Panel Cites Rove for Contempt
The House Judiciary Committee cited former presidential adviser Karl Rove for contempt of Congress because of his refusal to testify on the politicization of the Justice Department. There's still plenty of red tape keeping Bush's Brain from a day of reckoning. A full vote on the citation won't happen -- if it happens at all -- until September, and by the time the lawyers get involved, George W. Bush will be back in Crawford whacking brush.
The House Judiciary Committee cited former presidential adviser Karl Rove for contempt of Congress because of his refusal to testify on the politicization of the Justice Department. There’s still plenty of red tape keeping Bush’s Brain from a day of reckoning. A full vote on the citation won’t happen — if it happens at all — until September, and by the time the lawyers get involved, George W. Bush will be back in Crawford whacking brush.
Wait, before you go…AP via Google:
The committee decision is only a recommendation; a spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she would not decide until September whether to bring it to a vote by the full House. If she does and Democrats prevail, Pelosi could then refer the contempt citation to the Justice Department for prosecution. She also could direct the House to file a federal lawsuit against Rove, as she has done with two other Bush confidants who similarly sidestepped their subpoenas: White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former presidential legal counselor Harriet Miers.
Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, called the contempt citation “gratuitously punitive” action that would serve no purpose because the question of executive privilege is already pending in federal court.
Indeed, the fate of that suit illustrates the conundrum of lame-duck oversight. Even if a judge rules that the Miers and Bolten case should proceed, it would be resolved long after Bush leaves office.
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