EVERYBODY SKATE COUNTERCLOCKWISE!

Did some kind of memo go out to Republicans in the past 48 hours -- a memo telling them it's now time to start slagging Bush?

Monday:

Ann Coulter joined Fox News' Neil Cavuto on Monday to discuss the departure of Karl Rove. "What I think is going to be fun," she said, "is finding out how much of the architect Karl Rove actually was. I've gone back and forth between blaming Karl Rove for the stupid things Bush does and blaming Bush for the stupid stuff Bush does."

Coulter cited illegal immigration, the nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, and civil unions as Bush's biggest missteps....

Tuesday:

Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback on Tuesday criticized President Bush and two GOP rivals, saying the presidency isn't a foreign policy classroom.

..."We've got to walk more humbly and a lot more wisely than the current president," said Brownback....

"I really believe this next president needs to go in with knowledge on foreign policy and not learn it on the job," said Brownback....

Tuesday:

...Last night on Fox, right-wing pundits Charles Krauthammer and Fred Barnes disputed the White House's contention that it has an agenda:

KRAUTHAMMER: When [White House deputy chief of staff Joel] Kaplan talks about an ambitious agenda, he is really taking one for the team. That is absurd, there is no agenda.

BARNES: Charles is right, Bush has no agenda.

Tuesday:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Tuesday he is "sickened" that President Bush and Congress went on vacation "while young Americans in our cities are massacred" by illegal immigrants.

Gingrich ... was referring to a recent crime in Newark, N.J., where three college students were murdered execution style in a school playground....

Gingrich said that President Bush should call Congress back into special session for three days to pass a bill in honor of the slain students....

Maybe Karl Rove -- on his way out the door and probably more interested in salvaging his own reputation as a party-builder than serving his president -- sent the word around that it's time to unload on W, as a way of helping to wash the Bush stench off those Republicans who'd still like to be in D.C. after January '09. He'll get that permanent Republican majority yet, just you wait!

(Yeah, I know Coulter slagged Rove as well as Bush, but maybe that was Rove's idea, too -- some weird Rovian double-reverse, like the time he bugged his own office so a political opponent could be blamed.)

(Link #3 via Carpetbagger Report.)