Rove, Jennings subpoenaed

July 26, 2007

I hear the occasional grumbling that congressional Dems aren’t aggressive enough. They don’t fight the White House as hard as the White House fights them. They’re too quick to back down in the face of the Bush gang’s obstinacy.

I don’t think anyone’s saying that this week. Around the same time four Senate Dems were demanding a special counsel to investigate the Attorney General for perjury, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) announced that he has issued a subpoena for Karl Rove to testify on the U.S. Attorney scandal.

“We have now reached a point where the accumulated evidence shows that political considerations factored into the unprecedented firing of at least nine United States Attorneys last year,” said Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

As for the firing of the prosecutors, e-mails released by the Justice Department show Gonzales’ aides conferred with Rove on the matter.

Leahy also said he was issuing a subpoena for J. Scott Jennings, a White House political aide.

“For over four months, I have exhausted every avenue seeking the voluntary cooperation of Karl Rove and J. Scott Jennings, but to no avail,” the Vermont lawmaker said. “They and the White House have stonewalled every request. Indeed, the White House is choosing to withhold documents and is instructing witnesses who are former officials to refuse to answer questions and provide relevant information and documents.”

Good for Leahy. The point has always been to follow the facts. The first step was getting testimony from Justice Department officials, who implicated White House officials. So, the next was to speak to White House aides like Sara Taylor and Harriet Miers. Step Three, naturally, is getting information from Karl Rove and his deputy, J. Scott Jennings.

Obviously, if the White House refuses to cooperate when it comes to Miers, the Bush gang certainly won’t cooperate in making Rove and Jennings available, but that’s not how Leahy is looking at this. He’s conducting an investigation, a crime may have been committed, and they have pertinent information. They won’t appear voluntarily, so they’re getting subpoenas.

And if they don’t show, they can be subject to contempt charges, too.

As TP reminds us, Rove and Jennings are integral players to the subject at hand.

Documents revealed that “the idea of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys” was raised by Rove in early January 2005, and discussed with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The evidence indicated “Rove was more involved in the plan than previously acknowledged by the White House.” Furthermore, U.S. attorney Bud Cummins was allegedly fired to make way for Rove-protege Tim Griffin.

Jennings set up a meeting between Monica Goodling and New Mexico Republican officials in June 2006 to discuss U.S. Attorney David Iglesias’s “situation” in New Mexico. Documents show that Jennings also had knowledge of the plan for firing the U.S. attorneys.

The deadline for submitting documents and testimony is August 2 at 10:00 a.m.

That’s a week from today. It should be interesting.

One thing’s for sure, Dems are playing just as rough as the Bush gang right now. Reid, Leahy, and other leaders deserve a lot of credit.

and the reid & leahy bashing will begin in 5, 4, 3……..

  • Let’s hope that the Dems don’t back down, and keep pressing until these criminals’ activities are exposed to sunshine. If they don’t appear, go for inherent contempt. I am glad that the Dems have followed procedure very closely and consistently throughout this and all of the other messes of this Administration for which they are rightly investigating, for history (hear that, George?) will judge that such measures were only undertaken, as provided by the rule of law, as a last resort.

    We are very near to that last resort. It is the rule of law that keeps this country going. We need our country back, and without the rule of law, we don’t have much of anything.

  • …Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) announced that he has issued a subpoena for Karl Rove to testify on the U.S. Attorney scandal.

    So what. You don’t have to show up for Congressional subpoenas in this country anymore.

  • One thing’s for sure, Dems are playing just as rough as the Bush gang right now.

    Poppycock. When they steal a national election, let me know.

  • JKap@3

    Exactly.
    Can we please save a lot of time and subpoena everyone in the White House so they can all be held in contempt en masse?

    That way, we can get on with the country’s business of filibustering children’s health care.

  • It seems to me that this is the answer: Subpoena the entire Executive Branch. When they don’t show up to testify charge them all with Contempt of Congress. Press Inherent Contempt – locking them all up in the Capitol basement.

  • If the Dems push this very aggressively to the major confrontation that is overdue, I may have to (happily) eat quite a few of my recent comments.

    Alas, I feel that I am safe.

  • Good for Leahy! Maybe the Dems’ “wimp” routine has been a ruse? I’d love to take back all the bad things I’ve said about them!!!

    I really wish the media would ask some Republicans if they would be OK with Democratic political operatives deciding which United States Attorney gets assigned to their state. Ask them how they’d like it if their own state’s attorney could be hired and fired by Howard Dean or James Carville.

    Someone needs to figure out how to pry the few Republicans with a brain loose from the Authoritarians who are running the party.

  • “how to pry the few Republicans with a brain loose”

    nice juxtaposition racerx…….

  • You’re all Krazy if you believe the milktoast D Senators will really do anything effective.
    They will Huff & they will Puff — then they will go on Summer Vacation.

    And the war goes on.

  • Is it too soon to call Gonzo’s performance an implosion? The contempt the Dems are showing since then has been remarkable. Gonzo has crossed the point of no return and may inadvertently drag some others down with him. The WH would likely have avoided most of this had they removed Gonzo after his last go round.
    Now either Bush caves, or things get really ugly. I’d like to see Ried and Pelosi ratchet it up another notch and cancel the August recess. Don’t give the thugs a chance to regain their balance.

  • Good wishes aside, the key here is 5-4.

    But then again, will the Supremes willingly acquiesce in the creation of an Imperial Presidency that means that their branch (as well as that of legislature) becomes a vestigial remnant?

    Reminds me of the time when, long ago in a Galaxy far away, the Emperor swept away the last of the old order and dissolved the Senate and look how well THAT turned out…..

  • “so this is how liberty dies. . . with thunderous applause (at Bush’s inaugural).”

  • I’ll keep my excitement on a tight rein till after August 2. It won’t be difficult, either, since I expect that, on August 2, Dems fold as usual. Then they go on their vacation and hope that during the recess everyone will forget all about the ho-hah.

    Now, if the Dems were to take JoeW’s advice and cancel the August recess… Maybe even go back to a 3-day week for August…

  • It all comes down to the MSM. Until the MSM overcomes its lack of moral fiber, the process of exposing and rectifying the undemocratic and criminal behavior of the Bush administration will not happen. Thirty some years ago, David Broder (and others) had a spine and a broad reach to the public; today, all that we seem to have is Keith Olbermann playing Don Quixote five nights a week.

    On a related issue, Sen. Leahy and Sen. Whitehouse are former prosecutors. What other congressional Democrats are former prosecutors? Shouldn’t the DNC and congressional Democrats play up the fact that these Democrats have serious legal minds and aren’t playing partisan politics and being sock puppets for their party.

  • I hear the occasional grumbling that congressional Dems aren’t aggressive enough. — CB.

    I read the 18 comments above and all I find is grumbling about congressional Dems.

    I don’t understand it. I think some of you guys above are just not doing your homework. I think you’re weaseling out of putting in the hard labor of actually reading the 70 pages of contempt report before the House today, or actually following the 3 hours of questioning of Gonzales two days ago, or checking out some of the clips on You Tube. I think you’re just lolling back miffed that you’re not getting more cheap thrills and quick fixes, because you’re too lazy to follow details of the political legal and constitutional processes that are unfolding.

    That’s what I think.

    I wish I had more free time to be more continuously involved, but i can only pop in from time to time so my comments often come late in the day. Also, it takes quite a few hours to read through these documents and reports, without which I feel inadequately qualified to participate.

    i think if some of you revered regular commentators did a little more donkey and spade work we might have a more useful level of discourse here than constant moaning and groaning about the only group of people in this country at the moment who have any chance of rescuing it from the abyss of police-state dictatorship to where it is otherwise surely heading.

  • As difficult as it is to be content with matters as they stand, I must agree with Goldilocks. So many things that we might have thought were true and sturdy about our government in 2000 have been shown to be shaky and waiting to be abused. As growing pains go, we’re in the midst of a big one.

    If Dem leaders can get us back on track by playing by the rules it will make a positive outcome not just satisfying but much more locked in. RepubCo has accomplished way too much that is negative but what they’ve done is blatantly illegal in every direction. If Dems don’t use the sometimes slow grinding tools of our gov’t to build/rebuild a decent foundation, it won’t stand. We hate RepubCo for trashing the rules. We really hate RepubCo for trashing the rules.

    RepubCo is nothing hiding behind a very threatening and constantly patched facade. They are working on it feverishly right now. Tonight. They haven’t lost sight of their offensive goals but they’re being forced to play much more defense than they have for years. Senator Leahy and his compadres are laying bricks. And I think that he’s enjoying his work.

    Entangling ShrubCo in a cats cradle of legalities will be the most effective and long lasting remedy. It’s really hard, (and fascinating), to watch but if we really think the fundamentals of our gov’t are good, we have to let this play out and root for our team.

    And that is my effort to cheer myself up as well. Good night.

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