Will the Obama Administration Defend Karl Rove?

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Washington Dispatch: The president-elect may soon have to decide whether to back Bush officials who flouted congressional subpoenas.

By Stephanie Mencimer

December 11, 2008

When the new Congress returns to Washington next month, one of the first items of business for Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee may be to subpoena Karl Rove. The move will put the new Obama administration in an unexpectedly dicey situation, as the next attorney general will have to decide whether or not to defend President Bush's longtime political adviser should he tell the committee to bug off.

That’s what Rove did over the summer after the committee asked him to come up to the Hill to answer questions about any role he might have played in pushing the prosecution of Alabama's former Democratic governor Don Siegelman. Critics had charged that the prosecution, which resulted in Siegelman's conviction on bribery charges, had been politically motivated and orchestrated by the White House itself. Rather than answer the committee's questions, Rove left the country. His lawyer argued that President Bush’s exercise of executive privilege gave Rove "absolute immunity" from ever testifying before Congress.

Unpersuaded, the committee voted to hold Rove in contempt of Congress. But so far, Rove has managed to get away with it. The full House dropped the contempt issue, largely because a federal appellate court had blocked the enforcement of subpoenas of two other White House staffers, former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Chief of Staff Josh Bolten. The pair had relied on the same imperial declarations of executive privilege that Rove did. And now, all of those subpoenas, including the one issued to Rove, will expire with the end of this Congress, making the issue moot.

That doesn't mean, however, that Rove and the others are home free. House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) has said that he has every intention of reissuing the subpoenas in the new Congress, but this time, President Bush will not be around to defend his loyal aides..>

http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/12/will-obama-administration-defend-karl-rove.html