On This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Karl Rove greeted Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann’s retirement as an opportunity to fill both her congressional seat and her committee presence with a more effective Republican.

“It will be an opening for the Tea Party,” Rove said. “Michele Bachmann was the chairman of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus, and in that positon did nothing. Now the position is open, someone next year will accept the chairmanship of it, and they may do something with it.”

“It also guarantees that that seat,” Rove said, “which had been thought to be very much up for grabs—she barely won last time around, ran well behind Mitt Romney—is now safely Republican. The Democrat who ran last time around, a self-funder named Graves, already announced: after Bachmann pulled out, he pulled out as well.”

Bachmann was uniquely ineffectual while in Congress, passing almost no legislation while garnering embarrassing headlines.

Stephanopoulos asked former Obama advisor David Plouffe if Democrats would miss Bachmann.

“Terribly,” Plouffe said. “It’s fun having her and the Sarah Palins of the world on the scene, because they sort of define this modern Republican party. Now you’ve got others to replace her. Now you’ve got Ted Cruz and others to fill the bill.”

Watch the whole exchange here:

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