Karl Rove Thinks Someone Is Lying

Other than himself, ofcourse.

Submitted by christine on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 11:37am. 

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A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Christine Bowman

As President George W. Bush's primary political mentor as well as a key policy advisor, Karl Rove was smack dab in the middle of explosive issues like the Valerie Plame outing and the scandal concerning the firings of nine US attorneys, known as "Prosecutorgate." Patrick Fitzgerald, who prosecuted the Plame case and won conviction of Vice President Cheney's right-hand man Scooter Libby, interviewed Rove five times but ultimately opted not to file charges against him.

Now another independent prosecutor, Nora R. Dannehy, is firing her questions at Rove. After a Department of Justice (DOJ) internal investigation came up short due to lack of subpoena power, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey gave Dannehy the job and the subpoena power to investigate the Alberto Gonzales DOJ's firing of US attorneys.

^{(AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)}

In Prosecutorgate, the suspicion is that supposedly impartial US attorneys may have been pressured by their political higher ups to go after Democrats but go easy on Republicans in investigating possible corruption on the eve of the 2006 elections. After all, what better way to sway voters than to fill the news hour with a rash of unproven allegations against Democrats nationwide? Were US attorneys who did not go along, precipitously let go?

U.S. attorneys are political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president, but they cannot be fired for "improper reasons" such as resisting White House or congressional pressure to pursue specific cases. Since Rove was Bush's top political strategist and a White House honcho, he would logically be a focus of the inquiry. Bush himself called Rove "the architect" when publically thanking him for his 2004 electoral win.

Rove's sworn testimony today given at his lawyer's offices, which appeared to last about four hours, will not be made public, but Washington Post reporter Carrie Johnson answered many questions about the case in an excellent online discussion posted earlier in the day. Her overview of the case, also carried in the Post, says Dannehy's job is to "examine whether former Justice Department and White House officials lied or obstructed justice in connection with the dismissal of federal prosecutors in 2006."

Some points the online discussion brought out include:

• The biggest risk of criminal jeopardy may not be the prosecutor firings themselves, but rather making false statements about one's role in the process.
• Only about half of the 93 Bush era US attorneys voluntarily left their positions around the time Obama was elected.
• Attorney General Eric Holder anticipates nominating a first batch of replacement US attorneys in June or July.
• A separate investigation of the firing scandal is under way in the US House of Representatives, where House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, too, has subpoena power. The House committee could conceivably make public the transcripts of Rove's future testimony.
• The DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility is conducting an investigation into Alabama Governor Don Siegelman's accusations that his corruption conviction by a Bush-appointed US attorney was tainted. Those findings have not yet been publicly released.

Rove is the quintessential political operative, spinmeister, and smooth operator. By now, he also is a very experienced testifier. But he did appear shaken and certainly "freaked out" back in April over the possibility of investigations or prosecution of Bush staffers when Obama passed off to AG Holder a decision as to whether to pursue prosecutions after release of the DOJ torture memos.

These days, Rove just keeps up a good offense as his best defense. He remains a highly paid GOP commentator and talking point crafter, writing a column for The Wall Street Journal and appearing regularly on Fox News. It was on Sean Hannity's show that he let rip his view that holding Bush officials to account was "like colonels in mirrored sunglasses" in a banana republic "junta" threatening their overthrown predecessors.

Just the final nail in the Rove is NUTZ (criminally insane) theory.

He said that -- not BuzzFlash. In the same back-and-forth, Rove characterized alleged war crimes as "a policy disagreement" not meriting attention after the fact.

(Oops, there's another nail.)

Rove's column Friday doesn't mention his command performance before a criminal prosecutor. Instead, it deflects Bush Administration responsibility for torture onto Democrat and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "Someone important appears not to be telling the truth ...", Rove begins.

(Yeah, we wonder who? Whosever it is should be put in stockades on the National Mall, don't you think, Mr. Rove? Being independents we don't give a damn with which party the liars affiliate, we just want justice, or as close as we, mere humans, can get to it. Something tells me, given your record, Mr. Rove, you are one of the biggest liars!)  

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The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.