Begone! You Have No Powers Here

Karl Rove's power is waning.

A lot of Republicans are distancing themselves from the president, his failed policies, and the war, and that means that Mr. Rove, the man who engineered the whole thing and is largely credited with being the one who set up the whole Republican realignment, is the one who's going to take the fall. Not a lot of people want to have him visible in their campaigns, and with the exception of J. Kenneth Blackwell, the knock-off of Alan Keyes running for governor in Ohio, he's lost the clout to make errant GOP candidates toe the line when they run away from the president. He's even lost his swanky corner office suite in the White House.

Influential conservative commentators have openly broken with the White House, calling into question the continued enthusiasm of evangelicals, economic conservatives and other groups that Mr. Rove has counted on to win elections. Some Republicans are ignoring Mr. Rove's efforts to hold the party together on issues like immigration and Iraq.

[...]

In Michigan last week, Dick DeVos, a Republican candidate for governor and a longtime contributor to Mr. Bush, startled national Republican Party leaders with a searing attack on the president for failing to meet with the leaders of the Big Three automakers. "We're being ignored here in Michigan by the White House, and it has got to stop," Mr. DeVos said.

His communications director, John Truscott, said the attack was timed to coincide with Mr. Rove's visit to Michigan for a fund-raiser, in an effort to goad Mr. Bush into a response. Asked if the DeVos campaign was worried about angering Mr. Rove, Mr. Truscott said, "That never even crossed our mind."

[...]

Mr. Rove enters the campaign season after a year of personal tumult. Until mid-June he faced the threat of indictment in the investigation into the leak of a C.I.A. officer's identity, and in April, he was stripped of some of his duties in the White House. Mr. Rove was moved from an office in a West Wing corner suite to a smaller windowless office across the hall, a shift one friend said he found demoralizing.

But Mr. Rove still maintains the illusion of the arrogance of power, presuming to dictate to reporters the ground rules for personal interviews. But even that isn't working any more.

The White House said that Mr. Rove would consider an interview for this article if it were conducted off the record, with the provision that quotes could be put on the record with White House approval, a condition it said was set for other interviews with Mr. Rove. The New York Times declined.

If the Democrats win in November, he won't be able to get free relish from the roach coach in Lafayette Park. Pride goeth, Karl, and it couldn't happen to a more deserving hack.