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April 24, 2007
Luck Running Out?
It probably isn't much fun to be Karl Rove these days. Now 6 months after the midterm election which left his grand strategy to create a permanent Republican majority in tatters, Rove's boss has job approval ratings stuck in the Nixonian mid-thirties, and each week seems to bring a new scandal to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. One important feature of Democrats' newly regained control of Congress is the ability to hold investigations and subpoena witnesses, and they are using it, which can't make life easy inside the White House.
Of course, some investigations began well before the Democrats took back Congress; we all remember the mess surrounding disgraced -- and now convicted -- lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and who could forget special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's work in the Valerie Plame spy outing case, for which Scooter Libby took the fall? Apparently, Rove himself narrowly escaped indictment from Fitzgerald. He appeared three times before the grand jury before Fitzgerald finally declined to charge him last year. It seemed the always careful Rove had once again insulated himself from legal jeopardy, despite heavy suspicion of his involvement in leaking Plame's classified identity to the press.
Don't breathe easy just yet Karl -- it seems you've got more trouble coming. In today's LA Times, Tom Hamburger reports that the White House's Office of Special Counsel is "launching a broad investigation into key elements of the White House political operation that for more than six years have been headed by chief strategist Karl Rove."
Uh-oh. This could be a problem, and isn't even one of those "Democrat witch hunts" that Tom DeLay so loves to complain about; it's coming from within the administration. Office of Special Counsel head (and Bush appointee) Scott J. Bloch pledged not to "leave any stone unturned." Et tu, Scott?
Apparently the investigation will center on "improper political influence over government decision-making". It's about time.
Posted by houtopia at April 24, 2007 08:45 AM