Ari Shapiro of NPR digs deeper into the developing scandal to fire all 93 U.S. attorneys and makes a startling discovery: the plan originated with Bush’s political adviser Karl Rove.
Shapiro reports:
The Justice Department sent Congress a new batch of documents about the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys. The documents show Justice Department and White House staffers planning the firings and trying to control the subsequent fallout.
Some of the newly released documents are repeats, like the letter in which Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, responds to a suggestion from White House counsel Harriet Miers that all 93 U.S. attorneys be fired.
NPR now has new information about that plan. According to someone who’s had conversations with White House officials, the plan to fire all 93 U.S. attorneys originated with political adviser Karl Rove. It was seen as a way to get political cover for firing the small number of U.S. attorneys the White House actually wanted to get rid of. Documents show the plan was eventually dismissed as impractical.
By eventually dismissing the eight prosecutors, the White House started down a path that has led to a clash with Congress over executive privilege.
From the Left 
Yep and Dana Perino who is taking Tony Snow’s place said that Karl Rove uses his Blackberry to do his business through.
Imprison the mo-fo!
Rove’s special brand of political advising is so dirty, so low-handed, that even Poppy Bush refused to hire him when he ran for president back in 1988.
How Rove has managed to slither in and out of the halls of power for two decades and never get his ass handed to him is a total mystery to me.
Maybe, the attorneys firing fracas will finally do it.
You’ll never get to Rove. Bush without Rove is like a chicken with its head cut off. They will protect him with their lives. If Patrick Leahy can make Rove burn then I will eat my keyboard.
The thing is, the people Bush brought with him from Texas behave as if they think they’re back home, throwing sheriff elections and city council races and when they get caught violating ethics and the law, they’re genuinely surprised.
Somehow, they’re hubris has convinced them that there is no difference between a county race in rural Texas and politics playe dout on the national stage under the scrutiny of the Washington Press Corps.
This administration has gotten away with murder for nearly 7 years but finally, the tide appears to have turned.
I had stopped listening and supporting NPR at the beginning of the Iraq war because they started acting like cheerleaders for the conflict. Time after time, when there was an opportunity to question a statement by this administration (yellow cake for example) they just passed over it and took the neocons at their word. Maybe NPR has started to wake up too?
We should all look at this optimistically in that as much as we can keep the pressure on these assholes so that they are so consumed with ‘housekeeping’ that they fail to coalesce into a significant, effectual political force for evil, and they can be trounced as soon as possible.
I like your blog, Chris. Was perusing the Imus posts… I take it Anu… I mean, Imus… isn’t a buddy of yours? LOL!
(Just kiddin’!)
Later…
I like your blog too, Rocky!
Yeah, Imus has been on my list for years. I’m really glad to see him gone.
Rove is the architype of the neighborhood bully. As long as no one stands up to him he’s free to intimidate people. What Rove needs is to be legally beaten into a bloddy pulp and sent to jail. He’s earned it and I’m sure he will be the Belle of the Ball in a pretty orange prison jumpsuit.
Oops! Karl? Karl? Don’t plan on leaving the country anytime soon. 🙂
Lawyer Says Rove Assumed E-Mail Was Kept
On Friday, a watchdog group called on Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, to reopen his investigation into whether Mr. Rove was involved in leaking the name of a C.I.A. agent.
Mr. Rove had been cleared in the inquiry, but the group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said this week’s revelations about missing e-mail raised questions about whether he might have destroyed or hidden documents.
Rove is the creator and originator of everything corrupt and evil that this administration of misfits have done. If Rove wasn’t tucked under Bush’s armpit he would be brought down.
Larry hit the nail on the head. I think Rove is the administration’s brain and Cheney is its muscle. Together and you get the most evil, corrupt and despotic administration in the history of the United States.
Historians won’t be kind to these two men.
Herr Roverer believes he is a throw-back to the “Machine Politics” politician of the late 19th century. In fact, he’s bragged that he’ll turn back Washington politics to the robber-baron days pre-New Deal and gaurantee GOP dominance for a generation or more!
And he’s gotten away with it for 30 years! (Learned at the knee of Lee Atwater)
That sonovabitch is slipperier than the slime underneath a moss covered rock and his soul, if he has one, is filled with all the things found crawling underneath said rock.
The thing is…
Will Congress stay with this to the end?
I hope so, Mirth. Great minds, Christopher. 😉
Feminazi, the reason why NPR became one of the many cheerleaders for the Bush Regime during the drum up to the Iraq occupation and after it is because THEY FEARED A CUT OFF OF FUNDS TO THEIR PROGRAM! Honestly. That is why they no longer have their great voice. They were blackmailed.