That’s one

July 19, 2005

I’ve been waiting anxiously to see if one, just one, Republican member of Congress will say something vaguely critical of Karl Rove and his role in the Plame Game scandal. I think I’ve finally found one.

“The real issue is whether or not it’s true,” said Pennsylvania Representative Phil English, who said he’s known Rove since 1976. Democrats “have every right to insist this matter be fully investigated. It remains to be seen what kind of detail he knew,” he said.

As responses go, this was pretty tepid, but I can’t help but feel like a House Republican acknowledging that the Dems’ questions are at least reasonable is a good sign.

Maybe Linc Chafee and Chris Shays might feel comfortable offering a similar sentiment?

How about McCain and Hagel? Or maybe Specter? Or the moderate duo from Maine?

  • Does English have any clout? He appears to be on Ways and Means and the Joint Economic Committee. It’s nice that he thinks “Democrats have every right”, but if he’s as powerless as the rest of us, what does it matter? Now, if he had some home movies of Hastert or Delay with the goats or the choir boys….

  • It might be too much to expect the GOP legislators to turn on the WH at this point, at least openly and using forceful language. Until the indictments and convictions actually happen, it isn’t in their interest to jump the gun and demand heads to roll; if the WH gets through unscathed, the defectors will pay with their seats (and get so smeared their own mothers wouldn’t vote for them, besides). The fact that they aren’t jumping en masse on the Rove bandwagon speaks volumes that they know they will get burned badly if Rove gets indicted and/or convicted. The GOP seems to have become a party of fence-sitters.

    Wait until the indictments come and the legislators start getting a sense about public sentiment. We’ll might well start hearing the first shots of a GOP civil war.

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