Congressman John Conyers said that, not me. The NY Times published an editorial urging congress and the Attorney General to take seriously Karl Rove’s refusal to testify about his tinkering with the Justice Department. Claiming a non-existent privilege — Rove is in defiance of congress. What greater symbolism for the track record of the current administration: complete and utter disdain for the law and constitution perhaps? As you watch Rove avoid, dodge, and stutter over the non answer to the question, remember that he was the main strategist in the White House.

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Rabbi Yonah

13 Comments

  • John Conyers from my state? Yeah, he’s a great friend of the Jews. Not! But you can watch his wife’s brilliance in action here vs a 6th grader:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TvgtGlcdTE

    Rabbi Yonah, I say this with much love and respect, and I’m not a fan of Rove, but, can you be a little less “typical” of your disdain for this guy?

    The predictability reminds me of Obama trying to say that his stance on Iraq comes from logic and reason and good decision making. Yeah, who could possibly believe that he could ever change his mind on Iraq even with good news of the surge coming from there every day? When people create talking points like “Iraq was a stupid decision” or “Carl Rove is evil”, its so much easier to get swept up in the framed context than the actual history and logic. It’s how we get people like Hayden Penterri [sic] fighting against Japanese whalers but caught eating sushi because no one connected the dots for her.

  • Again, for Yonah (not sure this guy’s a rabbi) – how is this at all ‘jew’licious (though I’m not expecting an answer this time either)? Plenty of us Jews are not Rove/Bush haters and I have to agree with Alex, you could be less typical.

  • Typical or not, Jewlicious or not, the good rabbi has a point. Since when do government aides find themselves under the umbrella of executive privilege to ignore subpoenas from congress? Honestly, you can compel government aides to testify regarding the Lewinsky affair but you somehow can’t invoke it to get somebody to testify regarding their role in suspect firing of attorneys?

    Total and utter disgrace. When congress lacks the power to investigate the white house point blank, the president and his office really do become above the law or at least above any reasonable powers the law may have to find out wrong doing where the is clearly enough evidence to suggest that such shady dealings have occurred.

  • How about this? I’ll trade you Rove’s testimony for Sandy “In the Pants” Berger. What’s good for the goose….

  • It’s a deal. muffti spoke a bit too quickly …he forgot that there is a precedent for protecting aides — US vs Nixon. However, the privilege is not a blank cheque and it didn’t really help out nixon. Nor Clinton.

    As for Mr. Berger, he did testify. And was fond guilty. And fined etc. The punishment may seem rather low given what he did, but then again, a certain Scooter Libby managed to lie to a grand jury and get away with no jail time on account of a certain friend in a high place so if we are horse trading here, Muffti reckons were even on that front.

  • If Congress wants to compel Rove’s testimony, it has its remedies. Til then, Rove can try to bank on Congress’s lack of conviction, as reflected in a number of matters, from Iraq to ethics reform.

  • Alex, are you capable of understanding the distinction between statements such as “Karl Rove is evil” and “There is strong evidence that Karl Rove broke some of the most serious laws of the United States”?

    I’m not sure you are.

  • Muffti,

    I think they’re all guilty. I don’t personally care for any of them and I don’t care if you throw away the key when you lock them up. I agree with Tom though. Bush’s Brain has so many enemies, if they haven’t figured out how to get him on that, it’s probably too late. Seems that its their job to do it and all we’re doing here is bloviating about things we have no inside knowledge of. And it’s not just this, it’s any injustice we see with untouchables involved, from celebrities to politicians to diplomats to infamous criminals like OJ (a hybrid). If you want to talk about Us and Them, start with the elitists. It’s a good old boys club and it has more to do with “pull” than anything you are born with or what party you belong to. That’s why I always say the two parties are two sides of the same coin and don’t subscribe to either. I guess we learn to put up with a certain amount of corruption and frankly I don’t understand where people conjure up the empathy for fired lawyers. I mean with all of these other injustices:


    Children on the streets using guns and knives
    Taking drugs and each other’s lives
    Killing each other using knives and forks
    And calling each other names like dork

    There’s people on the street getting diseases from monkeys
    Yeah that’s what I said, their getting diseases from monkeys
    Whys this happening, please, whose been touching these monkeys
    Leave these poor sick monkeys alone
    There sick, they’ve got problems enough as it is

    A man is lying on the street, some punk has chopped off his head
    And I’m the only one who stops to see if he’s dead, aaoohhh
    Turns out he’s dead

    That’s why I’m singing, Aaaaoooh what is wrong with the world today?
    What’s wrong with the world today, *mumbles* never said nothings wrong with it
    Uooo, what is wrong with the world today?
    Think about it, think about it, think, think about it ”
    (Flight of the Conchords, Think About It)

    But I digress…

    MUL, No I don’t. But feel free to enlighten me…

  • Muffti can believe that, Alex. He still thinks that you hsould try to prosecute people when you can, even if you can’t prosecute most. And in this case, there is a greater issue – the issue of executive privilege and its scope. Muffti thinks htat that is why we caer abot this particular case — not because any of us feel particular sympathy for particular lawyers who got fired on shady grounds per se.

  • When you have a President and adviser that scheme and break the law it is very much a topic that everyone should be talking about.

  • Bush has an approval rating in the twenties. On top of that, the Democrats are so vengeful and vindictive, they’re still releasing movies on HBO called Election about BS that’s over 8 years ago. He has plenty of enemies that want to take him down. If they haven’t figured out how to do it by now, they’re either terrible at their jobs, complete idiots, or they have no case. I’m guessing the latter but I’m an optimist and I haven’t seen Pelosi, Reid or Dean speak lately either. Us, the common citizen trying to force a case like this is futile. It ain’t going to happen. Moveon(.org)!