Looks Like Uncle Karl Is Going Back To Full Time Muck Raking

Looks like the repugs are worried about the mid-term elections as they free up more of Uncle Karl's time to focus on "the larger strategic planning" picture.

Watch the political muck. It's going to be thoroughly raked on the lead up to November. You can bet your spouse on the fact that Uncle Karl is going to be the man at the end of the handle. But, don't bother trying to find his finger prints on it. He's a slippery snake.

Q Can you clarify what Karl Rove's role will be?

MR. McCLELLAN: Karl will continue to be Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the President. What this will do is it will allow him to focus more on the larger strategic planning, and Joel will focus on the day-to-day management of the policy process. And so this really frees Karl up to focus on bigger strategic issues. He will continue to be a crucial voice and trusted advisor on policy -- Karl will, that is -- as he has been since the beginning of this administration.

Q So he will have less a policy role than he had before?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, Joel will do the day-to-day management of the policy process and work closely with all those councils. Karl's voice will continue to be a crucial one in the policy process as it has been all along. But like I said, this is a critical and challenging time that we are in, and this really frees Karl up to focus on larger strategic issues...

...Q Does this reduce Karl's influence in the White House?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, remember that -- it would be wrong to look at it that way, by any means. In fact, as I pointed out, Karl has been a very important voice in the policy process from the very beginning, and he will continue to be. But now he can focus really on the larger strategic issues that we're dealing with during this challenging time period.

And remember, when we made this announcement -- when we talked about Karl assuming some of these responsibilities, Karl was carrying a very large load with all this, and Josh felt it was important to have one person focused on the day-to-day management of the policy process. We announced it, we talked about how Joe Hagin and Mike Gerson would be involved in certain parts of that policy process. They're going to continue to provide advice, but now the policy process will be under one person, in terms of the management of it.

Q Does this, in some ways, make Karl Rove's role similar to what it used to be, where he'll be focusing on politics and maybe the midterms, and things like that?

MR. McCLELLAN: I wouldn't look at it that way. That's not the way Josh approached it, and that's not the way he views it. I would reemphasize that we are in a critical time period. There are a lot of challenges that we're having to address. And Karl is someone who has always been intimately involved in the strategic planning and addressing these bigger strategic issues. And that's what this will free him up to do more of that.

Q Is having Karl look at the strategic issues born out of concern over the GOP sinking in the polls recently?

MR. McCLELLAN: This is born out of a new Chief of Staff coming on board and wanting to structure the office the way that he feels will suit him the best...

...Q Is Karl moving offices?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think they're still having discussion on exactly what the setup will be, in terms of that.

Q He'll maintain his security clearance, and everything like that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Oh, absolutely, yes.

Q What do you mean by strategic planning issues? Can you give us a more specific explanation of that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I don't -- there's probably a lot of examples. I don't have one that I came back here to cite for you, but Karl has always been very involved in kind of the longer-term strategic planning. And I think you have to look at in the context of a new Chief of Staff coming on board and wanting to structure this in a way that he feels is best, and in the context of the time period that we are in. We've had a lot of challenging issues we're trying to address, and what this does is allow Karl to focus more on how we move forward to address those issues.

So think about it from that strategic perspective, and the larger-picture view. With all the load that he had previously, and the management of a good part of the policy process, that's a pretty heavy load to carry for anybody, and Karl did it very well. But this frees him up to now focus more on that strategic side of things.

Thank you all.

The thing that makes me want to vomit is that I know my tax dollars are going to pay Karl Rove to conduct his nasty brand of politics, and he wasn't elected by any one. No, he was appointed by W. Doesn't that leave a bad taste in your mouth too?