Editorials from around the country on the departure of Karl Rove:

The Wall Street Journal: "Mr. Rove is no Merlin or Rasputin, as much as liberals and some reporters want to believe it. He is above all a George Bush man. His rare mastery of history, demographics and policy made him a formidable political force, and we suspect it is his success far more than his methods that infuriates his critics."

The New York Times: "The American public needs to understand the full story of how this White House -- with Mr. Rove pulling many of the strings -- has spent the last six and a half years improperly and dangerously politicizing the federal government. [snip] Mr. Rove can now contemplate that legacy from his home in Texas. But he should not get too settled in. Congress needs to use all its power to bring Mr. Rove back to Washington to testify -- in public and under oath -- about how he used his office to put politics above the interests of the American people."

Washington Post: "Mr. Rove is a history buff, and we think that history's ultimate judgment will not depend much on his role in the scandals of the moment -- "Plamegate" and the firings of U.S. attorneys -- to which some attribute his resignation. Rather, he should be judged on his own terms: as the would-be architect of a long-lasting Republican majority, like the one Hanna forged more than a century ago. The GOP's wipeout in 2006 would suggest that Mr. Rove did not achieve this goal, notwithstanding his brave parting words about Republican victory in 2008. And if the manufactured polarization of the Bush-Rove years did not even serve its ostensible purpose, then what was the good of it?"

USA Today: "The biggest drag on Bush and the Republicans - the quagmire in Iraq - was not primarily of Rove's making. But where he could have made a difference, he too often opted for confrontation that sharpened party differences and bled away the chances of bipartisan cooperation on the toughest problems facing the nation."

Dallas Morning News: " How did he go from the genius who got a businessman and political rookie elected governor of Texas and then twice elected president of the United States, to a perceived goat whose dream of a permanent political realignment to the Republican Party now lies in tatters?

"It wasn't all Mr. Rove's fault. Could any Rovian strategic wizardry have preserved GOP congressional power in 2006 amid such an unpopular war, to say nothing of Republican spending and corruption? Even the most paranoid Democrat would have to concede that not even Karl Rove, despite his legendary invisible hand, controls everything. "

New York Daily News: "Certainly Rove has been at least some of the brain behind many political decisions, including some that have not in the end served Bush well. On the other hand, he managed electoral mathematics that successfully made sore losers out of at least two Democrats. Those souls who revile him, and there are plenty, should not take lightly his assessment, delivered to The Wall Street Journal, that the Democrats should not imagine they have the 2008 presidential election in the bag."

Houston Chronicle: "The man whose political wizardry has bedeviled and befuddled opponents for more than two decades seems unlikely to meekly turn out to pasture at the age of 56. With statewide races brewing in Texas over the next four years and a challenge to Republican dominance, Democrats probably have not seen the last of Karl Rove and his often unbeatable election strategies."

Los Angeles Times: "Give Karl Rove his due. The political strategist known as 'Bush's brain' mobilized enough little gray cells to put his client in the White House twice. Rove combined a savant's command of political minutiae with a grand strategy best described as 'divide and conquer.'

"But the politics of polarization that once served President Bush so well eventually undermined his quest for a legacy of achievement in office, while deflating Rove's own dream of a Republican ascendancy at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. On Monday, Rove quit while he was behind."

Las Vegas Review-Journal: "Indeed, Mr. Rove's reputation as the political mastermind who engineered both of Mr. Bush's presidential campaign victories may be well-deserved. But he was less successful in promoting the president's major policy goals, including privately-owned Social Security accounts.

"It's not clear anyone could have done that, at present. But in fact, Mr. Rove had already been forced to relinquish his role as chief policy coordinator last year. It might be more accurate to point out what a loss Mr. Rove will be to partisan Democrats and their odd, manufactured cosmology.

"Current Democratic demonology, after all -- reinforced through endless repetition -- holds that George W. Bush, a grinning idiot, is little more than a trained chimp playing 'front man' for the real evil geniuses of this administration -- Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney."

Seattle Times: "The president who was supposed to be 'a uniter, not a divider' has become the 'decider' without footing in reason or accountability. That failure, among many others, is Bush's, but Rove mapped out the road that brought him and the nation to this point."

San Antonio Express-News: "Some may rejoice, while others will mourn, but one thing is clear: Rove remains one of the most powerful political forces the country has witnessed."

Salt Lake Tribune: "Fortunately, reality finally is catching up with Karl Rove. Lincoln famously said that you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time. Rove has pushed those boundaries, but ultimately, he could not escape them."

Rocky Mountain News: "When everything breaks the right way for a smart political operative, the whole world bows low and celebrates his brilliance.

"In Karl Rove's case, the hosannas of a few years past may have been even more fulsome than usual because so many of those singing his praises as a strategist couldn't believe that his boss, George W. Bush, might have had anything to do with the results."

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "For those who think the presidency of Mr. Bush has been a boon for the country, Karl Rove is a hero, having played an important role in putting him in the Oval Office twice. For those who see Mr. Bush's two terms as a disaster, Mr. Rove is, as the president has tagged him playfully, that Texas witticism for a flower that grows out of manure in a pasture."

Newsday: "The departure of political guru Karl Rove officially marks President George W. Bush's entrance to the twilight of his turn on the national stage. With just 17 months left in his presidency, big victories are unlikely. So Rove had little to look forward to in his job as Bush's deputy chief of staff, senior adviser and alter ego. It's a good time for him to go."

Philadelphia Inquirer: "So deeply does he [Rove] believe that America is undergoing a once-in-a-century political 'realignment,' he ignored the need for persuasion and compromise. Bush became a 'war president' in part because of the absence of any agenda at home capable of winning popular support.

"Consequently, the war is all Bush has left for a legacy. For too much of Bush's presidency, Rove failed him as an adviser of what works here at home. And the Republican Party that Rove sought to strengthen is weaker for it."

Detroit Free-Press: "Rove will be remembered, and copied, in campaign circles for an eternity. But as a force for real change in America, he's eminently forgettable."

Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Rove leaves the White House with a mixed legacy. His role in the 2000 and 2004 elections cemented his reputation for political brilliance. But so pervasive was his influence over public policy that he shares the blame for Bush's failures.

Karl Rove served George W. Bush extraordinarily well. How well he served the country is another matter."

Chicago Sun Times: "We're tempted to say: "Karl, we hardly knew ye." As George Bush's brain, the man specialized in pulling strings, Oz-like, from behind a curtain of secrecy. But as Karl Rove leaves the sinking ship SSGOP, having announced his resignation as top adviser, many Americans may feel they know him all too well."

Baltimore Sun: "Nice guys finish last, they say. Still, it seems a shame that the compassionate conservatism the Bush-Rove team preached during their first campaigns more than a dozen years ago morphed so far toward intolerance.

That divisiveness worked directly against the building of a permanent majority. Just as well. Six years of Rove-crafted, Republican one-party rule was quite long enough."

Austin American-Statesman: "Though Rove is quite engaging and good-humored one-on-one, he has become the embodiment of evil for many Democrats, and he could not expect any welcome-home parades in Austin, except perhaps from the State Republican Executive Committee. Even then, there probably would be plenty of protesters outside the doors."

Charlotte Observer: "Some political advisers are good at winning elections, others at governing, but only a few at both. Karl Rove, a top aide to President Bush who announced his resignation Monday, was a wizard at election strategy, but in dealing with Congress he proved to be what Harry Potter fans would call a muggle. With no more elections ahead, President Bush may do better without him."