Bush losing key advisor at a low ebb - The close confidant will be the last Texan to depart the president's inner circle. He says it's the right time.
washington -- President Bush will finish his final 17 months in office without his political guru and alter ego, Karl Rove, who announced Monday that he would leave the administration at the end of the month.
Rove, who has worked on Bush's political campaigns for 15 years, is the last Texan in the president's inner circle to leave the White House -- and the president -- behind.
"It's not been an easy decision," an unusually emotional Rove said on the White House's South Lawn with the president at his side. "It always seemed there was a better time to leave somewhere out there in the future. But now is the time."
Rove's departure deprives Bush of his shrewdest advisor when the president's popularity is near its lowest ebb. The war in Iraq faces a crucial political test next month and his domestic agenda has largely shrunk to veto threats of bills passed by the Democratic-led Congress.
From Bush's early days in politics to his lame-duck status, no member of his team has been more closely tied to his fortunes than Rove. Allies and opponents refer to him as "Bush's Brain." Bush called him the architect of his electoral victories.
"I would call Karl Rove a dear friend," Bush said Monday. "We worked together so we could be in a position to serve this country."
Bruce Buchanan, a presidential scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, said no other advisor has had as much influence, personal and professional, on a president as Rove.
Rove operated in political and policy realms, with simultaneous jobs as White House political director and deputy chief of staff for policy. Presidential scholars said he had perhaps the closest friendship any White House staffer has ever had with a president.
"He's the most extraordinary presidential advisor in history," said Buchanan, adding that Rove was careful to defer to the president in public. "They were equal and not equal."
That balance was on display Monday as the president broke protocol and asked Rove to walk side-by-side with him and the first lady as they boarded Air Force One to fly to Texas. At the base of the gangway, however, Rove stopped to let the Bushes ascend ahead of him.
On Air Force One, Rove told reporters that he first raised the idea of leaving a year ago, but he also expressed his joy with his job and said he had always wanted to stay until the end of Bush's presidency.
