Comments (34)

Anonymous wrote on August 14, 2007 10:18 AM:

It's well past time to look at Karl's finances. Was he taking kickbacks during his time at the White House? How could a man with such earning potential be satisfied with $161,000/year when he could have been making millions?

M. Stratas wrote on August 14, 2007 10:45 AM:

Moby Dick was a magnificent creature of nature who did no harm. That cannot be said of Rove who created and fomented divisiveness among the American electorate beyond decency. Rove is a dilettante, he claims tobe a student of history and literature. The consequences of his policies thru Bush do not speak well of a well-read mind.

Matt wrote on August 14, 2007 11:02 AM:

He's no Moby Dick, although he's half right.

BlueInTexas wrote on August 14, 2007 11:10 AM:

Now I know what krill feel like.

okay.. that was a reach. Just wanted to keep the whale thing going.

Mafalda Hopkirk wrote on August 14, 2007 11:12 AM:

Yes, follow the money! (re: @10!8 above)

It's digging like that that will bring him down.

steambomb wrote on August 14, 2007 11:12 AM:

Oh its just too easy. I am not going to go there.

CK wrote on August 14, 2007 11:12 AM:

"Moby Dick?"

I don't think so... perhaps "Jaws" would be a better moniker... (and we know how that ended up!)

code is "salt" as in let's rub some salt into the wound that is Karl Rove.

Hot Rod wrote on August 14, 2007 11:28 AM:

Good riddance! I've always seen Rove as the "architect of disaster" - disastrous Bush administration; disastrous foreign policy; disastrous domestic policy, etc, etc.

moondancer wrote on August 14, 2007 11:39 AM:

"Moby Dick"?

He flatters himself, more like octopus hands in everything, spineless predator.

Samsara wrote on August 14, 2007 11:54 AM:

Ahab was obsessed; he had no goal but revenge. Fortunately, Democrats have lots of useful work to do cleaning up the mess that Republican incompetence has left behind. The investigations should continue to their end, but there are more important things to focus on now. The fact is that Rove failed because of his own misdeeds. Let’s not follow his example.

Goodbye Karl,
Enjoy your retirement / incarceration

Julie Keller wrote on August 14, 2007 11:59 AM:

I really think Rove is doing here what he's done for Bush for the last couple of decades: taking lemons, making lemonade, and marketing it as honey.

I think he's being ridden out of town on a rail.

By the GOP/RNC.

Trent Lott doesn't bother concealing his contempt for the man anymore and I doubt he is alone among the GOP. His fingerprints are all over attorney-gate and the Hatch Act violations--thus violating two cardinal rules among gangsters: don't call attention to yourself and don't get caught.

And, his evil doppelganger, Tom DeLay, has been neutralized, diminishing Rove's and the GOP's perceived invincibility.

The Democrats are raising 2-3 times as much money as the Reepers, for Chrissakes. They're all nervous. Even Rove has publicly conceded the Democrats are poised to sweep in '08.

He works for a lame duck, and he's looted and plundered all he can on behalf of his and Bush's constituencies. Now is as good a time as any to get out of town.

Will he and Bush ever face justice, either in a courtroom or by those who will write history? No. Will Rove and Bush be the focus of the wrath of the GOP faithful on Wednesday, November 5, 2008? Yes. Will it matter to them? No. Will it matter at all? Probably not.

Just as Joe McCarthy rose to great heights from nothing, more Roves and more DeLays will continue to appear on the national scene as long as there is a need by a specific segment of the monied elite in this country to appeal to the venality and jingoistic tendenciesin what is actually a minority of the American public in order to gain power.

Because neither constituency -- not the Wall Street crowd nor the God-Guns-and-Gays-my-country-right-or-wrong, might-is-right crowd -- is large enough by itself to command an electoral plurality.

Rove's done a good job. He gets to retire early. He's delivered a really good run for his patron, thus ensuring lifetime protection by the Bush Crime Family.

BC wrote on August 14, 2007 12:35 PM:

More like the Democrats' Hannibal Lechter.

Anonymous wrote on August 14, 2007 12:40 PM:

Much more to be written and learned. The RNC emails will tell the tail and be the soft underbelly of the beast...A far better metaphor.

Anyway may we hope that the Dem's continue to develop more back bone and enforce the rules.

Subpeona Rove and and see if he shows.

parrot wrote on August 14, 2007 12:59 PM:

Let's hope that power continues to slip away from the thugs in the White House.

Molly Ivans wrote on August 14, 2007 1:14 PM:

Raise Hell !!!

Marcus Aurelius wrote on August 14, 2007 1:20 PM:

When the harpoon hits this whale, all that'll come out is stinky, hot air.

johnyblue wrote on August 14, 2007 1:46 PM:

Moby Dick is high school reading...It appears that he can't have read Kant (ha ha),Plato, Sorates, Descarte or Wittgenstein and on. My guess at least he might have been spellbound by at least the concepts of Leibniz, Nietzshce and Machiavelli but on a lesser plane perhaps read avidly Atlas Shrugged and probably the rest of the silly comic book Rand novels of greed good, sharing the wealth evil, probably 1984, Brave Mew Word, and Hitlers Delusions and somee other books with lots of z's and a swastika on the cover. well read? ha! I laugh at this funny joke

pakaal wrote on August 14, 2007 1:50 PM:

Big, white, bloated animal named "Dick". Yeah, sounds about right. The question is whether or not he's being moved out to throw everyone off Cheney's trail. Or maybe it's a sign that Bush and Cheney are now suffering from 'irreconcileable differences' and even Rove has given up being the go-between. Something going on here, still not sure exactly what. One way or the other, Rove's not retiring, of that I'm sure.

mo2 wrote on August 14, 2007 1:50 PM:

This link discusses former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and the Rove connection.

Rove Done in by 'Bama Case (Updated)
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/13/16720/9334

drdave wrote on August 14, 2007 2:23 PM:

Rove mistakenly believes there are three or four Ahabs after him.

There are 60 million American Ahabs after him. And we all vote.

pajarito wrote on August 14, 2007 2:39 PM:

Allow me to point out that krill are invertebrates; lacking a backbone!!!

Mythical whale analogy lives!

OxyCon wrote on August 14, 2007 3:35 PM:

Rove cut and ran before the mission was accomplished, which btw makes him a defeatist.

kilo wrote on August 14, 2007 3:39 PM:

Rove isn't half the genius he thinks he is. It's not hard to get away with shit when you have nothing but yes-men working for you in the White House.

jak1 wrote on August 14, 2007 3:52 PM:

I wonder just what Dan Rather has uncoverd, in his new piece on the flawed touch screen voting machines?

And Rove got himself a lawyer?? I think I read somewhere.

code word=fear

Billy Pilgrim wrote on August 14, 2007 4:44 PM:

Turd Blossom is no longer in blossom. He's just a turd.

pajarito wrote on August 14, 2007 5:01 PM:

Apt title for this topic, perhaps.

Maybe Carl Rove is just trying to avoid that upcoming Texas dove hunting trip with Dick Cheney.

"Pull!"

mo2 wrote on August 14, 2007 5:30 PM:

Firedoglake's Christy Hardin Smith wrote "I do hear a rumor through the legal grapevine that Susan Ralston may be learning how to sing."

Toxic Failue
http://www.firedoglake.com/page/2/

mo2 wrote on August 14, 2007 7:17 PM:

rawstory says that Bill Kristol was on a FOX show and said that Rove's resignation came as a surprise to many in DC, which implies that there has been a new development in one of the many scandals.

**********
I'm stunned you didn't know," host Shepard Smith told Kristol. "That tells me there's something else going on here. Is that fair?"

"Could be. Could be," Kristol answered, telling Smith that "they were interviewing people for jobs, Karl was, jobs on his staff, as recently as two or three weeks ago. So either he was keeping his cards awfully close to his chest, or he made this decision pretty recently."

Anonymous wrote on August 14, 2007 7:46 PM:

These gentleman will go down one by one. Rove is not the biggest fish. Things from anothers past will soon be brought to light and the retribution will be silent but swift. Deals are being made as we speak. As I told you all a mere days ago, Rove is finished. Next it will be Cheney. Mark this post. It is not a prediction, it is a garantee. Cheney will not serve out his term.

Richard L. Adlof wrote on August 14, 2007 9:09 PM:

While there is no sane human alive that would not immediately recognize the Rove(r), the human-porcine hybrid, as being a 'dick' . . . AND he is most certainly pasty and white . . . It is rumored that the reason for his ill behavior towards his fellow humans is founded firmly as arising from his high school nickname, "The Angry Inch."

Mr.Murder wrote on August 14, 2007 9:40 PM:

The first place a USA firing created waves, Arkansas' first district, a Mail Fraud/direct mailing operation just got popped...

Mr.Murder wrote on August 14, 2007 9:43 PM:

The first place a USA firing created waves, Arkansas' first district, a Mail Fraud/direct mailing operation just got popped...

bob h wrote on August 15, 2007 8:05 AM:

Rove will have to lawyer up for all this; the legals bills will be crushing. That better be some book he is planning to write.

Anonymous wrote on August 29, 2007 4:40 PM:

Brad Berenson, former Bush White House counsel, is Ralston's defense counsel. Before the House Oversight Committee he openly asserted Ralston could not talk about things related to the RNC e-mails. Yet, Clements contradicted this assertion and openly discussed the very things Berenson said Ralston could not discuss.

Mary Walker of DoD has been linked with online discussions and presentations to circumvent Geneva. Berenson has admitted he did review briefings. It appears the Microsoft Outlook system connected with (Rove_E) EOP was used to share files not using E-mails. The IP numbers of counsel accessing this system are not within EOP control but connected to commercial contractors.

Rove's e-mail archive links to EOP with Microsoft Outlook. It appears the RNC e-mails were used to coordinate an outside file transfer system.

Berenson-Ralston Apparenty Agreed To Signaling System

Is it a violation of the DC Bar Rules, Standards of Conduct for an attorney

A. to coach a witness before and during a disposition;

B. during a deposition pretend that a response was to assist the tribunal, but the intent of the counsel communication to the tribunal was to do the opposite and adjust a client's recollection during a deposition;

Would this attorney conduct amount to obstruction of justice?

It appears as though Berenson coached Ralston how to respond to Berenson's reactions/comments.

Question: Karl Rove didn't discuss this claim with you?
Ralston, response: No.
Mr. Berenson (Ralston Counsel). Do you want to clarify that last answer?
Ralston. I don't recall. I don't have a recollection of anyone discussing with me specifically that claim.

She's essentially repeated the qualifying terms of the question, but broadened the response from just Rove to "anyone" but repeated the questions words: "this/that claim". All she had to do was answer, "No." This indicates that she's well aware of the words being used; shows ample evidence that shes able to track the precise language in the questions.

Allegations

1. There is evidence identifying Microsoft Outlook as one of the software products which Karl Rove used. Karl Rove is widely reported, and it was disclosed on the DOJ Staff e-mails to the Congressional Senate and House Judicial Committees in the "data dump", that he had an F drive. The nomenclature and spacing for his published/inadvertently disclosed e-mail archive is in the format matching Microsoft Outlook.

2. Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer and Firefox have RSS-intercept capability

3. Using methods which the NSA cannot intercept, we can confirm that Sidley Austin, and personnel associated with Bradford Berenson, formerly of the White House counsel's office and Ralston's defense counsel, use RSS intercept systems to track online communications. Testing of the Sidley Austin interception capabilities confirms that personnel assigned to Sidley Austin are using software products to timely capture within hours published material matching issues, personnel, names, and key areas of interest to Sidley Austin.

Rove's C Drive format is consistent with Microsoft Outlook, compatible with Sharepoint. Based on information and belief, the White House EOP and outside counsel have collaboratively worked on various intelligence briefings, work products, and other "non discussions". Mary Walker of the Department of Justice General Counsel's office has been widely reported in the open media has been one of the chief architects of the policies to circumvent Geneva. We judge the speed, efficiency that these rendition-interrogation briefings supports the conclusion that online collaboration, not using e-mail, was used coordinate the communication, briefing updates, and process information from the interrogations.

10. Bradford Berenson of Sidley Austin, self-disclosed on a PBS Frontline interview that he did not personally attend briefings, but was aware of intelligence gathering operations. We judge his statements could be linked with data sharing protocols and software such as SharePoint; and the means by which Berenson and other WH counsel were informed of the progress of the intelligence gathering was through online file sharing systems similar to SharePoint; or some system of sharing files that did not rely on e-mails to send and receive data.

Note closely what Berenson keeps focusing on in the deposition -- e-mails -- and contrast that with the denial Ralston officers: Leaving open that non-e-mails were used to share information. As with Goodling, it appears Counsel is creating a red herring for Congress. If this theory is true, then we need to reconsider, in light of Ralston's half-incomplete-denial, what Berenson might be attempting to do with his objections. We judge Berenson is not a disinterested counsel acting only to assert his clients' interests, but has a personal interest in seeing that the alleged non-email communication is suppressed, not raised; and that he has a motivation to distract attention from Ralston's apparent knowledge of Rove's Outlook software products that integrate with SharePoint; Berenson would have been in a position to get access to this SharePoint information.

How does Berenson explain his knowledge of the Ralston e-mails. Was Berenson still on the WH F Drive access list with Karl Rove; and is this Sidley Austin access part of a contract which has been fully disclosed on the required A-76 contract?

The evidence is overwhelming, Ralston's incomplete denials leaving open the possibly that there were "non discussions" using SharePoint; Rove's C drive format showing that the EOP was using Outlook; the Sidley Austin-EOP common websites connected to their respective IP numbers; and the speed with which information is transmitted related to intelligence issues indicates there is non-email communication occurring. Berenson has previously disclosed his awareness of this information related to rendition and intelligence; and the information substantially matches the lines of evidence which Mary Walker of DoD General Counsel coordinated.

The existence, use, and access logs related to SharePoint and any other online file sharing, newsgroup, or file transfer system is material information for the OSC, Grand Jury, and war crimes prosecutors. Ralston's incomplete denial is arguably grounds to review all electronic means which could be used to engage in a "non discussion" as it relates to allegations of war crimes, bribery, and other issues with the Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently involved. FBI leadership needs to explain why it has, in the past, rebuffed information related to voluntary cooperation from informants; and share what they know about non-email systems used within EOP, OVP, and GOP to coordinate "non discussions" related to prisoner abuse, FISA violations, and other Geneva Violations. The FBI's track record on NSLs does not put the Bureau in a favorable light, and raises reasonable questions about the competency of the FBI leadership, compelling a review of the complaints against the FBI leadership going back to 2001; which information did they rebuff; which concerns about illegal activity did they inappropriately decline; and which specific legal counsel provided any assurances to SACs and ASACs to rebuff information from confidential informants related to alleged illegal activity. it is arrogant for the FBI to pretend that its doing a "great" job when it was instrumental in rebuffing the very information Congress seeks, and the OVP-EOP and outside counsel appear to have hidden in the online collaboration tools. The OSC and Grand Jury need information about when these online tools were created; who knew about them; and when Rove and Ralston were aware that "non discussions" could occur without using e-mail using these systems. This is not impressive, especially given the clearly promulgated DC Standards of Conduct and the Hatch requirements.