Why Bush Won't Fire Rove

This morning Joseph Wilson, former Ambassador to Iraq, said President Bush should fire White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove for an "abuse of power." Rove blew the cover of Wilson's wife, an undercover CIA operative working on weapons of mass destruction, by leaking information about her to the press. Wilson claims the leak was retaliation for his challenging assertions about Iraq's WMD program as the administration was leading the country to war with Iraq.

Rove clearly abused his power. He ought to be fired.

It is unlikely that the President will do so. James Moore, co-author of Bush's Brain, explains why:

Bush cannot function without Rove. And the GOP is equally invested in his skills. I expect that, if the pressure gets too great, the president will move Rove out of the White House so he can continue to use his brain on congressional matters like Social Security and tort reform while not having to suffer quite as much politically with Rove still sitting in the West Wing. But I don't think Bush will make such a move, if he can avoid it. His Achilles heel is his loyalty to his friends and it always has been. Bush will stick with Rove long past the point that he ought to have cut his losses and he will endure significant political harm.

Bush could be forced to fire Rove if he were indicted, but Moore doesn't expect Rove to face jail time even if he were convicted:

If Rove does get indicted, I can see the president pardoning him and saying we need to put this all behind us in a time of war and move on together as a nation. The only real question in all of this for me is how much political damage is going to be done before the president has to make some kind of move to get Rove out of the White House.