behind the curtain", like Dick Cheney, who is content with pulling the levers and manipulating the reigns of power without exposing himself to the scrutiny of the press or the American people.  By staying in the shadows he can spin his webs of deceit, deception, and destruction on political opponents, the Constitution, and the American people.  Karl Rove is not just immoral, he is amoral.  The amorality of Rove is likened to that of a corporation whose raison détre is profit.  Rove's reason for being is to win regardless of whom he hurts, regardless of truth or rationality, regardless of harm to the Constitution, the American people, or his own Republican Party.  His single mindedness of purpose has made him the quintessential tool of the neocon Republicans and the Republican National Committee.

 
Lee Atwater

Karl Rove is the student, who became the master of his mentor, Lee Atwater.  Atwater was the "dirty trickster" political strategist for George W. Bush's dad George H. W. Bush (and previously for Ronald Regan) famous for the Willie Horton adds in Bush 1's campaign against Michael Dukakis.  In his day, Lee Atwater carried the reputation of the evil political operative Rove does today.  It's well reported that Dumbya Bush followed Atwater around like an annoying little brother during his dad's campaigns.  Atwater said of himself, "While I didn't invent negative politics, I am one of its most ardent practitioners."  However, after being diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in 1990, Harvey LeRoy Atwater, found religion and sought forgiveness apologizing to his former foes and lamented the "tumor of the soul" that afflicted America.  And maybe, by extension, himself1.  Karl Rove has already "found" religion and manipulated it for political gain.  I doubt that we will ever see the deathbed remorse for his past deeds, the heartfelt apologies, and the admonitions not to follow in his footsteps–not like Lee Atwater put into words just before his untimely death–in the person of Karl Rove.  No, I doubt Karl Rove has at least that much humanity in him.

I don't know what is to come of the Rove resignation but I'm not letting my guard down against this evil, intelligent, manipulative, Machiavellian, nasty little man for a second.  Where will his tentacles reach next–another political campaign, Fred Thompson perhaps or Rudy Giuliani, like attracts like and they are political whores; create a think tank and continue to spread the malignancy of neo-conservatism and the Republican party; teach at Pat Robertson's Reagent University that has spawned the likes of Monica Goodling and one hundred fifty other bureaucrats that infect various departments in Washington D.C. today; write a book that the right-wing financiers will instantly buy 30,000 or 50,000 copies of to put it on the New York Times best-seller list as they have for the likes of Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly; or will he look to infiltrate insurgencies outside the United States?  After all there's a new conservative government in France!  Don't for a second think that he will not be an integral part of the remainder of the Bush crime-family dynasty in the years to come.

"No one is totally worthless; you can always serve as a bad example."  While I usually apply that quote tongue in cheek and affectionately to myself, in this case it fits in the most negative, unaffectionate, accusatory, and insightful way directed at Karl Rove.  Karl Rove represents all that is wrong and reprehensible about the politics of true believers and Republicans today.  That the Republican National Committee and the Republican electorate would allow, celebrate, utilize, promote, laude, respect, and welcome with open arms such a cynical, destructive, amoral, evil, Machiavellian personality like a Karl Rove speaks volumes as to the nature of Republicans (even my Democratic party has mostly shunned James Carville and his Republican hag Mary Maitlin).  Karl Rove is the face of today's Republican Party and all its wanton desires for hegemony over America and the world.  If we are ever to be free of these reprehensible Republicans we must be as vigilant in watching for their assaults on our freedoms as we are in guarding against Islamist extremists and terrorism.

1 "Lee Atwater's sorrow for the road taken" by James Hebert, San Diego Tribune, May 10, 1996.