Karl Rove needs to be told he's mortal like the rest of us.

And that the American public wants to ask him a few questions.

Tell Attorney General Holder: Karl Rove must testify.

On February 23, Karl Rove was supposed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in accordance with a Congressional subpoena. But Rove didn't show up. Again.

Rove didn't show up last year when he was ordered to testify, because his old friend President Bush said that Rove's testimony was protected by executive privilege. Now that Bush is no longer in office, we may finally have an opportunity to learn the truth about his alleged misdeeds, from authorizing voter suppression tactics to orchestrating the arrest of Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.

But even though we have a new president, Karl Rove is still acting like he's entitled to all the privileges that came with his old job. So far, the Obama administration has let him get away with it.

The Obama administration has the power to clarify that Rove no longer has access to the "executive privilege" line of defense - since the executive in question is no longer in office. If that happened, a judge would have a lot more power to compel Rove to comply with the subpoena, and we might finally begin to learn the truth about his activities.

Sign this petition today to tell Attorney General Eric Holder take swift action to compel Karl Rove to comply with Congressional subpoenas. The American people deserve better than smoke and mirrors - we deserve the truth.

Sign the petition.

Brave Sir Karl ran away

To avoid this?:

This morning, Karl Rove refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee to testify about the politicization of the Justice Department, despite a subpoena. During the hearing, Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) revealed that Rove had not only skipped out of the hearing, but had skipped out of the entire country.

Actually he's back again. But I think we need to encourage him to visit France: (Under international law, authorities in France are obliged to open an investigation when a complaint is made while the alleged torturer is on French soil.)



Send Karl Rove to jail! Even if it's just for the smug look on his face at the end of this interview.

Contempt charges passed in the House

Reading the final line of the quote, I get the mental picture of the Bush cabal hunkered down in the White House yelling out the window, "Yer never gonna git me, sheriff! I owns the judge!" (my bold):

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House Judiciary Committee voted contempt of Congress citations Wednesday against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and President Bush's former legal counselor, Harriet Miers.

The 22-17 party-line vote - which would sanction for pair for failure to comply with subpoenas on the firings of several federal prosecutors - advanced the citation to the full House.

A senior Democratic official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the House itself likely would take up the citations after Congress' August recess. The official declined to speak on the record because no date had been set for the House vote.

Committee Chairman John Conyers said the panel had nothing to lose by advancing the citations because it could not allow presidential aides to flout Congress' authority. Republicans warned that a contempt citation would lose in federal court even if it got that far.

Helping us realize what is at stake

John Dean discusses the showdown with Harriet Miers:

By not responding to the subpoena, the President and Ms. Miers all but invited the House Judiciary Committee and, in turn, the House of Representatives to vote to deem her in contempt of Congress. It was a defiant, in-your-face insult to Congress. No president would do this unless he was quite confident of the outcome. Clearly, Bush's White House and Justice Department lawyers believe that the solidly conservative federal judiciary will grant them a favorable ruling, and that, in the process, they will greatly weaken congressional oversight powers, to the advantage of the White House.

In short, the Bush White House is not bluffing with this act of defiance. Rather, the White House truly wants to test, and attempt to expand, presidential power. Bush's White House is ready, willing, and able to play hardball. Indeed, the White House may actually be trying to bait the House Judiciary Committee and the House of Representatives into voting to deem Ms. Miers in contempt of congress.
[snip]
As a result of Miers's "no show," the full House Judiciary Committee will no doubt support the subcommittee, and vote to deem Miers in contempt. One can only hope - but probably this hope is in vain -- that Republicans may realize this is not a partisan issue, but an institutional matter, and thus will either abstain or vote to support the dignity of the committee on which they serve. Republicans should remember that they will one day be back in control, and may then be confronted by a Democratic president defying their subpoenas - and relying on this very precedent to do so. Realistically, however, there is zero chance that Republicans will place their constitutional interest ahead of their partisan interests.

The House Judiciary Committee itself cannot hold Miers in contempt; rather, the Committee can only report its request that this be done to the full House, which must then vote to deem her in contempt. Before the full House turns to this question, however, its members should not only carefully consider what they are doing, but also consider what they are not doing. At this stage, it is unclear how far this conflict will progress. The White House appears to have given this matter much more thought than Congressional leaders have thus far.

Long ago, Congress should have oiled up its most powerful tool to require Executive cooperation. No one who follows these matters is surprised that Bush is again pushing the envelope of presidential powers. But it continues to mystify me why Congress does not get its act together, and remind the White House that they are constitutional co-equals.

Update 7/17: Steve Bates of The Yellow Doggerel Democrat catches another viewpoint which is less scary:

The always essential Crooks and Liars supplies video of Keith Olbermann's interview with constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley, who sees matters quite differently: reminding us that Congress has the power to try individuals for contempt directly, bringing them before Congress rather than the courts, Turley sees the Bush administration's approach as extremely foolish. Maybe no one told Gonzo or John Yoo or even Dick Cheney about that congressional power?

This should be interesting

We get to hear from good ol' Mash Notes Harriet Miers again:

WASHINGTON -- Two former senior White House officials were subpoenaed by congressional committees today in an escalation of the investigation into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

The House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena to former White House Counsel Harriet E. Miers, and the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Sara Taylor, who formerly was the White House political affairs director. The subpoena to Taylor directs her to appear for questioning July 11; Miers' testimony is being sought on July 12.

Just think of the fun we're missing because she didn't get to be on the Supreme Court...