Rove Looking Going Away

It’s just vintage Karl,  falling on his sword while simultaneously missing the morning news cycle.  (Folding the tent early Monday — in the doggiest days of August — also makes his departure dusty old by the time newsmaker Sunday rolls around.)

In my first pass on Rove’s extrication from the White House, I reprise my favorite shot of Bush’s architect.  It’s not just for the photo, however, but the whole assemblage.  This almost two-year-old goody appeared in the NYT at the front-end of the Libby imbroglio.  It’s hard not to view it without conjuring all those shots of Rove looking at us from behind Bush’s back, realizing that what was quintessential about Rove was misdirection, games with mirrors, looking going away.

With an eye to the specific visual (and the original discussion thread), the interpretations at the time seem just as relevant to Karl’s last official day:

With all the merde raining down on Rove, there is the sense of the aid in a getaway car — projecting that confidence of the last laugh.

There is the feeling of Rove — always the puppet master (or the disembodied Oz) — in full control of his (or any) image … especially when there is a chummy White House visual corp to hand feed it to.

There is the impression that, with Karl, you always get two faces.

Also, there is the association: “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.”  Although you can take this in many directions, it reflects how the Administration’s characters (with optical assistance from the media) were able to capture the larger media space with a pin-pointed view, completely flood that space, and project themselves way out of scale with little things like job descriptions, history, the constitution.

Finally though, one must consider this image in its full gestalt.  With the editorial thrust bearing down on Scooter Libby, what we have is a brilliant snapshot of Karl’s true gift to the Administration, conveying the ability to escape larger critical attention while remaining in full view.  As Karl exits the stage as a key (if not, the key) silent player in the scandals of the moment, is the hint to us not to forget to notice as this media Houdini once again simply pulls away?

(Update: it wasn’t until I finished this post that I noticed the NYT also featured this photo in their on-line story — see left sidebar/lead off to slideshow.  Quintessential, indeed!)

(image; Doug Mills/NYT.  October 28, 2005.  White House.  New York Times. p. A14.)