WASHINGTON: The resignation of Karl Rove, electoral alchemist and conqueror of Democrats, is a symptom of President George Bush’s waning power in the twilight of his second term, analysts said.

With most of the White House’s domestic capital spent, the departure of one of the dominant political fixers in decades may not, paradoxically, come as a huge blow, this close to Bush’s own White House exit in January 2009.

But Rove’s mastery of Washington has been so complete, that his decision to quit at the end of this month is bound to focus attention on the prospect of a new tone and strategy coming from the White House.

The political ground is certainly unappealing for the president: only about 30 per cent of Americans approve of the job he is doing, as the Iraq war drags on and Democrats have his White House under siege on multiple fronts.

But is Rove’s exit a sign Bush wants to relaunch his administration after the failure of signature immigration and pensions reform, or has caved in to appeals from anxious Republicans fearing another drubbing in 2008 elections?

“Heavens no,” said Stephen Hess, a political scholar at the Brookings Institution.“By no means,” said Eric Davis, professor of political science at Middlebury College, Vermont.

Rove was asked as he flew to Texas aboard Air Force One on Monday whether he was replaceable.

“Absolutely,” he said, adding that the only untouchables in the administration were Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

But Rove has been so synonymous with Bush, from his days in Texas, through two general election triumphs and the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, that his absence will be an analogous to that of a missing member of The Beatles.

“The absence of Rove will create a situation sort of like Paul McCartney without John Lennon. The music will be different,” said Wayne Slater, author of the Rove biography “Bush’s Brain,” speaking on CBS radio.

But the chances of the White House singing from a new song sheet seem slim.

“There will not be any change because of this at this point. When you reach the seventh year and eighth year of the term, the policies are pretty much locked in cement,” said Hess.

“Rove was largely an adviser on domestic affairs. So with a Democratic-controlled Congress there’s not going to be any victories for the president in that area.

“Whatever happens in terms of international affairs is really outside of the purview of Karl Rove.” Hess said that Rove’s “genius” was in getting Bush elected twice, and as a governing strategist he has been comparatively unsuccessful.

Davis agreed that substantive change was unlikely, but added that the White House may be less nimble in reacting to prevailing political realities.

“I think this is another indication of the lame duck status of the Bush administration, Rove’s leaving the system is just another indication that domestically very little is going to happen between now and the next election.” Davis said Bush’s best bet for influencing the domestic scene was in wielding his presidential veto, against various pieces of legislation passed by the Democratic controlled Congress.

Rove, who said on Monday he will leave at the end of the month, is the latest in a parade of loyal and long-serving Bush aides to leave the White House, many of whom served with the president when he was the governor of Texas.

Former secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld paid the price for the unpopularity of the war in Iraq, the prime cause of what Bush referred to as a “thumping” at the hands of voters which handed Congress to the Democrats last November.

Another key Bush aide, Counsellor Dan Bartlett, has also left. Key national security aides J.D. Crouch and Meghan O’Sullivan are gone, along with budget director Rob Portman, political director Sara Taylor, and Bush’s legal counsel and failed Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.

Like Rove, most of them cited the time-honoured political valediction — that they wanted to ‘spend more time with their family’.

In the waning days of every second term White House, when the president’s power ebbs and eyes turn to the next presidential election, departures like Rove’s are the rule, rather than the exception.—AFP