Sidney Blumenthal, writing in Salon, comes out and says what is becoming increasingly clear as fact trickle out about the fired prosecutors: “All Roads Lead To Rove.” Some excerpts:
The Bush administration’s first instinct was to shield Karl Rove from scrutiny when Congress began inquiring about the unusual firings of eight U.S. attorneys. …Rove was the conduit for Republican political grievances about the U.S. attorneys. He was the fulcrum and the lever. He was the collector of information and the magnet of power. He was the originator, formulator and director. But, initially, according to the administration, like Gonzales, he supposedly knew nothing and did nothing.
The teeny weenie problem is that new emails (which the White House argues is really no big deal, sounding increasingly like the Nixon White House dismissing the Watergate break in as a third rate burglary) indicate Rove was most assuredly involved in the move to purge the prosecutors a lot more than was originally stated (including by Gonzales in testimony to Congress).
To the extent that the facts are known, Rove keeps surfacing in the middle of the scandal. And it is implausible that Sampson, the latest designated fall guy, was responsible for an elaborate bureaucratic coup d’état. Nor is it credible that Gonzales — or Harriet Miers, who has yet to be heard — saw or heard no evil. Neither is it reasonable that Gonzales or Miers, both once Bush’s personal attorneys in Texas, getting him out of scrapes such as his drunken driving arrest, could be the political geniuses behind the firings. Gonzales’ and Miers’ service is notable for their obedience, lack of originality and eagerness to act as tools. The scheme bears the marks of Rove’s obsessions, methods and sources. His history contains a wealth of precedents in which he manipulated law enforcement for political purposes. And his long-term strategy for permanent Republican control of government depended on remaking the federal government to create his ultimate goal — a one-party state.
Blumenthal writes that Rove fully understood the power of U.S. Attorneys to damage democrats. He ends his piece (which should be read in full) with this:
From the earliest Republican campaigns that Rove ran in Texas, beginning in 1986, the FBI was involved in investigating every one of his candidates’ Democratic opponents….Rising to the White House as Bush’s chief political strategist, Rove well understood the power of U.S. attorneys to damage Democrats and protect Republicans, and he paid close attention to their selection. When U.S. senators, who recommend the U.S. attorneys for their districts, wanted a more independent-minded professional, Rove leaned on them.
…By the election of 2004, Rove became a repository of charges of voter fraud across the country, from Philadelphia to Milwaukee to New Mexico, all in swing states. In the campaign, unproven voter fraud charges, always aimed at minority voters, became a leitmotif of Republican efforts.
What also is getting lost in the news media shuffle is the WAY these prosecutors have been appointed:
The replacement of the eight fired U.S. attorneys through a loophole in the Patriot Act that enables the administration to evade consultation with and confirmation by Congress is a convenient element in the well-laid scheme. But it was not ad hoc, erratic or aberrant. Rather, it was the logical outcome of a long effort to distort the constitutional framework for partisan consolidation of power into a de facto one-party state.
This effort began two generations ago with Richard Nixon’s drive to forge an imperial presidency, using extralegal powers of government to aggrandize unaccountable power in the executive and destroy political opposition. Nixon was thwarted in the Watergate scandal. We will never know his full malevolent intentions, but we do know that in the aftermath of the 1972 election he wanted to remake the executive branch to create what the Bush administration now calls a “unitary executive.” Nixon later explained his core doctrine: “When the president does it, that means it’s not illegal.”
Karl Rove is the rightful heir to Nixonian politics. His first notice in politics occurred as a witness before the Senate Watergate Committee. From Nixon to Bush, Rove is the single continuous character involved in the tactics and strategy of political subterfuge.
He hits the nail on the head.
There is truly a smellinessabout this entire story — of the Justice Department seemingly being turned into a old-fashioned political boss and smoke filled room without the smoke (this is the 21st century, you know). Of a Department that once battled for civil rights being run by people who apparently wanted to change the staffing six years into Bush’s term and boot out foot-dragging Republicans and insert super loyal appointees who’d get with the White House program, come down harder (and faster) on Democrats and perhaps drag their feet on Republicans.
Yet, Rove is the administration’s untouchable. Gonzales could (and increasingly seems will) suddenly decide to spend more time with his family. Rove controls HIS administration family and seemingly does it with gloves so his fingerprints are sparse.
This time he may have left a few.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.