Speechless

I really thought that Rove would stay with him until the end.

Karl Rove, George W Bush's most trusted and senior adviser, has paid tribute to the US president as he confirmed his intention to leave the White House.

Mr Rove, who will step down at the end of August, said he was "deeply proud" to have served Mr Bush and the US.

Good riddance.

UPDATE: There are thousands of people who could have told Kevin Drum this on September 12, 2001, for free. It's always going to be a mystery to me why people didn't adopt this position until it was acceptable:

Instant analysis: It doesn't really matter. History will judge Rove a colossal failure, a man who never understood how to govern and, for all his immense knowledge of polls and politics, never really understood the times he lived in. It was 9/11 that both made and broke the Bush presidency, not some kind of mystical McKinley-esque realignment. Rove was blind to that, and blind to the way Bush should have governed after 9/11. His one-track mind, in which every problem is solved by wielding the biggest, nastiest partisan club you can lift, just couldn't adapt. It's fitting that he insisted on making even his final act as calculatedly partisan as he could, announcing his resignation not through the White House press office, but in an interview with the editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page. Sic transit, Karl.