[Miss Marple]

My theory is that this has nothing to do with mid-term elections (which the democrats thought they would win anyway) and everything to do with the election in 2004.

Step one: Get rid of Rove.
Step two: Cause a fight with Colin Powell, so that he leaves the administration and the Rats can cry "racism."
Step three: Hint that Bush knew.

Voila: Hillary steps in to save the day!

However, if I can see this plan, out here in the Midwest, I am certain that the President and Karl Rove are well aware of it. They are always about 3 steps ahead of the Rats anyway. I will enjoy watching yet another futile attempt to attack the President.

[browardchad]

I'd add one more tactic: Point to Tom DeLay, now House Majority Leader, as a VRWC, racist manipulator. (It's already begun.)

[section9]

Woodward's books serve as part of the parlour game of Washington politics.

The strategy here is twofold: get at the President by damaging his most trusted political consigliere and create a rift between the White House and Powell.

What Woodward doesn't understand, primarily because he is a liberal, is that there is an interwoven set of loyalties and traditions that permeate this White House. Bush could no more give up on Rove or Powell than he could convert to Islam. Bush values honest advice, and values those who give it to him. Besides, the men and women who serve the President have, in many cases, a shared history that goes back to the first Bush Administration and the first Gulf War.

Now if this were the Clinton White House, the aide in question would be expendable. But this is not the Clinton White House.

Be Seeing You,

Chris