Monday Roundup: Karl Rove Resigns

Karl Rove announced very, very early this morning that he is resigning his post and leaving politics, effective August 31. He says it is to spend more time with his family. An obvious plus for Republicans is Rove's absence as the election nears — "Karl Rove" as a phrase carries what some might call a negative connotation, and any distance between him and politics is probably a net plus for the GOP in 2008. Or rather, they are at least not hurt anymore by his presence in the White House.

Mike Huckabee won the Ames, Iowa Republican Straw Poll this weekend. Oh sure, they'll tell you Romney came in first place, and he did. So what? He was supposed to, and the only news about Romney would have been if he'd somehow managed to explain his way into losing.

No, the real winner was Huckabee. As a Roger Simon points out, Huckabee mustered 18.1 percent of the vote without many dollars for campaign buses or TV buys. I'm assuming his barbecue-and-soft-drink spread was less exciting than many of the other candidates, who no doubt spent more and got fewer votes. People could take the results to mean a lot of things, but I think they mean that in a field of more-or-less terrible candidates, the dynamic of who will win and how changes. Maybe Huckabee is a sleeper. He wouldn't be the first man from Arkansas to be one.

Also, voting machine problems at the Ames straw poll? Is anyone surprised? Also, you can probably guess how Iowans feel about McCain and Giuliani, the big frontrunners that failed to show.

Imagine my surprise when, as I was perusing state news, I saw a Star-Telegram editorial that comes down hard on Craddick and his claims of Overarching Ultimate Speakerpower. It's actually pretty informative, along with being a sternly-worded upbraiding.

Speaking of Republicans and upbraiding, Attorney General Greg Abbott portended some doom in the gentlest of ways by saying the GOP is having problems, particularly in urban areas. I think the Galveston County Daily News' framing of one of Abbott's quotes is pretty interesting:

He exhorted the Galveston County Republicans assembled Thursday to fight that battle.

“You are a rock-solid Republican county,” he said.

Of the six countywide elective offices, Republicans hold two. And of those on the commissioners court, only one is a Republican.

That doesn't particularly rock solid to me.

Hillary Clinton was in one of Abbott's cited battleground counties on Saturday, appearing at a CWA hall in Houston, still on the trail of labor's endorsement. The presidentials keep coming to Texas, probably for reasons similar to what Abbot was talking about.

Lastly today, apparently Galveston is "shrinking and sinking." It always seems sort of small to say that news like that is "unfortunate" — I can't imagine what it must be like to hear that where you live, work, or play is disappearing. The deeper story is about economic development and how land is used, and probably about how it should be used.