( – promoted by buhdydharma )
From RawStory Tuesday morning…
Obama, not Bush, now seeking delay of Rove deposition
John Byrne, Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Former Bush Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove has a new president urging Congress not to force him to testify next week.
President Barack Obama.
In a court brief quietly filed Monday, Michael Hertz, Obama’s acting assistant attorney general, said it was necessary to delay an effort to force Rove to be deposed in a congressional investigation into the firing of nine US Attorneys and the alleged political prosecution of a former Alabama governor.
Hertz said an effort was underway to find a “compromise” for Rove, and requested two weeks to broker a deal before proceeding in court.
“The inauguration of a new president has altered the dynamics of this case and created new opportunities for compromise rather than litigation,” Hertz wrote in the brief released late Monday by McClatchy’s Washington, D.C. bureau. “At the same time, there is now an additional interested party – the former president – whose views should be considered.”
The House Judiciary Committee sued the Bush Administration to force Rove to testify last year, saying that Rove shouldn’t be covered by executive privilege. They won. But their case has been held up by an appeal, and Hertz’s filing was the Obama administration’s first legal weighing-in on the matter. Obama’s Justice Department has supplanted the role of Bush’s Justice Department in the case, and their position will likely inform the terms under which Rove is questioned by Congress.
Hertz’s statement mirrors a statement from Obama White House Counsel Gregory Craig published Saturday.
“The president is very sympathetic to those who want to find out what happened,” Craig told The Washington Post. “But he is also mindful as president of the United States not to do anything that would undermine or weaken the institution of the presidency.
*emphasis added
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One of the points my oldest brother, a person who called Ronald Reagan a commie (while he was in the White House) used to make before the Soviet empire fell was that no Stalinist (he said Communist, there is a difference) state had ever fallen. His reasoning was that governments don’t give up power once they’ve had it handed over to them. You can guess why I bring this up.
“The inauguration of a new president has altered the dynamics of this case and created new opportunities for compromise rather than litigation.”
WTF?
Is Rove God? Is that it?
There isn’t anything to compromise about, haul his ass into a hearing room and put him under oath.
man to prison would “weaken the Presidency”? Seeking justice for a wronged innocent party would “undermine the institution of the Presidency?” Since when did the Presidency become an instution that needed to be protected from the Constitution, and from justice under the law?
If you’d like to remind the new President that by protecting a criminal like Rove– He, the new President is the one that is weakening the instution of the Presidency and that he’s sending the message to the American people that he believes the President and his staff are above the law.
and you just want to rip his jowls right off.
Executives” powers are returned to the Congress….let’s wait for the “signing statements” to begin!
It’s not that Rove considers himself above the law that much (or, maybe, he does), but I think he’s been thumbing his nose to these subpoenas for so long now, because, if he testifies, he would NOT hesitate to name every Democrat involved in his knowledge, and whether even true or not. I think Nancy Pelosi is certainly one of those he would lay out to the world (personally, I would not be that sorry — beside the point, though). This may well be the “stumper” to calling him to “respond” as all American citizens are required to do, to his subpoenas. He has the upper hand in a sense. So, where does that leave us?
Again, as I see it, it is up to us — every single bit of it — if we want Rove to face the courts, we have to insist on it — if we want the DoJ to release pertinent documents in the Mohamed v. Jepperson case, then we are going to have to demand it. If we are going to get a Special Prosecutor, then we are going to have to demand it, not by just signatures alone.
And, so, again, it is up to us and how much we insist and demand that the “correct” policies are carried out — meaning our insistance and refusal to give up will “push” them to do the right thing. But it means WORK!
… sad
Most of my fellow Obmaniacs think that I’m the crazy one ..
Who’s got their head buried in the sand ?
…It appears, Gridley, “Resistance is Futile.”
Can not get my African Grey to say “Illuminati”