Yet another rat scurries away.

Karl Rove is one of the alpha-rats, of course, but the nation is well served with his departure. Admiral of the Swift Boat fleet, Rove is steeped in the mass homicide of Iraq and sustained a nearly unrelieved campaign against the American liberties that have, until this Republican administration, defined this great nation.

For lousy political advantage he and the Goeblettes of the airwaves and despoilers of public office, like Joseph Lieberman, have been happy to jetison the freedoms that earlier generations have fought to instill here alone in the wide universe. For cheap votes, these anti-Americans have picked apart the Constitution and the protections that have distinguished us from our enemies.

Karl Rove represents all that is opposed to America — totalitarianism in the hands of the executive, oppression of differing points of view, cynical exploitation of the nation’s grief, contempt for human liberties here and elsewhere, disdain for the underpinnings of democracy, single party rule, dishonesty and intellectual violence of the highest and lowest order.

With no fear of the sheriff because of his lawless puppet in the Oval office, Rove skips off to private life where he will be lionized by the cynical and the GOP’s Hate America’s Liberties crowd. In a better world he would have to face justice for his crimes. In the despotic world of which he is the architect he is above responsibility — except to history and the hereafter.

It is a cruel and empty irony that the destruction of Democratic values he champions will fall to the advantage of the Democratic executive the next time one takes office. Wait till you hear the howl then from the Republicans who will suddenly remember the American liberties they treated like garbage when they were in power.

Good riddance to him.