Karl Rove - top Bush adviser to leave White House

Karl Rove, the political adviser who masterminded George W. Bush's two winning presidential campaigns and secured his own place in history as a political strategist with extraordinary influence, is resigning, the White House said Monday.

Photo: Karl Rove - top Bush adviser to leave White House

In an interview published in The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news Monday, Rove said, "I just think it's time," adding, "There's always something that can keep you here, and as much as I'd like to be here, I've got to do this for the sake of my family."

Rove said he had first considered leaving a year ago but stayed after his party lost the crucial midterm elections last fall, which put Congress in Democratic hands, and as Bush's problems mounted in Iraq and in his pursuit of a new immigration policy.

He said his hand was forced now when the White House chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, recently told senior aides that if they stayed past Labor Day he would expect them to stay through the rest of Bush's term, International Herald Tribune reports.

Rove’s son attends college in San Antonio and he said he and his wife plan to spend much of their time at their nearby home in Ingram.

Rove, currently the deputy White House chief of staff, has been the president’s political guru for years and worked with Bush since he first ran for governor of Texas in 1993.

Even as he discussed his departure, Rove remained characteristically sunny. This quality of unrelenting optimism about the president, which matches Bush’s own upbeat, never-admit-disappointment nature, has at times gotten Rove into trouble. Up to the end of the 2006 midterm elections, the political guru predicted a Republican win. That of course was not to be, and there was grumbling that Rove wasn’t on his game during those elections as much as he had been before.

In the interview, Rove predicted Bush will regain his popularity, which has sunk to record lows because of the war in Iraq , informs Portsmouth Herald News.