Karl, Barry and the King

While we we were away . . .

• Karl Rove is leaving his job as President George W. Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff at the end of the month. He has done wonders for Bush's career, having guided it from his days as Texas governor to the White House. He has also done more to damage the country (except for Bush himself) by caring more about what's good for conservative Republicans than what's good for Americans, politicizing everything he touched. Rove still has to answer for his role in leaking the name of a CIA spy, but he won't because the President put him under the cloak of "executive privilege". And that permanent Republican majority Rove wanted so badly didn't pan out. But with a Democratic Congress wimping out on domestic spying and getting soldiers out of Iraq, who can tell the difference? Rove says he wants to spend more time with his family, but don't be shocked if he lives to slander another day with a 2008 GOP presidential candidate.
• Congratulations, for now, to Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, who broke the all-time career home run record by belting Number 756 against the Washington Nationals. Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig continued a long tradition set by his predecessors by not showing up at the ballpark for the historic moment. Hank Aaron, whose record Bonds broke, delivered a classy message on the video screen at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Now we can all ignore the Giants, one of the worst teams in baseball, and ESPN can go back to its taped poker matches. As for Bonds, only time will tell whether his status as the home run king deserves an asterisk or not.
• Elvis Presley died 30 years ago last week. In death, the King of Rock & Roll gave us: Graceland as a tourist attraction, marathons twice a year on movie channels and oldies stations, and Elvis imitators as far as the eye can see. There is a commercial currently running for one of those prescription-only male enhancement products, with a group of presumably middle-aged men performing their version of Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas", with the lyrics changed to reflect the guys' hopes of, uh, getting lucky in their own way. Which got us to thinking: If Elvis were alive today, would he be selling Viagra on TV?