[STOMP]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/...ers/index.html

STOMP

[Ed O]

Woah. The Democrats are going after the guy who denied them the White House twice in a row?

Shocking!



Ed O.

[Hector]

Originally Posted by New York Times

Mr. Rove would not appear because he had been directed not to do so by the White House. Although Mr. Rove has left the White House and is now a political commentator, Mr. Luskin said that Mr. Rove “in these matters is not a free agent” and must comply with instructions from the White House not to testify.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/wa...ve.html?ref=us

Let me understand this. Rove refuses to testify to Congress. (Wrong--Bush ordered him not to.) Bush fired him because he became a liabilitity, because Rove fired prosecutors who wouldn't fix cases the way Republican leadership wanted them fixed. (Wrong--Rove resigned because a great opportunity came up to become a Fox TV commentator.) Rove doesn't work for Bush anymore, so he doesn't take orders from him. (Wrong--in these matters he is not a free agent and must comply with instructions from Bush.)

[Stepping Razor]

Originally Posted by Ed O

Woah. The Democrats are going after the guy who denied them the White House twice in a row?

Shocking!



Ed O.

While crass political motives are certainly something to be strongly suspected in any case like this... have you paid any attention to the details of the Don Siegelman case? To this non-JD-holding lay reader, it certainly appears to be *extremely* ****ed up; if the truth ends up being anything close to what it seems to be, I would call it an abuse of executive power much, much worse than Watergate. (Which I'm not sure should really be the gold standard for abuses of executive power, anyway, but that's for some different post...)

While it's certainly plausible that this could be nothing more than a simple case of partisan payback, it also seems quite plausible to me that Karl Rove (among others) was up to his neck in some seriously illegal ****.

Which is what I guess subpoena power is for. Of course, Rove was already subpoenaed to testify to Congress on another matter, more than a year ago, and he simply blew it off with no consequences. Bush's Justice Department clearly will not enforce congressional charges of contempt; if the Congress refuses to sack up and use its inherent contempt powers to haul Rove (and others who blow off its subpoenas) to jail in the Capitol dungeon, then today's action will prove to be just another empty gesture, grandstanding, sound and fury signifying nothing.

SR

[Hector]

One of the fired prosecutors wrote a book. Let's hope the Democrats fight this out instead of becoming pacifists as usual and letting petty Republican dictators win.

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyT...escCd-buy.html

Sen. Domenici was the leader in the Senate's ridiculous failed impeachment against Bill Clinton. Domenici held himself out as being on the moral high ground. Now we find out he was ordering around prosecutors to push fake charges against Democrats.