Now that the mad genius has announced his intention to leave the White House, salivating leftist bloggers are fantasizing there will still be a humiliating (and criminal) end to Rove's career. They're on their knees sending up (or sideways) secular prayers that the insatiable Democratic congressional pseudo-investigative machine will virtually imprison him with endless subpoenas and ensnare him in another perjury trap.

Rove truly has driven them crazy from day one. And I do mean crazy. Remember when formerly revered CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite speculated that Rove was behind the release of the Osama bin Laden tape on the eve of the 2004 presidential election?

Even Democrat operative James Carville, who one would think through empathy alone would be less anxious to succumb to his party's negative spin on (and unintentional mythological elevation of) Rove, recently wrote a piece opining that despite his "spectacular successes" in winning elections, Rove has single-handedly "lost an entire generation for the Republican Party."

I don't know where Sir James got his crystal ball, but I'd be a little less sanguine about the Democrats' short-term capitalization on a war fatigue they helped bring about. Before counting Republicans out for a generation, he better be sure his party handily prevails in the 2008 election, which is far from certain at this point, believe it or not.

More recently, mainstream media players are milking Rove's impending departure for all the sadistic pleasure it can provide them and their followers. They beg him to answer questions about Hillary Clinton, and when he responds they accuse him of "relentlessly attacking" her.

An Associated Press "reporter" in the Walter Cronkite mode speculated that the Machiavellian manipulator had turned his sights on Hillary as part of a calculated ploy to get the left to rally behind her because Rove allegedly fears Edwards and Obama would be tougher to be beat.

The AP reporter went on to portray Rove's recitation of the objective fact that "more people have an unfavorable than favorable opinion" of Hillary as "harsh criticism."

The only way you can win with the left is if you let them win. And Rove, as long as he can help it, is never going to let that happen.