Urge Congress to Vote Contempt for Karl Rove

I'm writing today to urgently enlist your help in my effort to hold Karl Rove accountable for politicizing the Department of Justice -- including the malicious, politically-motivated prosecution that targeted me and sent me to prison -- because our time may well be running out.

If Congress adjourns at the end of September without holding Karl Rove in contempt, our chances at restoring democracy may very well be kaput. We must pull out all the stops and turn up the heat.

Now that a U.S. District Judge has ruled that White House aides like Rove can't claim immunity in order to refuse testifying before Congress, there's no room for Karl Rove to hide any longer. It is time for Rove to come clean and tell the truth about what he has done, before the House Judiciary Committee, for all America to see.

That's why I'm asking you to email your Member of Congress, right now, and urge the full House to vote to hold Karl Rove in contempt! If you speak out, and Congress votes contempt for Rove, he'll have to speak out too -- and for the first time, under oath!

There is sworn testimony by a Republican lawyer that Karl Rove targeted me when I was Governor of Alabama through a malicious, unfounded, politically-motivated prosecution by the wife of Rove's best friend in Alabama. I was shackled, handcuffed, taken to a maximum security prison, and put into solitary confinement. I served 9 months in federal prison before the appeals court released me. We cannot let Karl Rove refuse to testify before Congress about his role in this nefarious scheme!

Karl Rove has thumbed his nose in the face of Congress, refusing to answer questions about his abuse of power in launching politically motivated prosecutions and politicizing the Department of Justice.

Now a federal judge has stripped Rove of his immunity claim. We don't have any time to lose. With only two more weeks left before Congress adjourns for the year, we need the House to act -- and act swiftly -- to force Karl Rove to show up and testify.

If Rove really has nothing to hide, then he should prove it to Congress and the country. He shouldn't be ducking the Congressional subpoena.

So please join me in speaking out: Forward an email to your Member of Congress right now, before the House adjourns at the end of September -- and demand that they vote to hold Karl Rove in contempt!

Thank you so much for your help.

-- Don Siegelman
Governor of Alabama
1999-2003

Comments

[Clayton139]

When we look back someday at the catastrophe that was the Bush administration, we will think of many things: the tragedy of the Iraq war, the shame of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, the erosion of civil liberties. The damage done to the American economy does not make front-page headlines every day, but the repercussions will be felt beyond the lifetimes !

[Mozart123]

K-K-Karl Rove, Harriet E. Miers and the rest of the co-conspirators should be rewarded for their Contempt of Congress the same courtesy Governor Siegleman received from Bush appointee Judge Mark Everett Fuller - Go Directly to Jail. Judge Fuller's conflicts-of-interest is legendary, as well as his refusal to recuse when in conflict..

[KimberlyKay]

Definitely urge Congress to hold Karl Rove in contempt as well as everyone else who refused to respond to a properly served subpoena from the Bush White House.

One of our most respected Jurists, Justice Louis Brandeis, once said:

"Decency, security, and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen... If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."

Need I say more? Perhaps if these folks paid more attention to history and less attention to eeking out just a little more profit for their cronies we wouldn't now be in yet another great big mess.

[Kitty40]

Karl Rove needs to go to "directly" to jail. Don't even pass go.... I will definitely write my Congressman for you Governor.

All readers and bloggers, please vote now!

http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html

[cactusgal]

I wish I could help, but my Congressman is Rick Renzi (AZ-R), and he may be sharing a cell with Rove before it's over. Well, a girl can dream. can't she?

[bdaved]

We can dream of having two senators who shows up for work someday too.

[RepugsOut08]

Consider it done, Gov. Siegelman. Carl Rove must lay his cards on the table.

[akkadian]

if you care about your vote, please select the absentee ballot option:
or else Karl may have you on the menu:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzKbigGoMoo

[PKSSK]

Done! I hope, for all of us, that justice prevails and the truth will help set us all free from this vile administration. If all the injustice of this administration is kicked under the rug, like watergate and Iran-contra ,than we only have ourselves to blame for not using our voices to scream ENOUGH!!!!

[dayala]

If this can happen to an elected official imagine any of us being maliciously targeted this way and having no power to defend ourselves. Governor Siegelman I watched several of your appearances on the Verdict with Dan Abrams, what Rove did is despicable and illustrates just how low this cretin will go to further his political agendas.

and this do nothing Congress is even more deplorable why are they "adjourning" in two weeks for the rest of the year, good grief don't these people ever work!

I will contact my Representative on your behalf.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Hang in there, Governor.
This wrong will be righted.

Sunlight makes the best disinfectant.
-- Justice Brandeis

[loper2008]

Don, I support you. Thanks for writing this.

[JiminNC]

Hi Don! I proudly voted for you in AL and was outraged at what they did. We were shouted down by the other side and I am so glad that this has resurfaced. I will write again both to Bud Cramer and Mike McIntyre (NC). Sessions and Shelby won't pay attention to anyone that can't buy and sell them.

I urge everyone to write in support of Governor Siegelman. He is a good man and tried to do good things in Alabama until Rove plowed him under. We were robbed of an opportunity to enter the 20th century and robbed of any voice in the matter by cowardly legislators and a complicit local media.

[Kindheart]

I only hope that all these e-mails help get this horrible human being who has helped to ruin this country with his advice.

[foomonkey]

awesome... its' about time someone nailed him to the wall... he is one of the worst examples of politics out there. hell, he's a nasty example of human nature... and the dude cashes in on it daily!

[janvoght]

already signed don's petitions, for the most recent compelling vote to make karl rove accountable, and not one of the "above the law" pseudo-fascist government officials hiding behind 911, terrorism, and a failed neo-con 10 year plan!
OBAMA '08

[naschkatze]

Dear Gov. Siegelman, I have signed your petition. Unfortunately, in my case I don't think it will do much good because I happen to live in the one congressional district in Oregon which still has a Republican representative. But I wish you the best of luck, and I am sure that the other Oregon representatives will receive plenty of petitions and will vote to declare contempt on Rove. BTW, I think your case is just the tip of the iceberg of all the damage Karl Rove has done to our democracy.