While we’re out of town blogging from T-Town, we recommend following the coverage over at another so-called liberal news blog out of DC, the TPMMuckraker. The crew there is indispensable for up the minute coverage, along with other blogs like this one…

The Locust Fork News and Journal say editorially that the Alabama Environmental Council is 100 percent right on the policy crisis now facing Alabama’s air pollution.

Regulatory agencies that are charged with protecting human health and the environment should show extra caution during this time of poor air quality, according to the Alabama Environmental Council, but instead, the Bush EPA and the Riley administration are proposing to approve a relaxation of an important Alabama air pollution regulation.

In a letter from Governor Riley to the Administrator of EPA, the Republican governor wrote: “On Tuesday, June 2, representatives of EPA Region 4 asked ADEM to reconsider additional changes to Alabama’s proposed SIP revision related to opacity…I urge you to finalize EPA’s proposed approval without delay.”

Contrary to claims by ADEM and the Governor, the proposed rules are not more stringent and will allow significantly more particulate matter pollution to be released into the air we breathe every day, which puts my health, your health and your children’s health at risk.

And the law is being revised because TVA, Alabama Power and other permitted polluters asked ADEM to change the law, to avoid litigation they are involved in with organizations such as the Alabama Environmental Council.

A freedom of information request uncovered a letter from ADEM Director Trey Glenn, Governor Riley and the entire Alabama delegation in support of the proposed rollback.

What can you do?

Please send public comment to ADEM for the proposed rollback on opacity standards and plan to attend the Public Hearing set for August 6th. Written submissions and other inquires should be directed to: ADEM Hearing Officer, Office of General Counsel, Alabama Department of Environmental Management, P.O. Box 301463, Montgomery, AL 36130-1463 (street address: 1400 Coliseum Boulevard, Montgomery, AL 36110-2059) or by e-mail at Hearing.officer@adem.state.al.us

Contact Governor Riley: Send letters to: Governor Riley, State Capitol, 600 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama, 36130.

Phone calls: (334) 242-7100 Fax: (334) 353-0004. Email: http://governor.alabama.gov/contact.aspx

For more information, visit the Alabama Environmental Council online.

Don Siegelman Agrees

by Glynn Wilson

Alabama attorney and GOP whistleblower Jill Simpson is calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to allow a vote in the full House of Representatives on “inherent contempt” for former Bush political aide Karl Rove.

In light of the Judiciary Committee’s vote Wednesday finding him in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify under oath about his involvement in the political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and the politicization of the Department of Justice, Ms. Simpson said in an exclusive interview it would be “useless” to turn the case over to the Bush Justice Department.

If the House simply finds Rove in “statutory contempt,” the case will just be turned over to Attorney General Michael Mukasy, she said. And his office has shown time and again that he is not interested in finding out the truth and holding former White House officials responsible under the law, including Harriet Myers and Josh Bolton.

“The time is now,” Ms. Simpson said. “Ms. Pelosi promised when she took over the House after the 2006 elections to clean up. It’s time for her to clean the White House for thumbing their noses at Congress.”

Ms. Simpson says she feels akin to the 127,000 people who signed a petition calling on Congress to send Karl Rove to jail, she said, and she thinks the House should use the Sergeant at Arms to arrest him. Inherent contempt and the Sergeant at Arms have been rarely used in American history, she said, “because most people don’t thumb their noses at the United States Congress.”

“Mr. Rove has repeatedly thumbed his nose at the U.S. Congress, and he should have respect for the Constitution and the Congress,” she said. “The time has come to stop this.”

The Judiciary Committee voted 20-14 Wednesday to hold Rove in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a subpoena to testify under oath before the committee.

“This is a Constitutional crisis, When the White House can just say we are not going to testify if we don’t want to,” Ms. Simpson said. “The Department of Justice has repeatedly NOT stood up for the Constitution and that only leaves Congress.”

She agreed to go to Washington to testify last year, she said, because she considered it a civic duty.

“Karl Rove should see it as a civic duty too,” she said. “Instead, he prefers to run around the country thumbing his nose at the Constitution.”

Ms. Simpson commended Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., the chairwoman of the Commercial and Administrative Law subcommittee, along with committee chairman John Conyers and Birmingham Rep. Artur Davis, “for their valiant efforts to restore the integrity of the Constitution of the United States,” she said. “They need to do a thorough, to the bottom-of-the-bucket investigation. Otherwise there is going to be a revolt.”

Rove is claiming he has White House executive privilege, she said, “but that sure as heck doesn’t prevent him from spouting off his mouth everywhere he goes.”

Rove thinks because he is an elite political operative no longer serving in government that he is above the law, she said. “He thinks he is the law.”

Furthermore, she said, President George W. Bush should want to get to the bottom of the story for his own legacy.

While everyone’s attention is focused on Rove’s role in manipulating the Justice Department, perhaps they are ignoring an “in-the-loop” role by members of the Bush family as well. After all, isn’t Rove just a political operative who takes orders from the people he works for?

“George Bush owes a duty to the citizens of the Unites States to ask that his employees testify, if he really wants to heal the problems at the Department of Justice,” she said. “This is directly going to affect his legacy.”

In reacting to the story today, Don Siegelman said in an e-mail message: “I have always said I believe Jill Simpson. She is an American hero.”

Siegelman said the Texas Republican and ranking minority member of the committee, Rep. Lamar Smith, has made false statements himself, along with Rove in his written responses to the committee last week.

“We must encourage the full House to vote yes,” Siegelman said. “To do otherwise would advance the cause of this corruption of the DOJ and make it more likely to happen again.”

Rove didn’t even deny the central sworn allegation against him, Siegelman said: “That he and Bill Canary conspired to advance the prosecution against me by Canary’s wife.”

Karl Rove and George Bush could not be reached for comment.

The United States House Judiciary Committee voted 20-14 Wednesday morning to hold former Bush political adviser Karl Rove in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a subpoena to testify under oath before the committee.

In a memo on the full committee meeting, Chairman John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat, summarized the facts surrounding Rove’s refusal to even appear before the committee and assert executive privilege, according to the TPMMuckraker.

Mr. Rove has refused even to appear before the Committee and assert whatever privileges that he believes may apply to his testimony, relying on excessively broad and legally insufficient claims of “absolute immunity” - never recognized by any court - in declining to appear.

According to the Associated Press, the voting was largely along party lines. The committee says Rove broke the law by failing to appear at a July 10 hearing on allegations of White House influence over the Justice Department, including whether Rove encouraged prosecutions against Democrats.

The committee decision is only a recommendation, according to AP, and it was unclear whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi would allow a final vote in the full House.

Rove has denied any involvement with Justice Department decisions, but not under oath, and the White House has said Congress has no authority to compel testimony from current and former advisers, although it is still unclear why Rove would claim executive privilege for discussing the case with the president - unless he discussed the case with the president and Bush was fully in the loop.

So far activists and bloggers have focused their sites on getting Rove arrested, perhaps to weaken his influence in the upcoming election. But they have failed to realize that Bush was in the loop.

It will be interesting to see how the House tries to enforce its contempt charge, since it has no police powers, except perhaps for the Sargent at Arms, which has never been used to make an arrest of this kind.

Check back often to the LFJ for more details on how this case will proceed, including more details proving president Bush was in the loop in the Siegelman case.

Meanwhile, TPMM is also reporting that Bush Justice Department inspector general Glenn Fine, testifying this morning before the committee, said Rove aide Scott Jennings was the only White House official he sought to interview for his report released Monday.

“Why were no others at the White House questioned?” Sen. Arlen Spector, R-Penn., asked.

“From the evidence that we had, both emails and discussions, we did not see that others were involved in this process, and we questioned the person who was involved,” Fine said, referring to the partisan screening of prospective judges and career prosecutors.

Fine was said he did not believe any of the misconduct described in his 140-page report, released Monday, called for criminal prosecution for false statements.

“We looked at that and clearly in our judgment and in the judgement of prosecutors who have been working on this case, we do not think there was a sufficient basis for a criminal prosecution for false statements,” he said.

BS.

The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a resolution to hold former Bush political aide Karl Rove in contempt of Congress for failing to appear to testify as directed by a Congressional subpoena.

Rove’s attorney cited executive privilege when the former top White House adviser declined to appear at a July 10 Judiciary Committee hearing.

Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat, issued the subpoena on May 22 in a bid to force Rove to testify about allegations that the Justice Department has engaged in politically motivated prosecutions of Democratic officials, including former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.

Rove denied any involvement in the matter in a July 22 letter to Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, the ranking minority member on the panel.

Rove has offered to submit to an off-the-record, untranscribed interview or answer written questions about the Siegelman case, but not about the broader issue of the politicization of the Justice Department. Conyers has rejected that offer.

The practical effect of a contempt resolution, however, is likely to be limited, according to Congressional Quarterly.

In February, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey refused to refer a contempt of Congress citation against President Bush’s chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten , and Harriet Miers, a former White House counsel, to a federal grand jury, as required by law.

The House had voted to cite Bolten and Miers for contempt after they refused to comply, on executive privilege grounds, with Judiciary subpoenas related to the firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

A lawsuit filed by members of the House to force compliance with subpoenas seeking testimony and documents from Miers and documents from Bolten is now pending in federal court.

The committee will meet at 10:15 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn House Office Building to consider a resolution and report finding Karl Rove in contempt for failure to appear pursuant to subpoena and recommending to the House of Representatives that Mr. Rove becited for contempt of Congress, according to the committee’s Website.