Rove “Conduit” in US Attorney Firings

I never thought that Karl Rove was the evil behind George W. Bush’s throne.  (I remain convinced that Dick Cheney was the real evil in the Bush administration.)  I’ve always thought, rather, that Rove was merely an acolyte to the evil that some in the Bush administration manifested.  Yes, Rove is/was ruthless and mendacious and would do anything to get his boss elected and to keep that boss in power, but that pales in comparison to Cheney’s résumé (Why is it, by the way, that so many politicians are named “Dick?”  But I digress).  I may have underestimated Rove’s contributions somewhat, however.

Today we learn, via the Washington Post, that Karl Rove actually had much more to do with the US Attorney firings than originally known.  I’ve suspected as much, but now there seems to be some evidence.  In other words, there has been a hint of smoke for a long time — you just knew that he was involved — but now there seems to be some fire to go along with the smoke.

Political adviser Karl Rove and other high-ranking figures in the Bush White House played a greater role than previously understood in the firing of federal prosecutors almost three years ago, according to e-mails obtained by The Washington Post, in a scandal that led to mass Justice Department resignations and an ongoing criminal probe.

The e-mails and new interviews with key participants reflect contacts among Rove, aides in the Bush political affairs office and White House lawyers about the dismissal of three of the nine U.S. attorneys fired in 2006: New Mexico’s David C. Iglesias, the focus of ire from GOP lawmakers; Missouri’s Todd Graves, who had clashed with one of Rove’s former clients; and Arkansas’s Bud Cummins, who was pushed out to make way for a Rove protege.

The documents and interviews provide new information about efforts by political aides in the Bush White House, for example, to push a former colleague as a favored candidate for one of the U.S. attorney posts. They also reflect the intensity of efforts by lawmakers and party officials in New Mexico to unseat the top prosecutor there. Rove described himself as merely passing along complaints by senators and state party officials to White House lawyers.

The only reason Rove would have been involved is if there were politics involved in the decisions surrounding the US Attorney firings.  The US Attorneys are above politics.  They have to be.  They often prosecute crimes that politicians commit, so political considerations are never supposed to be part of any decision to fire one.

AmericaBlog says that Rove led the initiative to fire David Iglesias, the US Attorney in Arizona, because he wouldn’t prosecute ACORN. 

On ACORN:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s ex-chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, testified last week that “during the run-up to the midterm elections,” the A.G. told him Rove had “complained” that David Iglesias, the U.S. attorney in New Mexico, and two other federal prosecutors, were not doing enough to prosecute voter fraud—a top GOP priority. It was shortly after that, Sampson said, that Iglesias got added to the list of U.S. attorneys to be fired. (Iglesias told NEWSWEEK he had been repeatedly pushed by New Mexico GOP officials to prosecute workers for ACORN, an activist group that was registering voters in minority neighborhoods, but he found no cases worth bringing.)

So it seems that Rove was in the thick of it, despite saying for years that he had nothing to do with it.  I think we’re going to learn a lot more about the inner workings of the Bush administration as time goes on.  And the more we learn, the worse it works.  In any case, the other shoe hasn’t dropped yet in Rove’s and Miers’s involvement in the US Attorney firing scandal.  Is anyone taking bets (if gambling were legal) on whether we’ll see Rove and/or Miers prosecuted?

Cheney Supports Same-Sex Marriage

Dick Cheney’s position is to the left of President Obama’s position on same-sex marriage.  Cheney endorsed same-sex marriage yesterday, although he said it should be on a “state-by-state basis”.

Former vice president Richard B. Cheney waded into another roiling public debate yesterday, saying that he supports legalizing same-sex marriage as long as the issue is decided by the states, rather than the federal government.

Cheney, whose youngest daughter has a longtime lesbian partner, said at the National Press Club that “people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish.”

He added, however, that he does not support a federal role in the matter. “Historically, the way marriage has been regulated is at the state level,” Cheney said. “It has always been a state issue, and I think that is the way it ought to be handled, on a state-by-state basis.”

Cheney has long departed from conservative orthodoxy on the issue of same-sex marriage. He said during the 2000 presidential campaign that the matter should be left to the states, and he caused a small uproar during the 2004 race by appearing to distance himself from a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, a measure that was strongly supported by his boss, President George W. Bush.

Cheney’s position appears also to put him to the left of the current president on the issue. President Obama has said he supports civil unions, rather than marriage, for gay men and lesbians.

I cannot stand Dick Cheney’s positions on nearly every other issue.  But as I heard (or read, I can’t remember exactly) someone say, “Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”  Cheney is correct on same-sex marriage — it should happen and it should happen now.  I differ from him a bit, though; DOMA must be repealed.

President Obama, even though he issued a proclamation (full text at this linked site) yesterday declaring that June is LGBT Pride Month, still has not come out in favor of full marriage rights for same-sex couples.  Also, Obama’s apparent refusal to address DADT is shameful.  As AmericaBlog notes, we are very appreciative of the proclamation.  It’s a first for a sitting president.

However, (also as AmericaBlog notes) a lot of LGBT people worked very hard to get Obama elected.  A lack of an action plan to address DADT and DOMA is very worrying.  A lot of LGBT people are genuinely concerned that we’re the ones being told — tacitly — to wait.  Again.  This, while people like LTC Fehrenbach and LT Choi are being discharged from the service.  This, while married gay couples in Massachusetts and Iowa and California don’t have federal recognition of their marriages and don’t have equal rights. 

We’re tired of waiting.  Stonewall was forty years ago and LGBTs still do not have equal rights.  Right now we have a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress.  The time probably will never be better to get gay rights legislation made into law.  We should not have to wait any longer.  It’s time.