Why did Rove resign? Why now?

His claim that it was to spend more time with his family is as believable as when Attorney General John Mitchell used the same phony excuse in 1972 prior to his Watergate indictment. So what's the real reason? Time will tell, but kpete from democraticunderground.com brought this to my attention:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1576883

Abramhoff Has Told Friends & Family-ROVE GOING DOWN-Because He's Implicated In Bribery Investigation
Jack Abramhoff has been telling friends and family in the last few months that Karl Rove was going down because he is implicated in the bribery investigations. This much I know–Abramhoff has been talking freely and fully to the FBI about Rove and what he knew and when he knew it. Whether that translates into an indictment remains to be seen.

Then there is the Rove role in outing Valerie Plame. He was not indicted but that was only because he finally found a way to tell something approximating the truth after several appearances before the grand jury. Joe and Val released this statement today:

Karl Rove’s resignation signals the final chapter in the Bush administration’s betrayal of the identity of a covert CIA officer. When this breach of national security occurred, the President promised the American people that anybody in his administration responsible for the leak would be removed. Rove, identified by the prosecutors as one of the leakers, not only was not summarily dismissed, but has been allowed to leave on his own terms, to praise from the President. This sordid tale of compromising national security to cover-up and distract from the false rationale for the invasion of Iraq will forever remain in history a black mark on the Bush presidency.

more at:

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2007/08/13/ro-ro-rove/

This link currently isn't working, I'll update this when it does. Very interesting turn of events!

UPDATE: Over at progressiveindependent.com, seemslikeadream is also on top of some interesting possibilities:

Why KKKarl left - Chris Floyd - emptywheel

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2165/1

The announcment that Karl Rove is going to resign -- precipitiously, in a matter of days, obviously in a great hurry to get the hell out of Dodge -- must mean there is one hell of an indictment coming down the pike (or else one hell of a backroom deal has been cut to avoid an indictment. If that's the case, it probably involves the politicization of the Justice Department: an egregious thing to be sure, but more in the nature of a "technicality" when compared to Rove's roles in conspiring to launch a war of aggression, subvert the electoral process and install an unconstitutional authoritarian regime. Of course, prosecuting Rove for the Justice scandal (or even the Plamegate scandal, which is another possibility) would be akin to nailing Al Capone on tax evasion charges: not really the fullest measure of justice -- but at least he'd be behind bars for awhile.

Naturally, anything we say at this point would be pure speculation. But certainly there is much more to this sudden, panicky departure than Rove's desire to "spend more time with his family." (Uh, Karl -- when your son has already gone away to college, it's too late to spend more time with him, unless you're going to hang around his dorm or something, which would be pretty creepy. If "spending time with your family" was such a priority, perhaps you shouldn't have spent 24/7 servicing George W. Bush throughout the entirety of your son's childhood, eh?)

This hankering for the family hearth is of course a transparent lie, like most of the drivel that issues from Rove's mouth for public consumption. And he will surely continue to service George's needs 24/7, despite this "retirement." But again, such a headlong departure can only betoken a feverish desire by the White House to avoid some kind of major legal heat.

Or has Larry Flynt come up with the goods on some unseemly proclivities of the porcine counselor? Would it be irresponsible to speculate on such lurid matters? It would be irresponsible not to.


http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/08/three-guesses-w.html#more

The Sheriff Is Coming


.........................

Rove is leaving just three steps ahead of one of the many sheriffs that have him in their sites. These include:

The Abramoff Investigation

We know Rove is tied in with everyone tied in with the Abramoff inevstigattion. We know that Susan Ralston, Rove's Assistant was closely involved--and it appears that she has been refused immunity, even though some of her testimony about Abramoff appears to be quite interesting. Novak, at least, thinks Ralston would get to Rove. So it's possible that Rove is one of the ultimate targets of the Abramoff investigation.

The OSC Investigation

This is easy. We know Rove is a target of the OSC investigation into the politicization of anything and everything in the entire government. We know he did, in fact, politicize anything and everything. The ultimate outcome of an OSC investigation would consist of Scott Bloch explaining that Rove did politicize anything and everything and recommending that Bush should fire him, but then to have Bush sit on that recommendation as he has with Lurita Doan. But perhaps Rove is leaving anyway, in an attempt to prevent us all from learning how closely our government resembles that of a one-party state, like maybe the old Soviet Union.

The Iglesias Investigation

But I'm most interested in the possibility that Rove is rushing out just two steps ahead of the Iglesias investigation. HJC is collecting a great deal of evidence that DOJ employees covered up the real reasons for the Iglesias firing ... and that the real reason for the firing had everything to do with politicizing the judiciary. It not only has evidence that Will Moschella, Paul McNulty, and Alberto Gonzales lied about the reasons for Iglesias' firing, it appears that Moschella, at least, is getting downright cooperative (and note, McNulty is going to be out of DOJ at almost the same time as Rove will be out of the WH).

If this is the reason Rove is quitting, it's not just that BushCo wants him out before he's officially indicted. After all, it's not just Rove--but Bush, too--who was involved in firing Iglesias. So Rove may be leaving as part of a firewall approach in an attempt to save Bush. If it comes to it, Rove may admit to having Iglesias fired in an attempt to politicize the entire judiciary to hide the fact that--in this specific case, at least--but was involved in that process, too.