Who knows if it will stick, but at least some questions are being asked. Is Karl Rove Consigliare for a criminal gang, as Pat Oliphant portrays in this cartoon? Or is Karl Rove a traitor? On Morning Sedition today, Poppy reports from Patridiot Watch that NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg thinks he may very well be:
July 12, 2005
Frank Lautenberg Accuses Karl Rove of TreasonOn Air America’s Morning Sedition, Mark Maron and Mark Riley were interviewing NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg regarding his call for Karl Rove to lose his security clearance as a result of the Plame leak.
Maron said, “Karl Rove is guilty of treason, isn’t he?”
Lautenberg responded, “Yes, I think so.”
When Senators are accusing White House Deputy Chiefs of Staff of treason, things have reached a new level.
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The press, finally, seems to smell some blood leaking from the festering walking pile of corruption that is the Bush Administration. Dare we hope that some of this may stick? Will we finally get to see Ambassador Wilson’s dream to come true?
It’s of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs. And trust me, when I use that name, I measure my words.
Perhaps. Treason is a serious charge, but if things keep going they are, perhaps the charge might stick. Perhaps not legally, but maybe POLITICALLY. The White House and the Republican Party are in full Nixon mode, attacking the character of their enemies and double-talking and denying statements that they made in the past.
Keith Olbermann points out the implications of the allegations against Rove, that Karl Rove is Soft on terror. As the President’s most trusted advisor, that means that the President is soft on terror. Take away his protector cred, and there really isn’t much left other than appeals to homophobia and racism.
Karl Rove is a liability in the war on terror.
Rove — Newsweek’s new article quotes the very emails — told a Time reporter that Ambassador Joe Wilson’s trip to investigate of the Niger uranium claim was at the behest of Wilson’s CIA wife.
To paraphrase Mr. Rove, liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers; conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared to ruin the career of one of the country’s spies tracking terrorist efforts to gain weapons of mass destruction — for political gain.
Politics first, counter-terrorism second — it’s as simple as that.
Olbermann goes on to describe what it’s like to live in fear after a terrorist attack; he describes the fear of the unattended bag:
Because it’s starting again. I was in the checkout line in a supermarket last night when one of New York’s countless little old ladies barked out something at the cashier: “Miss? Who does this bag belong to?” Uncomprehending, the checkout woman blinked at her. The older woman pointed at a gym bag that had been left near the store’s entrance, on a ledge below the delicatessen cabinet. Gefilta fish is an unlikely terrorist target to say the least, but the woman was absolutely right. “We’re supposed to report unattended bags. There could be a bomb in there.”
Silly, right? As silly as it would’ve been before last Thursday in London if somebody on the Underground had said to a fellow passenger, “There’s a bag of something here that doesn’t seem to belong to anybody.”
The current Administration, which has maintained its grip on power by stoking those fears, while doing little to actually protect us, may be demonstrably run by people who’ve actively made the problem worse:
We’re back in those times, thanks to the London attacks. Needless to say, the 2001 bag at Yankee Stadium was no more threatening than the 2005 bag at the Associated Supermarket. But if we’re going to have to live our lives looking for them, I damn well don’t want political morons in positions where they can deliberately screw up counter-terrorism measures. I know we already have to live with the idea that they’ll do it accidentally.
Any time I’ve criticized the current administration here or on the air, I’ve gotten the same idiotic emails from the same idiotic people who’ve never been touched by terrorism. They brand me a liberal who doesn’t understand that terrorists want the next unattended bag to be filled with WMD. Their position is incredible on its face; in the light of the confirmation of the Karl Rove revelation it would assume the quality of farce, were it not so deadly serious.
And the bottom line is this: in the metaphoric department of the war on terror, Karl Rove not only leaves bags unattended – he does it intentionally.
I don’t know if any of this will stick. They are slippery creatures, these Republicans, and they may ooze right off of this hook. In the meantime, I’m going to crack a beer and enjoy the show.
UPDATED Sharper title thanks to suggestion from Al Rodgers on the reposted thread at dailyKos