Rove may not be Satan, but his advice to Bush is like that of a familiar spirit

The Bush Administration has for the past few years served almost as an object lesson in the virtue of humility by their lack of it. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to jettison the old baggage, but in Bush's case, he listened to the wrong people and is now paying the price:

Card made his first attempt after Bush was reelected in November, 2004, arguing that the administration needed a fresh start and recommending that Bush replace Rumsfeld with former secretary of state James A. Baker III. Woodward writes that Bush considered the move, but was persuaded by Vice President Cheney and Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, that it would be seen as an expression of doubt about the course of the war and would expose Bush himself to criticism.

He got rid of Ashcroft, who was arguably a harmless and moderately effective leader in a position that really didn't matter much to the War on Terrorism. Sorry, Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism or whatever PC crap they're calling it these days. But, he wouldn't get rid of Rumsfeld, and it was all because Cheney and Rove said it might make him look weak.

What's ironic about this, is that getting rid of the Secretary of Defense would not have made us look weak. Firing the generals who were tasked with putting the invasion together and executing it, now that would be arguably a sign of weakness.

If anything, this sort of thing is yet another tally of times that Bush has shown himself to be a fairly weak leader. Coming from Clinton, he may seem tough, but by any objective standard he allows the advisors and ministers to run the King's show. It's ironic, that a man who normally disdains outside opinion when it disagrees with him, would choose to ignore his gut instinct at the moment in time that it would make or break his administration's efforts in one of its most critical areas.