Update:
Wondering where Karl Rove was while House Judiciary Committee talked
to an empty chair about the firings of federal prosecutors? I'll give
you a hint: he wasn't at home enjoying a game of Yahtzee. He was at a
speaking engagement in Yalta, doing his best to capitalize on the
situation.
So what justification did Rove give for his marked absence? He invoked
the all-too-predictable code word for when a Bush administration
official just doesn't want to 'fess up: executive privilege. Rove
believes he is protected from submitting evidence and/or testifying
about the extent to which he was involved in the prosecutor firings
because of a stipulation in the separation of powers that was first
seriously invoked by "Tricky Dick" Nixon himself.
Bush administration officials have claimed this privilege (which the
Supreme Court has said “is not to be invoked lightly”) for a number of
cases, from the leak of CIA records to Dick Cheney's relationships
with energy executives. So what's a Democratic Congress to do?
Democratic members and aides said they expect judiciary chair Rep.
John Conyers to push for a vote holding Rove in contempt of Congress,
and if that alone is not enough, they expect to discuss the issue of
executive privilege gone wild in an upcoming hearing entitled, “The
Imperial Presidency,” where Rep. Dennis Kucinich is expected to give
the case for Bush's impeachment.
Stay tuned for more updates on this executive soap opera, and join our
campaign in support of pushing for Rove to be held in contempt of
Congress by signing our petition.
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By now you've all heard that Karl Rove ignored a subpeona last week and failed to appear before Congress. Of course, if any "regular" citizen pulled a stunt like this, they'd be sitting in jail right now. But, just maybe, it's not Karl's fault that he doesn't know what it means when you get a subpeona from Congress.
Let's face it, Karl Rove was really busy during college honing his skill at political trickery. It's easy to see to how he would have missed out on some fundamental civics lessons. Like what it means when you receive a subpeona:
1. When you receive a subpeona, it means you have to show up. It's not a request or an invitation.
2. If you don't show up, you go to jail.
3. Most importantly, you are not a special and unique snowflake. A subpoena is a subpoena, no matter who you are or who you worked for.
So the real question is, how will Karl learn these citizenship lessons that he missed in school?
The best way to teach him a lesson here is to hold Karl accountable. After all, this time he outright broke the law.
Tell Rep. Sanchez to follow through and hold Karl Rove in contempt of Congress, and to prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law. After all, he'll probably adjust well to prison life given his performance at the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner that clearly established his street cred.
