One of the key grafs from the Atlantic article about Rove is this one, which contains the explanation for why Rove's ambitions to create a McKinley-like realignment were always doomed (leaving aside Mayhew's entirely correct point that realignments are longer-term and more complex processes than...
the evil non-genius of karl rove
Marcy Wheeler lays out some theories for why Rove is leaving. I don't want to discount the possibility that he's resigning before scandal brings him down, but I suspect the.