Firing Back at Karl Rove's Lies

The political fallout from Karl Rove's Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal is escalating.

In the piece, the father of the Rove Republican Racket demands an apology from the New York Times, The Washington Post and Congressman John Conyers, and states his role in the 2006 firing of U.S. Attorneys was "minimal."

Now two leading Democrats mentioned in his op-ed are firing back.

From Dana Beyerle of the Gadsen (Alabama) Times:

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Rove put his spin on his testimony saying neither Siegelman nor Rainsville lawyer Jill Simpson, who publicly stated allegations about Rove's alleged involvement in events surrounding Siegelman's challenge to Gov. Bob Riley's 2006 re-election. Rove said Siegelman and Simpson "refused to cooperate with the Justice Department's review" while (Rove) willingly testified. Simpson said that's a lie. She gave sworn testimony to committee staffers on Sept. 14, 2007. And Siegelman was never called to testify, although he said he would have. "In fact, there's no indication that the Justice Department has considered the prima facie evidence of lying, concealment of evidence and witness intimidation by federal prosecutors," the Huffington Post reported. Siegelman's attorney, Vince Kilborn, in the Birmingham News, said he doesn't believe Rove's denial.

Conyers Spanks Karl Rove

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has responded to Karl Rove's demand for an apology.

Conyers provides readers with a spanking of Rove's insidious comments that his role in the firing of U.S. Attorneys in 2006 was minimal.

From mlive.com (a Michigan News Site):

Karl Rove on Thursday took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal and demanded U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan's 14th district apologize for accusing him of improper behavior in the 2006 firing of eight U.S. Attorneys, recounting a report from last year that Conyers once said "We're closing in on Rove. Someone's got to kick his ass."

Wasting little time and offering no apology, Conyers countered with an afternoon op-ed for the Huffington Post, criticizing Rove for rehashing discredited statements, the Wall Street Journal for publishing them and Rupert Murdoch for allowing the papers' conservative editorial stance to bleed onto the news pages.

Conyers earlier this month directly blamed Karl Rove for the firings, saying "This basic truth can no longer be denied: Karl Rove and his cohorts at the Bush White House were the driving force behind several of these firings, which were done for improper reasons."

But in his editorial, Rove wrote the 2 1/2 year House Judiciary Committee investigation into the firings showed that his role was "minimal and entirely proper."

Not so, according to Conyers.

On Karl Rove: Mr. Rove's self-serving assertions on this subject are simply inconsistent with the documents that the Judiciary Committee recently released and his claims have been discredited by the analysis of the documents and reporting on these matters by credible news outlets across the country. Anyone interested in the truth can read the documents for themselves (here) or the reporting on these matters from papers large -- Washington Post (here) and New York Times (here) -- and small -- Kansas City Star (here). Mr. Rove's points are largely a repeat of his prior discredited statements, and the purpose of this post is not to rehash Mr. Rove's rehash.

Read the entire story here.

An Apology for Rove?

Karl Rove today wrote an op-ed piece for The Wall Street Journal demanding an apology from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers.

Rove writes:

Judging from the evidence released, it uncovered facts that show that my role in the U.S. attorneys issue was minimal and entirely proper. I did not conceive of the idea of removing certain U.S. attorneys, did not select those to be removed, and did not see the lists of U.S. attorneys Justice was considering to replace. I had no idea who was on the final list until Justice sent it to the White House in November 2006. No fair-minded person can review the thousands of pages of documents and testimony and conclude that I drove the process.

If he had asked us for an apology, we would have said: No, you, Mr. Rove, need to apologize!

Taking a closer look at his words, they are not the "whole" truth. Rove may not have conceived the idea but he surely approved of the idea. He may not have selected those to be removed but his staff gladly took suggestions from others. Rove may have not seen the list of replacements but he knew damn sure they were more "loyal" than those being given the boot. As Rove tries to spin the media, we think the independent investigator that is still on the case will conclude otherwise. To us, Karl Rove and the entire Rove Republican Racket turned the U.S. Department of Justice into a political arm of the Republican Party to prosecute Democratic leaders.

Maybe Karl Rove didn't turn on the light switch, but he made sure the electricity was running.

Karl Rove and "Land Swap" Renzi

In February, former U.S. Congressman Rick Renzi of Arizona was indicted for his corrupt land swap deal.

Now with the release of congressional investigative documents, it is evident that the Rove Republican Racket intentionally fired then U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton in 2006 to protect the disgraced Renzi from being probed.

And marching with Karl Rove was the Arizona Republic newspaper.

From the Phoenix New Times:

How did the Arizona Republic manage to screw up its initial coverage so badly? The answer, as it turns out, is Karl Rove. Last week, as part of a probe into the Bush Administration's dismissal of seven U.S. Attorneys, a Senate committee released thousands of pages of new documents. Some of them involved Paul Charlton. Charlton, the then-U.S. Attorney in Phoenix, was one casualty of the administration's forced resignations in December 2006. At the time of Charlton's "resignation," he was
in the midst of investigating a fellow Republican, Congressman Renzi. And though the documents still don't make 100 percent clear what led to Charlton's dismissal, they show for the first time the Bushies' attempt to spin the media in Renzi's defense. Let me explain. More than a month before the 2006 election, New Times broke the story at the center of the charges against Renzi — that Renzi pushed investors to buy land owned by his business partner in exchange for sponsorship of a land swap in Congress. Our report was no bit of conjecture. We nailed down the complete paper trail. Yet the Republic endorsed the guy, with nary a mention of our findings. I never expect other media outlets to credit our work — but I don't expect them to ignore such serious allegations, either. It seemed just plain lazy to not follow up. But within the coming weeks, the paper's passivity turned to outright misinformation. That's where Rove comes in. Go figure. Two weeks before the election, news outlets from the Washington Post to Roll Call relayed our findings along with news that Renzi was under federal investigation. But instead of looking into the facts, the Republic's Dennis Wagner followed with a bizarre story suggesting the whole "investigation" was a Democratic dirty trick.

Read the full article here.

Big Mouth U.S. Attorney

Breaking News from New Jersey... From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON — The top federal prosecutor in New Jersey is facing an internal ethics investigation over public comments that may have helped his ex-boss' campaign for governor, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The probe marks a particularly embarrassing turn for federal authorities charged with weeding out corruption in scandal-scarred New Jersey: An internal affairs investigation has been launched into their handling of a major corruption case just days after they filed charges in the case.The investigation by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility is another potential embarrassment for the department, which already has acknowledged mishandling other high-profile public corruption cases, particularly the botched prosecution of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

Such internal investigations are rarely acknowledged publicly, and the results are usually unknown. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler declined to comment or even confirm the existence of the probe in New Jersey.

At issue are comments [U.S. Attorney Ralph] Marra made at a news conference last month announcing the arrests of 44 people as part of a sweeping federal corruption probe. Of those arrested, 29 were elected or public officials — a high count even in a state with a reputation for official misdeeds.

Asked about the issue of corruption in the state, Marra said: "There are easily reforms that could be made within this state that would make our job easier, or even take some of the load off our job. There are too many people that profit off the system the way it is and so they have no incentive to change it. The few people that want to change it seem to get shouted down. So how long that cycle's going to continue I just don't know."

Justice Department guidelines say a prosecutor "shall refrain from making extrajudicial comments that pose a serious and imminent threat of heightening public condemnation of the accused."

The $46,000 "Loan"

In the heated gubernatorial race in New Jersey, new allegations came out against former U.S. Attorney and Rove Republican Chris Christie.

Christie loaned $46,000 to a former colleague, now a top prosecutor in the Garden State, and is receiving monthly payments from the prosecutor.

We remind you that Paul Minor, the Democratic political operative in Mississippi, did the same thing by loaning money to judges and was sentenced to prison by Christie's friends in the Rove Racket.

From the Star-Ledger:

TRENTON -- Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, has an ongoing financial relationship with one of the top federal prosecutors in his old office, mortgage records show. The document says Christie, while serving as New Jersey's federal lawman, lent Michele Brown $46,000, to be repaid with monthly installments of $499.22 through October 2017. Brown is the first assistant U.S. attorney and had been promoted to two top posts by Christie while he ran the prosecutor's office. The Corzine camp questioned whether it is proper for a candidate for governor to have any financial relationship with someone inside the U.S. Attorney's Office....It comes as Democratic incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine continues to raise questions about Christie's management of the U.S. Attorney's Office and whether the Republican's political ambitions played a role in investigative decision-making.

Republican Senator vs. Rove

Breaking News from Missouri... The fallout of the released transcripts and documents of Karl Rove's behind closed-doors interview with the House Judiciary Committee is now hitting the fan.

Republican Senator Kit Bond of Missouri denies the allegation that he wanted U.S. Attorney Todd Graves replaced.

The Rove Republican Racket is falling apart.

From the Associated Press:

Missouri Sen. Kit Bond says he never sought to replace U.S. Attorney Todd Graves and, in fact, asked the White House to allow him to stay on the job. The Republican senator's comments come after the House Judiciary Committee released Bush administration e-mails earlier this week as part of a probe into the firing of nine prosecutors. A December 2005 e-mail by a White House aide references "Sen. Bond's request regarding a replacement for the U.S. attorney." Bond told The Associated Press on Friday that he made no such request and would have disavowed it had he known that a staff member had done so. Bond says he asked White House political adviser Karl Rove to let Graves stay on, but Rove told him they had their own reasons to replace Graves.