By Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post
In an interview this week in his windowless West Wing office, Karl Rove said that there is “very little” discussion about President Bush’s legacy at the White House these days, only a focus on developing good policy that might have a long-term impact. “The president’s attitude is, ‘History is going to write the legacy long after we are all dead or in no position to affect it — so why worry about it?’ ” Rove said.
Yet history is never far from Rove’s mind. While he has kept a low profile in Washington since the midterm election losses took some of the edge off his reputation as a political genius, Rove, a Bush senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, has begun trying to put his own distinctive spin on current events and the longer historical view.
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His point was that presidents often come to adopt institutions and policies created by their predecessors, and Rove clearly suggests that this will one day happen as well to the institutions and policies shaped by Bush. “Presidents set in motion certain things that their successors evaluate and decide by and large, particularly the structural ones, to adopt,” Rove said in the West Wing interview.
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