As Rove is subpoenaed, White House fights to block contempt suit

[G_j]

http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2008/05/karl-rove-contempt-subpoena.html

In Contempt Case, White House Seeks Cheney Treatment

News: As Karl Rove is subpoenaed, the White House fights to block a contempt suit before a judge who once gave the VP a big break.

By Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium
May 23, 2008


After trying for more than a year to secure Karl Rove's testimony as part of an ongoing investigation into the 2006 firings of nine US attorneys, the House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the former White House political adviser on Thursday, opening another front in its battle over executive power with the Bush administration.

The White House has claimed broad executive privilege over much of the information the committee has sought from Rove and other officials. Last July the administration blocked former White House counsel Harriet Miers and White House chief of staff Josh Bolten from complying with congressional subpoenas for testimony and internal documents. In February, the House voted to hold Miers and Bolten in contempt of Congress. After the Justice Department, acting on orders from the White House, refused to enforce the contempt citations, the judiciary committee has turned to the US District Court for the District of Columbia for redress. Rove, for his part, made his position on testifying clear last August, when he refused to comply with a subpoena from the Senate Judiciary Committee related to the attorney firings. The Senate panel stopped short of pursuing a contempt citation, but the House counterpart has been far less timid in this regard. If Rove refuses Conyers' subpoena, it's quite possible that he may wind up in court along with Miers and Bolten, according to a House Judiciary Committee aide.

The White House, meanwhile, is working to derail the House Judiciary Committee's current case. Earlier this month, Bush administration lawyers filed a motion in the case arguing that the complaint against Miers and Bolten should be dismissed outright. Oral arguments from both sides are still forthcoming, and the first ruling, if there is one, isn't expected until the summer. But the White House may have a friend in the judge presiding over the case, a Bush appointee named John Bates.
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[opihimoimoi]

1. What are they hiding??? They seem so guilty, delaying this

[Doug.Goodall]

2. Typical ploy - delay, delay, delay

After January 20, 2009 nobody will care.

[maryf]

3. I'll care

There's this thing called precedence, if we don't hold their feet to the fire now there'll be no chance for future rogues...

ps: I love my mac!

[joshdawg]

4. Any other citizen of the U.S. would have been thrown in jail.

Why is Rove "above" the law? Ans: he isn't. Throw the bum in jail!

[Botany]

5. Even if the judge is in the tank for the White House .... he/she would have ...

... no legal authority to block a comtempt of Congress charge from the
House Judiciary committee.

Bottom line .... The NSA was doing the spying and the DoJ was the
muscle w/ the U.S. Attorney's being the "button men."

Rove's actions in Alabama were part of an ongoing criminal enterprise and
the White House can not let those actions see the light of day.

[Supersedeas]

6. as Muck Muck Mukasey continues to act like WH Counsel instead of the People's attorney