Bush's dilemma over Rove confronted his predecessors

WASHINGTON — President Bush soon could face a decision over whether to keep his career-long strategist Karl Rove, a revered and reviled political operative credited as "the architect" of victory by the grateful second-term president.

A decision could be forced upon the White House at any time by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who is weighing a final report and possible indictments in an 19-month investigation into whether Rove and other White House officials leaked the identity of an undercover CIA agent in an effort to discredit an administration critic.

The extent of Rove's culpability is unknown, as is whether he will stay in the White House or go.

But Bush may have to learn to operate without the cagey, hard-nosed adviser who has helped mastermind every political victory in the president's meteoric 11-year political career — from back-to-back wins as governor of Texas to successive White House victories.

"There is no one person in the Bush administration who is indispensable — with the exception of the president," says Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. "Graveyards are full of indispensable people," adds the fourth ranking member of the Senate Republican leadership, quoting the late French leader and World War II hero Charles de Gaulle.

Wrenching personnel decisions are nothing new for presidents who have been forced to dismiss White House staffers engulfed by controversy or scandal.

"Most presidents eventually have to shed people who are liabilities in order to survive," says James A. Thurber, a presidential scholar at American University.

John H. Kessel, a political scientist at Ohio State University who wrote "The Domestic Presidency: Decision-making in the White House," says many presidents wonder how they'll survive without their seasoned right-hand man. "The short answer is they do, because they have to."

Presidents usually sack top aides because they have become political liabilities rather than because the aides may face legal difficulties.

Bill Clinton dumped political adviser Dick Morris in a sex scandal; George H.W. Bush fired White House chief of staff John Sununu for misuse of government aircraft; and Jimmy Carter ousted Budget Director Bert Lance for pre-election financial irregularities.