Comments (35)

Bearpaw wrote on March 13, 2007 12:29 PM:

And at whose urging was Griffin put in?
In one of the emails to be released today,
Sampson wrote that getting Griffin
appointed was "important to Harriet,
Karl, etc."

"Etc." Um. Yeah. Definitely important to Etc.

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on March 13, 2007 12:46 PM:

Rove needed a Republican operative in Arkansas in time for next year's presidential campaign. I am sure Griffin would have uncovered a coverup of a Clinton scandal in mid-2008.

JoyceH wrote on March 13, 2007 12:55 PM:

And we're supposed to believe it's just a big ol' coINcidence that they were in such a swivet to get Karl Rove's oppo research guy installed as US Attorney in ARKANSAS before the 2008 race? The place where the Democratic front-runner spent her entire career and adult life?

Still, you have to admire their optimism, if they genuinely believed they were going to find something that Ken Starr hadn't already dug up.

Howard Bannister wrote on March 13, 2007 1:13 PM:

The House and Senate should not hesitate one second to subpoena Rove and Gonzales and have them testify, publicly and under oath, about their role in this matter. Perhaps they knew nothing, maybe they plead the Fifth; regardless, Congress should call them to testify and attempt to get some accountability here.

Anne wrote on March 13, 2007 1:14 PM:

Pigs get fat; hogs get slaughtered.

dalloway wrote on March 13, 2007 1:19 PM:

I've always wondered how the Rethugs thought they could get away with all their crimes. And now we know. Unca Karl told 'em no cases would ever get to trial and he was damn near right. If jury tampering is a crime, how impeachable is subverting the ENTIRE FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT APPARATUS AND JUDICIARY? Hello? Doesn't anybody remember? That's exactly what the Nazis did. Hasn't anybody seen "Judgment at Nuremberg?"

Daniel wrote on March 13, 2007 1:21 PM:

I object to the metaphor. Pigs and hogs alike are far less corrupt than any human being I know.

Peter Principle wrote on March 13, 2007 1:23 PM:

This whole thing has Rove's MO written all over it. It's just another chapter in the continuing saga of Operation Ratfuck. But, as usual, Rove's been pretty good at keeping his fingerprints to a minimum. The problem is that this time his boss got directly involved -- and promptly tripped over his own dick.

vox clamantis in red state wrote on March 13, 2007 1:26 PM:

No sooner does a general get fired, than Gonzoles fires his right hand man, and Libby gets convicted... Scandal follows scandal. Since Kenny-boy Lay and his lieutenants faced the jury, it's like one thing after another..Abu garib, Ohio vote, when will all this ever end? I'm growing old and confused, and I and this country don't need this endless seam of fecklessness under the w.
Out with them all.

vox clamantis in red state wrote on March 13, 2007 1:26 PM:

No sooner does a general get fired, than Gonzoles fires his right hand man, and Libby gets convicted... Scandal follows scandal. Since Kenny-boy Lay and his lieutenants faced the jury, it's like one thing after another..Abu garib, Ohio vote, when will all this ever end? I'm growing old and confused, and I and this country don't need this endless seam of fecklessness under the w.
Out with them all.

quinn wrote on March 13, 2007 1:29 PM:

this whole thing does seem to have Rove's dirty tactics as the background

Couple of things still gnaw in my mind

regarding timing, I wonder if the original plan was to try and have any new USAs in place by the '06 elections, but maybe that plan got sidetracked when Miers went up for SCOTUS?? She was involved in the emails back in '05, late '05 is when she was nominated. And the provision was put in the Patriot Act early '06. Remeber Rove in early '06 was always described as acting like he knew the Republicans couldn't lose.

Anonymous wrote on March 13, 2007 1:31 PM:

Can't go along with the Arkansas angle; Rove knows Starr exhausted all leads (and the people of our state). He and Meiers and whoever probably liked the political makeup of the state and the Little Rock paper, who did report Cummins' removal, is 'publican friendly; the editorial page frightfully so.

kentuck wrote on March 13, 2007 1:32 PM:

Karl Rove was once fired by George H. W. Bush. At that time, he had a small sandbox to play in. However, when "W" stole his way into the White House, Herr Rove had a much larger sandbox to play in. He had more freedom to do his dirty tricks and he had more opportunity to hide it from the American people.

Anonymous wrote on March 13, 2007 1:34 PM:

Odds are good that a Congressional investigation will show that it was Karl and his legal beagles who saw their post-2004 opportunity to remake "Justice". Apart from installing Gonzales, even more reliably pliant and less independent than Ashcroft, they saw the benefit of putting more pliable lawyers in all 93 districts.

Changing horses midstream would involve the Senate and too much publicity. Har, har. So after a little thought and networking, Karl got Harriet to get Specter's top lawyer to put that little provision into the Patriot Act II, specifically deleting the need for the Senate's advice and consent in confirming "interim" USA appointments. The legislation is couched more surreptitiously than that, but that is what it authorizes.

Specter, of course, was "completely surprised" at what his most trusted top aide was doing for the White House, on "must have" legislation, and on a matter important to the committee he chaired.

With that stick in hand, and the carrot of getting judgeships or other federal appointments, Rove orchestrated support for suitably pliant USA's. He became the worm hole for criticism about who needed replacing. Like a political butcher, he took orders for heads. Which made him, as always, the Go To Guy, who would "service" these critics, obligating them to return the favor. Like having to bury the Don's oldest son, get his friends to sing and make jokes at the Don's casino, etc.

Kyle, or someone with a more ironic sense of history, like Karl, proposed the routing of USA's for December 7th. Perhaps he thought Ms. Lam was of Japanese descent.

Had Mr. Sampson been a less efficient bureaucrat, there might be no paper trail to establish this chain. Unfortunately for Turd Blossom and Mr. Bush - who likes to make it known that he takes names and ensures payback - Mr. Sampson seems to have been an inexperienced lawyer (and not qualified to be USA in Nevada), but he was effective in channeling his bosses' goals.

So, Congressional investigators and the press have a good place to start.

mbbsdphil wrote on March 13, 2007 1:40 PM:

Forgot. The first firing did not take place December 7th. That's when the surprise attack against the mass of USA's took place. We all appreciate Mr. Rove's sense of history.

parrot wrote on March 13, 2007 1:48 PM:

Arkansas? Isn't that where Bill and Hillary Clinton lived for several years? Could it be that Griffin was being put in there to bring back Whitewater and all the other dirt that the Republicans were wallowing in about the Clintons for upcoming 2008 election cycle?

Yep, what is the compliment to a tin-foil hat?

jeffgee wrote on March 13, 2007 1:49 PM:

Croak, croak, I hear a frog marching.

Nell wrote on March 13, 2007 2:02 PM:

There's also, assuming the Post story is accurate, Rove's even earlier involvement in recommending against Miers' 'fire all 93' proposal.

That shows he knew about the goals of the program from the beginning -- and anyone who thinks a political proposal on this scale would be carried out without his knowledge (and participation) as it went forward is living in a dreamworld.

Splash wrote on March 13, 2007 2:07 PM:

I posted this at TPM but I think it's important enough to repeat here: Evidence confirming Repubs push false narratives about Dems cheating on elections. One astute commenter over at The Left Coaster says, well, if the admin is so concerned about election fraud, maybe Congress should hold hearings at once - on GOP vote suppression in FL and OH '04 for starters. Anyway, check this out:

Here's an interesting story from last October on the over-hyping by the GOP of voter fraud.

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20061011/1a_lede11.art.htm

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON — At a time when many states are instituting new requirements for voter registration and identification, a preliminary report to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission has found little evidence of the type of polling-place fraud those measures seek to stop.

USA TODAY obtained the report from the commission four months after it was delivered by two consultants hired to write it. The commission has not distributed it publicly.
...
Conservatives dispute the research and conclusions. Thor Hearne, counsel to the American Center for Voting Rights, notes that the Justice Department has sued Missouri for having ineligible voters registered, while dead people have turned up on the registration rolls in Michigan. “It is just wrong to say that this isn't a problem,” he says.

That's one reason the commission decided not to officially release the report. “There was a division of opinion here,” Chairman Paul DeGregorio says. “We've seen places where fraud does occur.”

The consultants found little evidence of that. Barry Weinberg, former deputy chief of the voting section in the Justice Department's civil rights division, reviewed their work. “Fraud at the polling place is generally difficult to pull off,” he says. “It takes a lot of planning and a lot of coordination.”

Look to me like somebody at the White House whose name KARL ROVE I wont mention, didnt like the conclusion described above. Also, this article came out about a month before the last elections.

Hmmn.

pdq wrote on March 13, 2007 2:14 PM:

parrot: "Could it be that Griffin was being put in there to bring back Whitewater and all the other dirt that the Republicans were wallowing in about the Clintons for upcoming 2008 election cycle?

Yep, what is the compliment to a tin-foil hat?"

I don't think that's tin-foil hat territory, parrot. Unfortunately, I think Josh said it well earlier today:

"As has happened so many times in the last six years, the maximal version of this story...turns out to be true."

bakho wrote on March 13, 2007 2:17 PM:

Griffin was the GOP oppo research guy. Rove would want him in AR to dig dirt on likely Dem candidate Hillary Clinton.

GHW Bush did the same thing when Bill Clinton ran in 1992. He had an operative in DOJ in Arkansas make the initial noise about Whitewater, but the FBI did not sign off because they thought it was too close to the 92 election. This pushed Whitewater out until after the election. There was nothing there, but the idea was to damage Clinton with legal charges during the election. Read Conason, Hunting of the President for details.

Bloix wrote on March 13, 2007 2:25 PM:

You don't need a USA to "dig up dirt." US Attorneys put people in prison. They were planning - they are planning - to use criminal prosecutions to derail Clinton's candidacy.

Harriett wrote on March 13, 2007 3:23 PM:

What on earth does this man have to do in order to be fired? Or be made to resign? He narrowly slipped out of the Libby drama, and we all know he has done more illegal acts than anyone on the planet, yet there he sits in the West Wing, lording over all. The fact that he has national security clearance is simply insane. I will forgive the Dems for turning into a puddle of water about attacking Iran if they would force him to resign. Not holding my breath...

Harriett wrote on March 13, 2007 3:24 PM:

What on earth does this man have to do in order to be fired? Or be made to resign? He narrowly slipped out of the Libby drama, and we all know he has done more illegal acts than anyone on the planet, yet there he sits in the West Wing, lording over all. The fact that he has national security clearance is simply insane. I will forgive the Dems for turning into a puddle of water about attacking Iran if they would force him to resign. Not holding my breath...

Batocchio wrote on March 13, 2007 4:26 PM:

Great catch. Keep 'em coming!

bubba wrote on March 13, 2007 6:45 PM:

karl rove,,,,,,THIS SCUM BAG WAS PREACHING ABOUT MAKING THE GOP THE DOMINANT PARTY IN CONTROL FOR YEARS TO COME,,,,,,,,,NOW WE SEE HOW HE WAS WORKING TOWARD THIS,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,THE UNITED STATES HAS BEEN HIJACKED, THE CONSTITUTION SET ON FIRE,,,,,,,,,,,NOW ITS TIME TO GET THIS WHOLE NEST OF CORRUPT STOOGES OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE,,,,,,,ROVE NEEDS TO BE PUT ON A PERMANENT CHAIN GANG

bubba wrote on March 13, 2007 6:45 PM:

karl rove,,,,,,THIS SCUM BAG WAS PREACHING ABOUT MAKING THE GOP THE DOMINANT PARTY IN CONTROL FOR YEARS TO COME,,,,,,,,,NOW WE SEE HOW HE WAS WORKING TOWARD THIS,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,THE UNITED STATES HAS BEEN HIJACKED, THE CONSTITUTION SET ON FIRE,,,,,,,,,,,NOW ITS TIME TO GET THIS WHOLE NEST OF CORRUPT STOOGES OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE,,,,,,,ROVE NEEDS TO BE PUT ON A PERMANENT CHAIN GANG

bubba wrote on March 13, 2007 6:50 PM:

bush administration, WHAT EVER THEY DO, ITS EITHER CORRUPT, INCOMPETENT, UNCONSTITUTIONAL, IMMORAL,,,,,,,,,,PEOPLE, WHEN WILL THIS GOP ADMINISTRATION BE STOPPED????????EVERY DAY WE ARE LESS THAN WE WERE THE DAY BEFORE,,,,,,,,,WE ARE THE MOST HATED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD NOW

faithlessmonk wrote on March 13, 2007 7:17 PM:

We've been eating cake for far too long. BUILD THE BARRICADES, STORM THEIR IVORY TOWERS AND CLIMB THE GALLOWS. They can keep their heads but we get their freedom!

mike davis wrote on March 14, 2007 12:04 AM:

When will the final shoe fall? How many time can this "gang" dodge the laces,and heals of their tired act?How can they sleep? Too many questions no where near enough answers.What a horribly lame act. and that's not another question Peace-out Mike

ViniloSuave wrote on March 14, 2007 1:27 AM:

Karl Rove has achieved what few do. He has given English an allusion that will not fade for a long time: "rovian," meaning excellence in gaining the upperhand underhandedly. A "rover" is one who demonstrates that skill too a breathtaking degree. Dogs named "Rover" will be obliged to change their names to avoid the characterization.

Oh Molly, Molly, you left us too soon, too soon.

M. Stratas wrote on March 14, 2007 5:35 PM:

"the best laid plans of mice..." like Rove and Bush. You all know the drift. The thinking and machinations for a permanent Republican rule are rather brilliant but there is such a thing as karma. Nature or a higher power (as Bush would say) has a way of disclosing secrets. It's the unRoveling that will make the last 2 years of Bush very entertaining. Har har har.

phil wrote on March 15, 2007 9:48 PM:

Read the actual email titled "Karl Rove Question" that has lead to all the controversy.

Obtained in PDF format from source in Washington DC.

Test wrote on May 9, 2007 4:08 AM:

Hello


Bye

epenisa wrote on January 11, 2008 12:53 AM:

Hello
Nice work from your side... have a nice time with yoru blog :)
G'night