Rove Ends Turbulent White House Tenure

President Bush's Top Political Strategist To Step Down At End Of August

(CBS/AP)  Karl Rove, the political mastermind behind President Bush's races for the White House and an adviser with unparalleled influence over the past 6½ years, announced his resignation Monday, ending a partnership stretching back more than three decades.

It's a major loss for Mr. Bush as he heads into the twilight of his presidency, battered in the polls, facing a hostile Democratic Congress and waging an unpopular war. A half dozen other senior advisers have left in recent months, forcing the White House to rebuild its staff at the same time the president is running out of influence.

"I'll be on the road behind you here in a little bit," said a rueful Mr. Bush, announcing the departure alongside Rove on the White House South Lawn. The president leaves office on Jan. 20, 2009.

Why now? Rove says because White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten set a Labor Day deadline to leave, or work through the end of the term, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod.

Mr. Bush nicknamed Rove "The Architect" and "Boy Genius" for successfully plotting two national election strategies and helping strengthen Republican majorities in Congress in 2002 and 2004.

Critics derisively called him "Bush's Brain." During Mr. Bush's presidency, he has been one of Washington's most powerful and controversial figures.

The president appeared glum as he joined Rove for the announcement. "Karl Rove is moving on down the road," Mr. Bush said. "We've been friends for a long time, and we're still going to be friends. I would call Karl Rove a dear friend."

Rove, his voice shaking with emotion, told Mr. Bush, "I'm grateful to have been a witness to history. It has been the joy and the honor of a lifetime."

He said it had been more than 14 years since he helped Mr. Bush run for governor of Texas and 10 years since they began plotting the first race for the White House. Rove said it was time to "start thinking about the next chapter in our family's life."

After a lengthy hug from Mr. Bush and another from Laura Bush, Rove joined them on the president's helicopter. Rove, his wife and their son flew with President Bush on Air Force One to Texas, where the president began his August vacation.

Rove has been no stranger to controversy in Washington. He came under scrutiny in a criminal investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's name. He testified five times before a federal grand jury, occasionally correcting misstatements he made in his earlier testimony, but he was never charged with any crime.

The trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on charges of lying and obstructing justice established that Rove was one of the administration officials who leaked the name of the CIA officer, Valerie Plame.

In a more recent controversy, Rove refused to testify before Congress about the firing of U.S. Attorneys, citing executive privilege.

"Karl Rove was an architect of a political strategy that has left the country more divided, the special interests more powerful and the American people more shut out from their government than any time in memory," Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama said.

Although Rove never graduated college, his knowledge of American political history is literally encyclopedic, says CBS News chief political analyst Jeff Greenfield. But with his dream of permanent Republican realignment fading, and with Republican presidential candidates distancing themselves from their president, one of Rove's legacies may be to show that knowing the past may not be the key to shaping the political future.