Karl Rove

There's an old maxim that if Napoleon had been struck by a cannonball on his way to Moscow, he would be remembered as an unrivaled military genius and liberator. But Napoleon overstayed history's welcome and was treated harshly for it, first by the Russians and Mother Nature, then by his own people and, ultimately, by historians. In this and other respects, Karl Rove strikes me as a Napoleonic figure. He won an impressive string of campaigns. He dreamed of erecting a new political order on the ashes of the old. He'd look awfully dashing in one of those bicorn hats.

There was a time when the lines between the practices of politics and journalism were clear-cut. Professional politicians did their thing, which was getting elected and getting others elected. Professional journalists did theirs, writing and telling how the politicians did what they did. Seldom did the two meet in public opinion forums Today, political operatives are regular commentators and analysts on radio, television and the Internet, and journalists of all political persuasions run for public office, sometimes getting elected.

TO: JOHN KERRY, Republican mole From: Karl Rove, White House political adviser I just wanted to let you know that the game plan is working perfectly. By all logic, the president should be packing boxes for his move back to Crawford by now. He's got a sluggish economy, Iraq is turning into such a disaster that even Republicans accuse the president of "incompetence," and Martha Stewart is going to jail while Osama bin Laden is free as a bird. Given all this, the Democrats had every reason to think they not only could defeat George W. Bush - again!

While much is being made of Karl Rove's post-election return to the air this week on Fox, I don't think that's really the news that matters these days at Rupert Murdoch's channel. Reflecting in a way the very post-election GOP malaise that they discussed, both Bill O'Reilly and Rove seemed off their games Wednesday night on "The O'Reilly Factor. " Two of the most self-confident blowhards in American media and political life seemed less confident, less energized, less animated than I have ever seen either when it comes to saying bad things about President Obama.

Carmen Amedori, 52, is a resident of Westminster and was a state delegate representing Carroll County from 1998 until 2004, when she was appointed to serve on the Maryland Parole Commission during the Ehrlich administration. A Baltimore native and a graduate of Villa Julie College, Amedori worked as a paralegal and journalist while raising two daughters before entering the world of politics. She was one of the few elected officials in Maryland who supported John McCain when he ran for president in 2000 and was an alternate delegate at that year's convention.

WASHINGTON -- Political strategist Karl Rove, one of President Bush's most trusted aides, will not be charged in a federal probe of potential misconduct in the White House, ending a nearly three-year investigation. The decision by federal prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald - announced yesterday by Rove's lawyer - is a huge boost for the Bush administration. It comes as Republicans are gearing up for a midterm election fight in November in which an indictment of Rove, the mastermind of many of the president's political victories, would have helped fuel Democrats' drive to take control of the House and Senate.

Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele is expected to announce his candidacy for U.S. Senate today as the national Republican Party that recruited him to the race faces scandals involving several top leaders. Later this week, a federal grand jury will decide whether presidential adviser Karl Rove and vice presidential Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby will be indicted for their involvement in the leak of the name of a CIA agent. Steele, a Republican, has not been shy about his White House connections.

SO, WHAT Washington suspected all along turns out to be true. Karl Rove, political mastermind of the Bush administration, tried to squelch a report that undermined President Bush's rationale for going to war in Iraq by secretly discrediting the critic who wrote it. A nasty tactic in any circumstances. But one that could have been dangerous, even deadly, in this case because it resulted in the outing of a CIA undercover agent. Whether Mr. Rove can be charged with a crime has not yet been determined by the special prosecutor investigating the leak.

When Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales says he intends to stay in his job, that's a sign he probably won't. When President Bush says, "I do have confidence in Attorney General Al Gonzales," you have to assume his days are numbered. Six years into the Bush administration, this is the way you have to think sometimes. Pronouncements are strong contra-indicators. (There are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It's up to Saddam Hussein to choose war or peace.) The White House releases a ton of e-mails on the firing of U.S. attorneys.

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan's new Bush administration expose, What Happened, has prompted a chorus of dismissive responses from Bush loyalists and critics. In the book, Mr. McClellan (above left, with the president in 2006) claims President Bush waged a "propaganda campaign" to sell the Iraq war, which he called unnecessary and a strategic blunder. He called the president stubborn and isolated and suggested that presidential adviser Karl Rove conspired with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on the leak of a CIA official's name, among other revelations.

It was fairly obvious by about 10:15 p.m. Tuesday that most cable and network analysts thought President Obama was going to be re-elected. But they didn't have the data to make the call until 11:17. When that happened at NBC News and CNN, viewers were offered as clear a snapshot as I have seen of the difference between a news gathering operation like CNN and an ideologically driven enterprise like MSNBC. "We've got a really major projection to make right now," CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer said.

In a Chrysler advertisement aired during halftime of Sunday's Super Bowl, actor and director Clint Eastwood says, "I've seen a lot of tough eras, a lot of tough downturns in my life, times when we didn't understand each other. It seems we've lost our heart at times, and the fog of discord, division and blame made it hard to see what lies ahead. But after those trials, we all rallied around what was right and acted as one. " To judge from the reaction he got, we haven't achieved that last stage just yet. Mr. Eastwood was pilloried the next morning by Republican political strategist and Fox News commentator Karl Rove, among others, as a tool of President Barack Obama's re-election strategy.

About 15 protesters were asked to leave a speech by Karl Rove at Johns Hopkins University after staging "organized disruption," a university official said. Some protesters were forcibly removed from the auditorium, said spokeswoman Tracey A. Reeves. The protesters were not believed to be Hopkins students, she said. They were affiliated with the Baltimore offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Shortly after 10 p.m. the group, which goes by the name Occupy Baltimore, shared via Twitter a six-minute YouTube video of the incident.

Human events are intriguing. So many points of view of the same event demand tolerance if we are going to get along at all. Our guest Ahmed at Goucher College is an emotional reminder of this dilemma of life (" Iraqi student's education goes far beyond Goucher," Feb. 21). I can not imagine the tragedies the people of Iraq have endured since the U.S. led invasion of 2003. Confronting Karl Rove had to be a critical moment of Ahmed's life. In so doing, he joined the long American tradition of protesting war. We the people have always spoke out against war, dating back to the late 1700s during the quasi-war with France during President John Adams' administration.

Carmen Amedori, 52, is a resident of Westminster and was a state delegate representing Carroll County from 1998 until 2004, when she was appointed to serve on the Maryland Parole Commission during the Ehrlich administration. A Baltimore native and a graduate of Villa Julie College, Amedori worked as a paralegal and journalist while raising two daughters before entering the world of politics. She was one of the few elected officials in Maryland who supported John McCain when he ran for president in 2000 and was an alternate delegate at that year's convention.

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan's new Bush administration expose, What Happened, has prompted a chorus of dismissive responses from Bush loyalists and critics. In the book, Mr. McClellan (above left, with the president in 2006) claims President Bush waged a "propaganda campaign" to sell the Iraq war, which he called unnecessary and a strategic blunder. He called the president stubborn and isolated and suggested that presidential adviser Karl Rove conspired with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on the leak of a CIA official's name, among other revelations.

WASHINGTON - The White House won't talk about Karl Rove. But as the furor over President Bush's chief political strategist continues, Republican leaders have found other ways to get their points across. For the second consecutive day, White House press secretary Scott McClellan refused to answer questions about Rove's possible role in disclosing the identity of an undercover CIA operative, saying yesterday - as he had the day before - that any comments might damage a continuing criminal investigation into the matter.

WASHINGTON - Karl Rove might be embroiled in the scandal surrounding the leaked identity of a CIA operative, but he still has time to entice campaign donors to open their checkbooks - and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele is taking advantage. Last night, Rove headlined a fundraiser for Steele, an expected candidate for U.S. Senate in 2006. Rove's presence at the closed-door event at the National Republican Senatorial Committee headquarters sent Democrats into a frenzy. They criticized Steele for allying with the Republican presidential adviser and choosing quick campaign cash - he raised an estimated $75,000 from about 60 contributors, a spokesman said - over Maryland values.

ATLANTA -- Don Siegelman, a former governor of Alabama, has spent the past eight months behind the bars of a Louisiana federal prison. Perhaps he deserves every day of his 88-month sentence on corruption charges. Perhaps he committed an egregious abuse of the public trust, accepting a bribe from a former health care entrepreneur. But there is a distinct possibility that Mr. Siegelman's most serious crime was being a Democrat who continued to win high office in a bright red state that Republicans believed should be theirs alone.

It's Valentine's Day, and millions of folks will be giving one another cards. That includes the denizens of Washington, where America's political leaders also exchange special greetings. Here are a few of this year's potential offerings. David Martin is an Ottawa humor writer. His blog can be found at www.davespoliticalsatire.blogspot.com. George W. Bush to Al Gore How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. From the half-million vote margin To the five Supreme Court votes, You have given me eight wonderful years I never would have known.