Rove, Congress, the Special Counsel, and Handcuffs

By TChris, Section Misconduct
Posted on Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 02:01:31 PM EST
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Raw Story calls attention to an interesting public appearance by Karl Rove:

Rove spoke Tuesday evening at Loyola Marymount University, a Jesuit institution in Los Angeles, as part of the school's "First Amendment Week." "One man loudly denounced Rove as a 'traitor' before he was escorted out," the Loyola Daily Breeze noted. "A woman held up a pair of handcuffs and said she would like to see Rove wearing them."

Wouldn't we all.

The Raw Story report suggests the existence of a conflict between Rove's insistence on Tuesday that he would not honor the House Judiciary Committee's subpoena (citing executive privilege) and his lawyer's statement that Rove was cooperating with a Special Counsel's investigation into the U.S. Attorney firings and the Siegelman prosecution. There is no conflict. [more ...]

Rove was talking about invoking executive privilege to resist a subpoena issued by the Legislative Branch. Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, was talking about an Executive Branch investigation into the same issues. Rove can't very well assert executive privilege to resist an Executive Branch investigation.

As John Dean points out:

[Rove] is cooperating with the Special Counsel's investigation because she has convened a grand jury. Rove and his lawyer know that White House aides are not immune from a grand jury subpoena. After all, Rove lost that same battle during the investigation of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald into the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's status as a covert CIA agent.

True, Rove refused to cooperate with an earlier internal Justice Department investigation into the firings, but that was because (according to Luskin) Rove had been "directed by the Bush White House counsel's office not to cooperate." Rove won't receive the same direction from the current White House counsel.

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Rove, Congress, the Special Counsel, and Handcuffs | 2 comments (2 topical)

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The Holy Grail, The Golden Fleece is? (none / 0) (#1)
by Gerald USN Ret on Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 03:05:09 PM EST

Karl Rove is to the liberal/progressive/Democrats much like the old mythical quest for The Holy Grail or the Golden Fleece of legends.

Always just beyond grasp, always just over the bend, he seems to remain just slightly elusive.

Actually though he appeared before Fitzgerald's grand jury 5 times, and had interviews many times with investigators. Fitzgerald gained complete images of all of Rove's disk drives, phones, blackberries, etc.

So my question is simply, is there anything really there, or is it just hope that he will slip like Libby did and contradict himself, and so expose himself to some kind minimum legal action.

How many times have similar targets appeared before Congress, testified, and just walked away to the great chagrin of the spectators. Does anyone really expect the Crown Prince of Craftiness, Karl Rove, to fall on his sword?

I guess it is the "hope springs eternal in the human breast" syndrome.

I think also that Karl Rove stokes these fires for his own amusement. He may know there is nothing there substantive and so he plays with those who hate him so greatly. Feints little possible openings, arouses hope where there shouldn't be any, and so in a way helps his celebrity journalistic career.

Google the name Rove. 26 Million! Talk about a growth market.

Personally I think that the present and the future of this country are far more important than any past imagined (or hoped for) wrongs that involve Rove.

The present and the future is where we should put all our attention.

: Uh (5.00 / 1) (#2)
by squeaky on Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 03:14:16 PM EST

Just to update you, a new party is both in control of congress and in the executive branch.
The present and future is that Rove is going to testify. Not sure that they will get anything from him this time around, but to suggest that the channel is still stuck on The Quest for the Golden Fleece, points to the possibility that you are the one not paying attention and stuck in the past.