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Buying Obama Time, Congress Delays Rove Subpoena Deadline
Justice delayed?
The House Judiciary committee has agreed to a request from Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, to postpone the deadline by which Rove must respond to a subpoena issued by the committee.
Here's the letter sent by the committee, agreeing to Luskin's request and setting a new date of February 23 for Rove's testimony.
The hold-off serves the interests of the White House. The Obama administration is scheduled to file a brief on February 18 in the ongoing court case over the House's subpoena of two other senior Bush White House aides, Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten. At that time, it will likely indicate whether it intends to back President Bush's claim of retroactive executive privilege on behalf of his aides. So the committee's decision to agree to Luskin's request means the Obama administration has until then to formulate its position.
The ball, then, is still in Obama's court. And court is still exactly where the battle over Rove's testimony is most likely headed.
Josh
Zachary
This is just not encouraging. Getting postponed, stuck in committee, not showing up for the first subpoena, I'm tired of this circus posing as justice.
Will the only change be the ringleaders?
January 30, 2009 6:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
The only change is the ringleaders? Give it a rest.
I'm fine to wait another couple weeks on such an important issue and glad they're handling it carefully to do it right.
January 30, 2009 11:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. TPMGary, I sympathize with your exasperation of poliics, and the spineless Congress. But there are times in politics when even smart reformers take a little more time to do it right. Conyers may not be perfect, but he has been *damn* good. And if we can get a strong, unified White House + Congress position denying retroactive executive privilege (yech!) the country will be much better off. As a Constitutional Law professor, I'm pretty sure Obama will do the right thing.
January 31, 2009 8:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
kozmik,
I think tpmgary is frustrated by so many past subpoenas, strongly worded letters, and bloviating by Democratic committee chairs.
The direction Obama takes here will be monumental.
January 31, 2009 8:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think the last eight years allows one to be pessimistic and frustrated with both Democrats and Republicans.
January 31, 2009 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
tpmgary,
agreed. As a Dem I expect to be disappointed in the Repubs actions, but not the Democratic actions....or inactions.
January 31, 2009 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I will not be satisfied until Rove, Miers, etc. are dragged off to the clink in handcuffs. They are not immune to prosecution for avoiding telling lies if they would have been compelled to testify in response to the legislature's subpoenas. As
Americans of good conscience, we intend to force folks serving in OUR government to do so legally and if they stray from that standard, they need to be called into the legislature to give testimony and if they lie, put them in jail. This idea that administration people are working independent of the law is ridiculous and needs to be stopped whether the party running the government is Republicans full of liars and cheats or Democrats that do it.
January 30, 2009 6:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hear, hear. Yes, yes. Clink, Clink. Lose key, lose key.
January 30, 2009 7:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
HEAR-HEAR!
January 31, 2009 5:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes yes, clink clink!
I want to watch the You-Tube video of Rove and the Rovettes clinking their tin cups on the bars of their cells and whining "But I ordered the shrimp scampi!" as they are handed bread and water...
January 31, 2009 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Conyers continues to show himself as a do-nothing big mouth. He'll do everything within his power (behind the scenes) to cover-up the corrupt and illegal activities from the Rove/Cheney/Bush administration.
January 30, 2009 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
See when people make comments like this I wonder if they are even connected to reality.
January 30, 2009 8:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
or maybe connected to an alternate reality...
January 30, 2009 8:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Ima Misfit" is a troll -- note that it's the first posting, ever. Ignore.
January 31, 2009 8:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, here's the thing, comments like those are guaranteed to double or triple, the unfortunate byproduct of a good thing.
All the freepers who can't stand Obama precidely because he highlights everything wrong with them, why they're dead enders, will be freeping and trolling like never before. Cause it's all they have left isn't it?
Then there's Naderites and such on the left fringe, who now feel entitled to kvetch nothing Obama does is good enough, and what suckers all us Obama supporters are.
:rolleyes: oh well, they're annoying, but harmless.
January 30, 2009 11:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Substantiate. You know, with, like, EVIDENCE, from "behind the scenes" . . . ?
January 30, 2009 8:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Change your name to 'Ima Dick' and you'll pretty much be right.
January 31, 2009 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is the last we will ever hear about this. The Dems have no balls.
January 30, 2009 11:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Conyers is all talk and no action. He has the power, the president and the AG but unfortunately he also has no balls. If you aren’t going to do anything sit down and shut the fuck up and let someone in there who will
January 30, 2009 11:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hate that I'm even mentioning this, but could this have something to do with the fact that Mrs. Conyers is under Federal scrutiny here in Detroit?
"Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, his father, Bernard Kilpatrick, and City Council President Monica Conyers are the major figures cited in a sludge-hauling executive's account of greed and bribery in the Synagro scandal..."
Link
January 31, 2009 1:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
I see it now Rove(TURD BLOSSOM) walks FREE. It is time to strart a new party for this DEMOCRATIC PARTY for which I voted for down the line is just REPUBLICAN light NONE HAVE ANY GUT all big talk. Every time that a REPUBLICAN WHIMPERS there is a DEMOCRAT there to whipe away the TEARS and make all this bad stuff go away. The DEMOCRATIC PARTY and COROPRATE CONTRILED MEDIA do one thing and that is PROTECT THE REPUBLICANS.
January 31, 2009 2:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Kinda like good cop - bad cop, this is bad cop - psychotic sociopath cop. This scum will just recycle itself like Cheney, Rumsfeld et al have done since the Nixon admin. Presdient Obama - you must deal with this!!!!!!!!!
January 31, 2009 4:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Presdient Obama - you must deal with this!!!!!!!!!
That is, as I gather it, the whole point of setting back Rove's date to appear. The problem is that there is this huge gray space in the Constitution that has allowed Bush Corp. to twist and distort it beyond recognition these past 8 years.
The fact that presidential "privilege" is something only invented in the last century and was allowed to stand sets precedent that, according to that old "balance of powers" thing can only be interpreted, one way or the other, in the courts. Bush/Fielding/Cheney/Addington knew this, and is exactly why they did things the way they did.
A former president says it goes this way, the current president must now say no, it goes that way. That frames the legal debate. Congress is barred, by the constitution, from deciding the outcome of the debate and the constitution suggests such a debate must be settled by the courts.
It's not pretty — all that damage done by Bush the Lesser — and it won't provide immediate gratification (that we all want), but the rules of the system must be restored through the rules of the system.
As a former commenter here suggested, after the travesty of the past 8 years, a delay to actually set things to rights is a small price to pay (so long as they get it right — and we see the perp-walk from these anti-constitution, anti-American criminals in the end).
February 1, 2009 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Like constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley has stated, if Obama does not act on lancing this festering boil on our constitution / rule of law, he will be complicit in the crime. As ugly as this is, it must be dealt with and in now way can be swept under the carpet.
January 31, 2009 4:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely.
February 1, 2009 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
As long as Rover and Man/Woman Meirs are seen in front of Congress having questions yelled at them by legislators, thats fine by me. who cares if they take the 5th, as they probably will. just as long as they sit there and listen to what theyve been avoiding. if Conyers or whomever wants to grandstand with these American failures in front of them, go right ahead. say it with passion and make sure the outrage and anger is present, Conyers et al.
January 31, 2009 10:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
C'mon people! You are still whining about the all the strongly-worded letters? Really? REALLY?
Did you not notice how those letters now form an unshakable legal foundation from which to do battle? All cries of partisanship will be brushed off like lint now.
Did you not notice that Bush did not issue any pardons before leaving office?
Can you not see now that these "spineless Dems" you are always whining about know a lot more about how to play the game than you do?
Chill. Conyers subpoenaed Rove less than a month into this administration.
January 31, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why go through so much effort to keep from appearing before the congressional committee unless there is too much that Rove doesn't want exposed?? Even though it may not publicly come out, there is such a thing as Karma and Rove needs to answer for Mike Collin...the man he cultivated and threatened. I hope we 'are' his Karma.
If all that Rove has done were ever to come out...hanging would be too good for him for his treachery runs deep. His involvement in the attorney firings and the prosecution and framing of Siegleman is just scratching the surface. Hopefully the truth will out and lead to others' complicity, but if history is any indication...it will just get gummed to death.
January 31, 2009 6:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
btw...Keep in mind these are all millionaires and multi-millionaires. They believe their world deserves 'special' treatment and for the most part those who want to hold them accountable are also millionaires who are willing to oblige.
If they weren't millionaires...none of this would be at the stage it is now...discovery.
January 31, 2009 6:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Um, in this instance, money has nothing to do with it. If Conyers followed-through and forced the issue tomorrow, it would go before the court without the benefit of an alternative presidential opinion on privilege. There's no constitutional basis for privilege; it was invented last century by FDR or Truman — I don't remember which right now, but will google it up in a few — and the precedent was allowed to stand until its knife blade got a final twist in the guts of the Constitution by Bush the Lesser.
This has to be decided in the courts and the Conyers subpoena was just a little ahead of the proper sequencing to ensure it is decided correctly. Conyers (no doubt, with some legal advice and/or "coaching" from somebody with constitutional cred) is now apparently laying back and lobbing the ball where it belongs: Into the POTUS's hands, who must now offer an alternative opinion on the state of privilege from which the courts can give it better legal definition and shape.
If it doesn't happen this way, it could allow the newly asserted expansion of privilege (that is extends after a president leaves office) to become the new precedent — exactly what Bush Co. is counting on, and exactly what must be prevented from happening at all costs.
February 1, 2009 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd like to call on other commenters to tone down the rabidity. We are all outraged at Rove and Miers, but these fantasies about them clinking tin cups and comments that hanging would be too good for them denigrate the character of what Democrats try to and should aspire to do, are below your reading level, and incongruous with talk of karma, especially.
January 31, 2009 8:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember when the Democrats were in the minority and the Bush administration would just steam roll them in hearings. They were able to put up one man, who was asking credible questions and actually exposing some of the crap they were pulling - Arthur Davis! I remember members turning over their questioning time to Congressman Davis, because he was so effective. Well where is he now, Pelosi? It seems like he and Waxman are the only two members of congress that are capable of holding a hearing.
February 2, 2009 8:33 AM | Reply | Permalink