DETROIT — George W. Bush doesn’t like to play hurt but he has no choice. Every week now, he’s getting clobbered. His Nixonian administration can only struggle to stop the bleeding, bandage the wounds and pray that the twin enemies of truth and time will stop. The Busheviks are in full retreat. Events, largely of their own creation, are overwhelming them. The self-inflicted assault is endless.
The president’s “brain,” his political “genius,” good ole “Turd Blossom” himself, Karl Rove, is a desperate man, crawling and begging as he tries to escape indictment on federal felony charges. Bush, the cowboy president, is all hat, no horse; Rove, his ramrod, is now all turd, no blossom.
Initially, Rove lied to FBI agents about his role in identifying and outing CIA officer Valerie Plame. This week, he’ll make his fourth visit to the grand jury, trying to explain why he lied when he was first questioned about his role in exposing Plame.
Publicly, Rove denied he had “any knowledge” about the leak and White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan scoffed that “it is a ridiculous...