Will the House Uphold the Law and Hold Rove in Contempt?

September 10th, 2008

by Glynn Wilson

Update: Scratch that. The hearing has been postponed due to the seventh anniversary of 9/11 and the memorial dedication.

The United States House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing of the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law Thursday at noon in the “continuing investigation into the U.S. attorneys controversy and related matters,” according to the committee’s Website.

According to the TPMMuckraker, the committee will consider a citation for contempt for Bush’s Attorney General Michael Mukasey Wednesday “for his failure to supply documents in accordance with the subpoena” issued in late June.

At the Democratic National Convention a couple of weeks ago, former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman pleaded with Colorado’s congressional delegation to vote to hold Karl Rove in contempt of Congress before it adjourns for the year, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly said she would work to bring the issue up for a vote in the full House.

But informed sources who have watched this Congress in action for the past two years since the Democrats took back control as the majority in the 2006 midterm elections are not sure there is the will or the votes in an election year to uphold the law.

Chances are the Democratic leadership will poll members of Congress and find out they do not have enough votes to sustain a vote of contempt for Rove, and they will make an announcement to that effect. Alternatively, if they see political capital to be gained from forcing a vote of the full House, they may bring the issue to a vote, even if it seems destined to lose, just so that members of Congress who are sworn to uphold the law will be on the record voting not to uphold the law.

The committee voted 20-14 to hold Rove in contempt on July 30, for failing to respond to a subpoena to testify under oath before the committee. He has been accused of manipulating the Bush Justice Department for political purposes, including having a hand in the prosecution of Siegelman.

And there is ample, sworn evidence for this, as we have reported time and again. North Alabama attorney Jill Simpson signed a sworn affidavit to that effect last May, and testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee legal staff one year ago, last September. And she has called on Pelosi to hold Rove in “inherent contempt.”

Birmingham attorney Doug Jones also testified under oath before the full committee that there is “no doubt” Siegelman’s case was “political.” Rep. Artur Davis, the Birmingham Democrat and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, has said the same.

According to Montgomery attorney Priscilla Duncan, who represents Ms. Simpson, if the full House doesn’t vote to hold Rove in contempt, there will be no reason for any American citizen to pay heed to a subpoena from Congress.

“The House has a duty to us as citizens to uphold the Constitution. If the members don’t have the spine to vote upholding the authority of their own subpoenas, they should be shamed from office,” Duncan said. “Karl Rove hasn’t been granted any executive immunity from the President in the Siegelman investigation. This is a no-brainer.”

If the House fails to follow up on this action, it will be a travesty of justice, for sure. I mean what is the job of a member of Congress if not to uphold the law? This is especially true as it relates to enforcing subpoenas to enforce Constitutional checks and balances to hold one branch of government, the executive, accountable to another, the legislative. That is their prime Constitutional directive.

“The full House must vote on the Rove contempt citation ASAP,” Siegelman said in response to an e-mail Wednesday morning while he was on his way to Tennessee to meet with former Vice President Al Gore and others.

Our editorial position is this: Any member of Congress who fails to support that effort should be impeached and removed from office. It is their duty according to their sworn oath to uphold the law and the Constitution.

Plus, if the Democrats in Congress don’t do something to weaken Karl Rove right now, he will continue to play a destructive role in the McCain-Palin campaign for president. What better way to get him out of the way for the next two months? Confiscate his little Blackberry and his cell phone and put his lying, spinning, pasty white ass in jail for contempt!

And for any other bloggers or media outlets lurking here, you can quote me on that!

More From That Bad Old ‘Liberal Media’ on Gender

September 4th, 2008

We should not even be talking about Sarah Palin because it’s sexist, says John Stewert of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” after taking apart Karl Rove on his comments about GOP Veep pick Sarah Palin vs. the Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who made Obama’s short list…

Is it any wonder many people turn to the cable comedy shows for news? The networks and their talking heads are not liberal. They are just a not-so-funny joke…

John Kerry Fires Broadside at McCain, Karl Rove ‘Smear’ Tactics

August 28th, 2008

Senator John Kerry, the Democratic Party’s nominee for president in 2004 who was “swift-boated” by veterans in that race, fired a broadside at McCain Wednesday on the conduct of his campaign, especially the involvement and smear tactics of Bush’s former spin master Karl Rove.

“Senator McCain, who once railed against the smears of Karl Rove when he was the target, has morphed into candidate McCain who is using the same ‘Rove’ tactics and the same ‘Rove’ staff to repeat the same old politics of smear and fear,” Kerry said. “Well, not this year, not this time. The Rove-McCain tactics are old and outworn, and America will reject them in 2008.”

Kerry also drew a comparison between the attacks on his patriotism because he opposed the Vietnam War and those on Obama for his opposition to the war in Iraq.

“Years ago, when we protested a war, people would weigh in against us saying, ‘My country right or wrong,’” Kerry said. “Our answer? Absolutely, my country right or wrong. When right, keep it right. When wrong, make it right. Sometimes loving your country demands you must tell the truth to power.

“This is one of those times,” he said. “And Barack Obama is telling those truths.”

Predicting that Republican attacks, like those that felled his presidential candidacy four years ago, will backfire against Barack Obama, Senator John F. Kerry issued a blistering critique of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, a friend whom Kerry once sounded out about being his running mate, according to the Boston Globe.

Addressing the Democratic National Convention, Kerry linked McCain to President Bush’s foreign policy, which the Massachusetts Democrat characterized as reckless and extremist, and offered the failure of his own candidacy as a map for Democrats to follow to defeat what he called the GOP’s politics of “fear and smear” and “distortion and division.”

Also, Politico is now reporting that Republican strategist Karl Rove has been involving himself in more mischief in the Republican race for president, calling Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut Independent-Democrat, and urging him to contact McCain to withdraw his name from vice presidential consideration, according to three sources familiar with the conversation. Lieberman dismissed the request late last week, these sources agreed.

Rove Tried to Kill Lieberman VP Pick

What Does Karl Rove Have to Do With War in Georgia?

August 22nd, 2008

And what does that have to do with the McCain campaign?

What did Karl Rove do while when he left the country and defied a Congressional subpoena to testify under oath before the House Judiciary Committee in the political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman? Well, it turns out he was in Yalta — with the president of Georgia.

While Karl Rove was subpoenaed to testify before congress regarding the Don Siegelman case, he was on “vacation” (July 10-13, 2008 - Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine) at the 5th Annual Yalta Meeting. Also in attendance was Mikhail Saakashvili, President of Georgia. Some four weeks after this meeting, Saakashvili attempted to repatriate South Ossetia and started a war with Russia.

We report. You decide.

Would the political animal who promised the Christians to push an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage in 2004 to get George W. Bush reelected go to Yalta and sucker Saakashvili into starting a conflict with Russia just to benefit John McCain’s presidential campaign?

Nah, that would be a lefty conspiracy theory, right?