Today was the deadline for a Judiciary Committee subpoena issued to Karl Rove, demanding his appearance before the Committee to testify on his role in the politicization of the Department of Justice and the politically selective prosecutions of Democrats. Unfortunately, Mr. Rove chose not to show up.
The claim that Mr. Rove and the White House make is that high-level aides to the president are totally immune from compelled congressional testimony. Not that there are certain subjects they cannot discuss in a public hearing, nor that the White House has a right to review questions that are asked, but that they are in a class entirely by themselves -- a separate group that is above the reach of a subpoena and, consequently, above the law.
Over the past 18 months, congressional inquiries have uncovered a level of politicization that runs the breadth of the administration and profoundly threatens one of the core elements of our democracy -- equal justice under law. We have seen it in the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys for partisan political purposes, in the hiring practices at the Justice Department, and apparently in the politically selective prosecution of Democrats like Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. Thorough investigation of these abuses of power requires that Congress get answers from the Executive Branch. By ignoring the Judiciary Committee subpoena, Karl Rove and the White House once again showed their utter disregard for our system of checks and balances, for Congress as a co-equal branch of government, and ultimately for the American people.
The question that now confronts the Judiciary Committee and, ultimately, the full House of Representatives, is what action to take in the face of such blatant defiance of the rule of law. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I am considering all options. Regardless of the path we take, the end result must be the same: the full restoration of our Constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no one -- not Karl Rove and not the president -- is above the law.
Loading comments… 
You are the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Didn't Congressma
Under the House rules, since both impeachmen
Our Constituti
While you are asking for the rule of law to be followed with respect to a subpoena issued to Rove, haven't you participat
Doesn't your action as the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee effectivel
We used to have the rule of law. What happened to it?
DO SOMETHING! STAND FOR SOMETHING! (Like how about the rule of law--is that asking too much? If so, please resign and get someone in there with some honor and backbone)
Stop asking us what to do, you know what to do. But since you did ask us what to do, how about put some of your salary back into the coffers.
Why Blog about what you are doing? I do not pay taxes for blogging, I pay taxes for representa
Your time would be better spent filling out the forms to drag him in to custody.
Why have you and the Dems in general allowed this to happen? Bush is the most unpopular president in our history, yet the democratic leadership still seems afraid of him. The Republican brand is down the tubes, but you still seem unwilling to establish your own in opposition to that tainted brand.
You just handed that most unpopular president a major victory with the FISA vote, and you're rolling over on Rove and the rest of the subpoenas. Do you think the American people are stupid? We all know that if we were subpoenaed and didn't show up, we'd be in jail in a New York minute.
Please do your duty to the Constituti
Again, if the American people commit a felony, they go to jail. If they refuse to obey a subpoena, they go to jail. When Bush and Rove and Cheney commit felonies, they skate. Or, leave office and get ginormous book deals, speaker fees, writing gigs and heaven knows what else to enrich them.
Please stop the madness.
Is there some way to overthrow them?
Arrest them for derelictio
Throw them in jail for abrogating their responsibi
Anything?
;-}
Meanwhile, go get them.
Please do not let these bums get away scot free.
Many of us know that the wheels of justice grind exceedingl
And YES before the election so the public understand what a crooked, fasciist leaning administra
NO MORE.
"Impeachme
You are in a system which is corrupt and are stuck in a no win situation. You are just one of the reps and not a true leader. You have my sympathy but not my admiration
He's up against a very well planned strategy put in play by Cheney, Rove and the OLC.
They have deliberate
knowing full well that any counter offense will get dragged out all the way to the supreme court.
And there, they have stacked the deck in their favor.
The members of Congress who ARE doing what they can have run into stone walling at every turn
by those who have benefitted so handsomely from Bush administra
There's a serious power struggle in Washington lead by a few honorable patriots
against the most corrupt administra
If you do this now, he will postpone until Bush can issue a Presidenti
Please, do whatever it is you decide to do, but please do something. Inaction is immasculat
Arrest him.
Please. Do it now.
What specific action have you taken to redress Mr. Rove's failure to appear before Congress?
And please, Sir, don't cite your editorial. It does nothing, and you well know it.
What legal actions you take as a legislator must, ultimately
http://raw
Any more questions?
Well, that is precisely the scenario you and Speaker Pelosi's 110th Congress have presented the history books. "No, we won't go! before Congress," Karl Rove, Harriett Meirs, & Josh Bolton declare... so Speaker Pelosi scurries back to her war-lobby donors, and pretends not to notice.
For Shame!
Speaker Pelosi should SHUT DOWN THE CONGRESS, and DEMAND that Karl Rove answer the simple question, under oath: "Did you have ANYTHING to do with the prosecutio
Recall that Mr. Siegelman was (probably) robbed of his 2002 Alabama reelection as Governor by a midnight vote count in a Republican district behind closed doors, much as Kerry lost Ohio in 2004). t
Recall that 2002-2003 was the height of the Bush's administra
Speaker Pelosi's failure to make this the leadership issue it deserves to be is at best criminally negligent, at worst, criminal complicity in corruption