Off the hook, and back on the campaign trail?

'I don't need to be lectured by Karl Rove'
Indicted or not, Rove remains a target for Democrats' rhetoric.

"I don't think he conducted himself honorably and well," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D- N.Y. at a press conference Tuesday reacting to the news of no indictment.

Likely 2008 Democratic presidential contender and former Virginia governor Mark Warner says in campaign speeches that he'll always remember standing in Arlington, Va. on Sept. 11 and seeing smoke billowing up from the Pentagon. "I understand first-hand what this threat means to America and our way of life," Warner said. "I, for one, get more than a little annoyed when I hear the president's political folks like Karl Rove say Democrats are caught in a pre-9/11 mentality."

As governor, Warner visited the families of firefighters who lost their lives at the Pentagon after it was hit on that day. "I don't need to be lectured by Karl Rove.... on what is needed to keep America safe."

Interactive Analyzing the 2008 presidential field

Since the 1980s — but especially since 9/11 — polling data has suggested that voters trust the Republicans more than the Democrats on national security issues.

Just four months after 9/11, to the exacerbation of many Democrats, Rove told the Republican National Committee: “We can go to the country on this issue because they trust the Republican Party to do a better job of protecting and strengthening America’s military might and thereby protecting America.”

An indictment of Rove in the CIA leak case would have given Democrats a stick to beat the Republicans with: the notion that when it comes to national security — exemplified by protecting the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame — Republicans are not to be trusted.

'... the last presidential campaign I will ever do'
In November 2004, Rove pledged: “This will be the last presidential campaign I will ever do.”

If the CIA leak investigation had not intervened, one of the 2008 Republican presidential contenders might have persuaded Rove to manage his campaign. The non-indictment raises the question: could one of the GOP contenders now persuade Rove to sign on?

Since 1978, when Rove’s skills helped William Clements become the first Republican governor of Texas in more than 100 years, he has been one of the most successful strategists of recent decades.

In the 2004 election, Bush’s electoral-vote victory margin was the smallest for any second-term president term since Woodrow Wilson in 1916. But as noted by analyst Rhodes Cook, for the first time since 1988, a presidential candidate won a majority of the popular vote.

And for the first time since 1924, the Republicans both reelected a president and kept control of House and Senate.

But this year Democrats still think conditions favor them.

"The fundamental problems that face us as Americans — $3 a gallon gasoline in large parts of the country, no plan in Iraq, problems with just about everything the government does whether it's Part D of Medicare or (Hurricane) Katrina, are what's weighing on the American people," Schumer said Tuesday.

Alluding to the killing of al Qaida leader Zarqawi and the Bilbray victory last week, Schumer said "these few developments... don't remove the cloud of incompetence that is over the administration's head."

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