More change I can believe in:
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) subpoenaed former White House senior adviser Karl Rove, a sign that Democrats are not letting go of investigations the Bush administration stonewalled.
The subpoena requires Rove to testify regarding his role in the Bush administration’s politicization of the Justice Department, including the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.
…
Democrats want Rove to appear at a deposition on Monday, Feb. 2. He has claimed that the executive privilege protections from testifying extend to former presidential advisers, but a federal judge has rejected that argument.
“I have said many times that I will carry this investigation forward to its conclusion, whether in Congress or in court, and today’s action is an important step along the way,” said Conyers.
Noting that the change in administration may affect the legal arguments available to Rove in this long-running dispute, Conyers added, “Change has come to Washington, and I hope Karl Rove is ready for it. After two years of stonewalling, it’s time for him to talk.”
I’m still not resting until I see that frogmarch.
Gonzo spoke too soon
Told NPR via Thinkprogress:
I don’t think anyone is going to prosecute me
do you suppose NPR and the media in general can let go of the Bush & cronies?
Gonzo can’t find a job either. I think Gonzo is the “due diligence” for the Bush White House years.
I’m still not resting until I see that frogmarch.
yet another /sternly worded missive from conyers…erm…john…what about harriet miers, and josh bolton? their subpoenas fo back to july 2007.
I wonder what the significance is that the subpoena is for a deposition rather than a Congressional hearing. I wonder what Conyers is attempting here.
Rove will refuse.
That will be that.
What’s Conyers going to do, arrest him? You think Conyers has the balls to play inherent contempt of Congress?
I don’t. The Village will have a pearl-clutching field day and call Obama the most vengeful, partisan, horrible President ever. Obama will then apologize. The GOP will replay it over and over again for four years.
Conyers has no cred left on subpoenas. None. Rove will laugh and nothing will happpen.
Nothing.
100% guarantee.
And you won’t see that frogmarch any time soon.
Count me in that 19%.
Sadly, it’s a pipe dream.
as froggie goes marching home again, hurrah, hurrah… here’s to a good frog march, we need it!
Gillibrand saying supportive things about high speed rail sounds good. We need better mass transit that goes farther.
So, this is subpoena number……which that he will also refuse to honour? And this time the penalty will be……the same as before?
Sadly, it looks very clearly that Rove and all the rest of the criminals will get away free, and end up getting paid big bucks to make stupid speeches.
Sickening.
So true!
For Conyers to have “regained” his “bite” he would have previously had to actually BITE.
All I’ve heard from him is barking!
A “watch dog” he is NOT!
I have to say that I would be overjoyed to see the arrogant smirk wiped off of Mr. Rove’s fat face…
It’s sad to see the low-born assume the mantle of the wealthy rulers that they serve. All of the Bush acolytes seem to think they were born with that same silver spoon in their mouths.
It reminds me of GHW’s burning desire for a Kennedyesque dynasty.
Drop by drop, the Force will wear away the hardest resistance. I applaud Conyers.
I will never understand the basic disconnect people have when it comes to the Bush White House. People in the Bush administration broke the law-like any other criminal act-that requires prosecution; what is there about that that people just aren’t getting? Who cares if they were working for the president? They still broke the law. Frog march em’ out!
The problem is that in the past, Congress has had a Justice Department willing to enforce the law and back up subpoenas.
So Congress – an institution that runs on tradition more than anything else – ran into a stumbling block that it had never encountered before and it stumbled. They might have had the authority to send out someone to drag these guys in bodily, but they didn’t really have a “someone” to send – if Justice doesn’t cooperate they have all of the authority with nothing to back that authority up.
I suspect that Conyers was just waiting for a new Executive to take power who would tell his Justice Department to enforce the damn subpoenas. Which we should eventually have. Of course, this is probably another reason why the Republicans in the Senate are stonewalling on the AG nomination, since once Obama has someone in place in Justice all sorts of things that were being blocked by Presidential fiat can start to move forward. (Until Obama’s people are in there, however, the place is still being run by deputies who were put into place by Bush. So Conyers may not quite have the easy path ahead of him that he thinks just yet.)
conyers and holder are going to get their opportunity soon, rove made it quite clear “he has no intention of obeying conyer’s subpoena“:
more kabuki, want to place any bets on the outcome?