Cross-posted from The Horse You Rode In On
There are some news stories that always remind me of Big Daddy in ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’, listening to what his son has told him and saying, "But ... that’s only half a story!"
Such is my reaction to the announced Rove resignation. There is no point in rejoicing ... the constitutional damage is done and the hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq are beyond any rescue. Nor is there glory in the Defeat of Evil. If there was anything to the fundamentalist reading of the Bible we’d have seen Rove’s eye go blind and his arm wither during a Fox interview just prior to his turning into a pillar of salt.
But it is just half a story. What is missing is the Why? To use Neil Gaiman’s observation, "Never trust a demon. He has a hundred motives for anything he does... Ninety-nine of them, at least, are malevolent." Malevolent, or self-serving ... I just keep waiting for that other shoe to drop.
But besides his resignation, the other curious things about Rove’s action were his parting observations that Bush’s poll numbers will improve and that the situation in Iraq will get better. It is a fact of poll numbers that the closer you get to zero approval, the more likely it is that it has to get better since, finally, that is the only option available.
And I’ve long maintained that the Iraq fiasco couldn’t get any worse without involving a zombie uprising.
Rove’s predictions remind me of the Ukrainian sharpshooter who was so good because he shot first, and then drew the targets.