Priorities, priorities.

Check out this Karl Rove quote buried in a Fox News article about the threat Hurricane Gustav poses to the GOP's convention plans:

"The Republicans can't seem to get a break when it comes to August and when it comes to the weather," said Rove, a FOX News analyst. "I know this is being thought a lot about in Washington and at the White House and discussed and I suspect they will monitor it carefully and figure out what to do."

Yeah, Katrina (which hit in August 2005) was really rough on those Republicans, no question about it.

Special thanks to TPM Reader AC for the catch.

With all the speculation out there that Karl Rove is secretly attacking Hillary because he views her as a beatable candidate in a general election and is trying to help her win the nomination, it seems only fair to point to what Rove himself has now said about this.

Asked if his secret game plan was to boost her with the Dem primary electorate, Rove said: "Didn't know that I was. Don't think that I am."

I am going to submit my explanation one more time: Rove is attacking Hillary to help himself. He knows how p-o'ed the GOP rank and file is with him for botching things so badly, and going after Hillary is an easy way to spread fog across the landscape and give himself cover as he skulks away. It's all about him.

Relatedly, the Los Angeles Times offers a very elaborate dissection of Rove's motives here.

Why, oh why, is Karl Rove attacking Hillary?

With their skirmish dragging into a second day today after Rove attacked her again on the Rush Limbaugh show as unelectable, using some cooked political stats to do so, the question is a hotly debated one in political circles today.

One political analyst claims Rove's broadside is part of an ingenious GOP plot to help Hillary win the nomination so that the GOP base is more united in 2008. Marc Ambinder, meanwhile, theorizes it's because Rove is trying to pressure GOPers to start getting serious about attacking her.

The Obama camp says her battle with Rove proves she's polarizing and would be less able to unite people than Obama is. The Hillary campaign, meanwhile, is claiming publicly that Rove really fears her as the most formidable Dem nominee and is trying to drag her down before it's too late. Hillary herself has been saying that she's thrilled to be getting under Rove's skin.

Still other Hillary advisers, however, are whispering anonymously to the Associated Press that they're terrified that these Rovian attacks will drive up her negatives.

Ooooooooo, scary! We never underestimate the capacity of Dems to be skittish. But come on. A man who squandered sky-high Presidential approval ratings post-9/11 to preside over what may be the largest downswing in Presidential popularity ever, who fumbled control of both Houses of Congress, whose boss is routinely described as the worst President in American history, who decimated the percentages of self-identified Republicans, and who himself has an approval rating in the low 20s...is saying mean things that are going to drive up her negatives! How terrifying!

Really, now. Maybe one or more of these theories is right. But here's a simpler explanation. Maybe Rove is just doing this for himself. Maybe Rove is just playing to his audience, playing a little Pied Piper tune for GOPers so they'll momentarily forget how furious they are with him for screwing everything up so badly. You know, go on Rush Limbaugh and bash Hillary -- surefire way to get the rubes to forget what a catastrophic joke you've been.

Is Karl Rove retiring from politics? That's what Robert Novak says. In his latest column, he reports:

To little notice in the national media, Bush presidential adviser Karl Rove disclosed during a Washington speaking engagement last week that he will not return to his lifetime profession as a political consultant when he leaves the White House. Rove referred to himself as "a former political consultant" and said that he was leaving the game.

We're trying to get our hands on that speech. We'll keep you posted.