Why Rove Attacks Eric Holder: To Provide Cover for Bush's Pardons
Karl Rove understands better than anyone that George Bush needs as much wiggle room as possible to provide the pardons he and scores of his rogue colleagues expect. President-Elect Obama's assurances that there will not be a witch-hunt do not comfort those whose warts and noses are so large that they can be seen without mirrors.
Enter, Eric Holder. Regrettably, Holder was the official ultimately responsible for vetting President Clinton's last-minute pardons. By his own admission, he did not pay sufficient attention to the details, and Bill Clinton, at the behest of Marc Rich's attorney, Scooter Libby, pardoned Rich, a notorious defrauder who had escaped to Switzerland without going to trial or serving a day in prison. In the wake of the Madoff scandal, a fraud that made Marc Rich's seem like petty larceny, Rove smells blood.
Eric Holder will be confirmed. All Rove wants to do, and will succeed at doing, is to elevate public attention to his confirmation hearings where pliant Republicans will ask the same questions about Marc Rich over-and-over-and-over to shine the spotlight on Clinton's egregious pardon. In addition the Republicans will try to pin Holder down on whether he will prosecute the major rogue actors in the Bush/Cheney regime, but he cannot take that bait.
Together, the cover supplied by Holder and his unwillingness to be pinned down on whom he might investigate, will provide Bush and Cheney the manufactured rationale to pardon Rove and others.
Of course, Bush will pardon them anyhow. Or, as I originally predicted, on January 19th, Bush will pardon Cheney and resign, and let Cheney pardon the rest of them, including Bush himself.
But, to keep Bush et al. from having a forum to cast just their last abuse of power as "Clinton did it too, and even Obama's new Attorney General was involved," the Senate Judiciary Committee should not hold hearings on the Holder nomination until after January 20th. While no one can be formally nominated until then, the relevant Senate Committees can, and probably should, hold confirmation hearings on the others so they can vote on them on January 21st.
Hold Eric Holder's hearings until after the 20th.
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We need to amend the constitution limiting the power of the Presidential Pardon to include the following restrictions:
1) The President may not pardon anyone who worked in or on behalf of the President's administration, including the President.
2) The President may not pardon anyone during the period starting 30 days prior to a Presidential Election and ending on the day after Innauguration day.
That way they, or their party, will have to be accountable for their pardons. No last minute, as you walk out the door, pardons.
Won't it seem odd that Rove makes a big deal of Holder's pardon history, when W gives HIM a blanket pardon in a few weeks? How will Rove spin that on Fox News?
It takes a lot of guts to for someone on the Left to start talking about pardons.
I agree with brodon, I'd rather talk about WH crimes and criminals on trial.
Wait until we get a gander at Bush's pardon list. I don't think Clinton felt the need to pardon anybody in advance of indictment. That seems to be a notion peculiar to GOP administrations.
Repubs like the preemptive thing. Some wear condoms two days before having sex!
Yes, it does. Dubya's daddy did the same thing with a bunch of people who could have implicated him in things like Iran-Contra.
Pardons are the stuff of BOTH parties, though the ante seems to be getting upped every time the White House changes hands.
Holder does give cover for the pending Bush pardons. And Rove's attacks will cause many Democrats to circle the wagons and defend Holder without bothering to learn about him.
If they did learn about him they might see his close association with large US fruit companies who are directly responsible for massive human rights abuses and murder in Colombia and Honduras.
Holder is part of the Washington establishment old boys club. He is not part of the change that was promised. Whether the slimeball Rove likes him or not, Holder is one of the bad guys.
The reason why Rove is attacking Eric Holder is because that's what Republicans do to Democrats.... ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK. They consistently and constantly keep dems on the defensive and this prevents them from getting things done.
Seriously... think about Whitewater. This was a $200,000 land deal gone bad... but for 5 years the Republicans made it seem as if the Clintons had raided Fort Knox until a greater scandal came about (Lewinsky). Then they attacked on both fronts. At the end of 8 years... the American people were so tired of the Dems... enough of them voted for Junior Bush for him ( and the Supreme Court) to declare victory.
Please... stop believing that the Republicans have any other rationale for doing what they do except they see the Democratic way as an antithesis to their own. They want to keep the power and money in the hands of a privileged few... and anyone who doesn't agree w/ that philosophy gets attacked. It's not rocket science.
ITA. The Republicans are actually plutocrats, which mean they believe in rule by the rich. The belief in the free market system is combined with the idea that the cream rises to the top, which then means that if you get rich you must be the best. Yes, BUT if you do too little to control ruthlessness, corruption, and greed then that little dream doesn't pan out. You end up having ruthless greedy corrupt people running everything.
The resistance to regulation and checks and balances is the mistake that leads to the fall of many systems. When the wrong people get all the power and money then the cream can no longer rise to the top, and finally the rich and powerful are just rich and powerful and not necessarily having any virtue or desire to do anything for anyone else whatsoever.
Therefore I find any erosion of the civil liberties and the checks and balances safeguards terrifying. I am amazed at the anti-ACLU spirit of some rightwingers. To me that means they have swallowed the Ayn Rand Koolaid of worshipping the rich and powerful, trusting them beyond all reason and evidence of bad faith. Everyone needs to feel their are limits on their behavior, no matter who they are.
atlas shrugged and we shrug back.
Legal accountability is not the only accountability these guys should worry about. They have been exposed and it's not pretty. They pretended to be Christian using the abortion issue. Many people faithfully stood by them because they believed they were Christian. It's a sad day that many people still don't realize how used and abused they were. They believed they had to endure all the evils because these guys were against abortion. But, come on people, if we really want to stop abortion I believe we can, without mandating people's personal lives and beliefs. Without the abortion issue, what other issues are there for people to dig their heels in so? I think it is that many believe that the democrats are un-Christian. They also remember what the Bible says about how if a nation will turn it's back on God, then he may let that nation fall. I think they are wrong about democrats and people in general. I think Dems just have a common sense approach. I don't believe anyone WANTS abortion to happen, it's so simple to me. If people feel that so many abortions are occuring, then they should invest their money in other routes to prevent them from happening, ie: education, support. I JUST DON'T GET IT. How is war for profit not murder? How is not caring for those who can't help themselves Christian? PLEASE, can we all just work together and get our nation back on track, please.
To me, it seems that Rove is setting the table so that it appears personal, when U.S. Attorney General Holder prosecutes him for the US Dist Att. firings and the Don Siegleman case. Is the press being played like a piano again? We'll see.
Put Fitzgerald on the short list and watch Rove melt away.
The fact that Karl Rove is allowed to continue to be a face of the Republican Party demonstrates that today's Republican is a shameless extremist who would gladly tear down every American tradition and institution if it means a few more points for Republican candidates amongst "the base" in the next election.
How much damage does a party need to do before they stop being labeled "enthusiastic" and start being labeled "insurgent"?
Don't forget, these redneck POS's rebelled once already. They are truly lawless when it suits them... remember all those preachers who said "Screw the Constitution, I'm telling my congregation who to vote for!"?
So true.. the most obvious "head fake".... ever!
The funny thing is,pardoning Marc Rich was probably the one thing conservative republicans agreed with Pres.Clinton about and now they want to bash Holder for it.How quaint!I want to see the republicans who go along with this.Grown men in their 60s and 70s taking orders from the man history will forever condemn as Bush's Brain.
Announce Fitzgerald on the short list of Assistants to Holder.
Hell, or float his name as next in line, if Holder isn't confirmed. That will guarantee a quick confirmation.
Bravo!!! Brilliant idea that should be taken seriously!!!
Rove is supposed to be in jail- how does he continue
to "reck" government, when everybody knows that
he is a criminal awaiting trial.
Agreed.
Cover for what pardons? Are any of Bush's pardons on the same level as Marc Rich (FBI's Most Wanted at the time) or the FALN terrorists?
A Florida Appeals court ruled, deciding in Fox's favor, there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization. The attorneys for Fox, successfully argued the First Amendment gives broadcasters the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on the public airwaves.
Under the First Amendment, commercial speech still receives less protection than political speech. In particular, the state may impose sanctions against false or misleading commercial speech or commercial speech... If news media are producing "news" that equates to commercial speech, they've abandoned their "news/press" status.
A consumer protection response is an appropriate counter measure to help consumers understand a product that may or may not contain truth. Put a label on it!
google "fix news now" to find the ceasespin solution
If there was one mistake made at the Constitutional Convention 1787-1789, it was giving the executive pardoning power. Just as we have no compunction of sending a armed robber up the river for a number of years, there should be no pardon for the white collar criminals. Nor should those white collar criminals (who I believe do more damage to society as a whole than any armed robber) be sent to country club prisons. They should be put incarserated with the common criminal.
Totally agree
i think that they have commingled commercial speech with journalism, so we should take a look at how the constitution treats this. They've leaned forward on their skis enough to be the test case... http://FCCLieSins.org
I'll respectfully disagree with you on this point. The power of Presidential pardon is very useful. John F. Kennedy used it to pardon people who were convicted of crimes under the Narcotics Act of 1956. First time offenders were give harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses. Jimmy Carter pardoned Vietnam draft dodgers.
Now with that being said, since President Clinton, the power to pardon has come under well deserved scrutiny. I believe we can still have this system, but there needs to be some checks and balances built into it.
I agree that the white collar criminals should spend time in jail with the rest of the criminals, this batch of financial criminals (aka Bankers) has affected and infected the entire world. A bank robber who gets maybe a few thousand or even takes off an armored car for a couple million, is going away for at least 10 years; this bunch steals trillions, disrupts the economies of every country in the world and get bailed out by the criminal in chief and his treasury secretary, keep their jobs and salaries and go merrily along their way trailing death and destruction behind them. They should go to jail for the rest of their lives.
All that being said, the power of the President to grant unconditional pardons should remain. In the case of really egregious crimes, perhaps a world court could bring charges. The presidential pardon applies only for domestic charges.
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