Karl Rove's August Surprise

August used to be the month when Wall Street and Washington would head to the beaches. Not any more.

As Gretchen Morgenson noted in New York Times on Sunday, market turmoil and hedge blowup seem endemic to August.

And now Washington has its own August shakeup, in Karl Rove's announcement, through an interview with Paul Gigot, the editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal, that he will resign as White House deputy chief of staff.

"I just think it's time," he told the Journal.

Rove said that he will step down effective Aug. 31. He has no other job lined up, nor does he plan to work on a presidential campaign, but he told the Journal that he plans to write a book about President Bush's years in office.

"Obviously it's a big loss to us," White House spokeswoman Dana M. Perino said on Monday, according to Washington Post. "He will be greatly missed."

Rove has known President Bush for 19 years and was the architect of his two presidential campaigns.

by Jeffrey Cane

Matthew Cooper's full Capital blog post on Karl Rove's departure can be found here.