Uppity Wisconsin

Courtesy of Slate.

"Each scandal is represented by a colored circle that encompasses the people who are implicated."

Rep. Conyers and Wexler stand for the people.  Good for them, they deserve all the credit in the world.  They are taking Karl Rove to task for his refusal to testify before congress.  From RawStory:

"We're closing in on Rove," Conyers was heard saying today on the House floor, according to a source for Politico. "Someone's got to kick his ass....."

"If he doesn't show, Conyers said: "We'll do what any self-respecting committee would do. We'd hold him in contempt. Either that or go and have him arrested."

"We want him for so many things, it's hard to keep track," he added."  (following video 8min)

If you happen to be unfamiliar with the Siegelman case, Daily Kos explains:

The House of Representatives issued contempt citations for White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers Friday, eliciting howls from House Republicans intent of protecting Bush corruption.

After months of stonewalling the House Judiciary Committee, the White House refused to testify under oath and produce documents about myriad DoJ and White House scandals, essentially flipping off Congress and the American people, bringing about the contempt citations.

Writes Scott Horton at Harper’s Magazine:

(T)he White House took the position that the scope of examination would be narrowly tailored so as to exclude precisely the subject matter of the inquiry: Did White House staffers interfere with prosecutors for partisan political reasons?

Not a Wisconsin story, but certainly something to warm the heart of all progressives.  According to this morning's Wall St. Journal , Karl Rove is resigning at the end of August.

Karl Rove, President Bush's longtime political adviser, is resigning as White House deputy chief of staff effective Aug. 31, and returning to Texas, marking a turning point for the Bush presidency.

Mr. Rove's departure removes one of the White House's most polarizing figures, and perhaps signals the effective end of the lame duck administration's role in shaping major domestic policy decisions, where the former Texas political consultant was a driving force. Mr. Rove revealed his plans in an interview with Paul Gigot, editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page.

Disgrace.

Sure you have heard by now. If there were any doubt that this administration believes that laws and rules are for other people, and not them, and that this government is theirs' to rule as they please, such doubts must be cast aside.

We can no longer credibly assert that this is our government; this is a cabal accountable to no one; we do not live a democracy under this administration.

This commutation of a liar and an obstructor of justice will go down in the annals of American shame.

The reaction of the American people to this outrage will be revealing of the extent to which America remains a democratic republic as we head into Independence Day.

Statement by the President
The White House Office of the Press Secretary
Monday, July 2, 2007; 5:53 PM

The outlandish conviction and imprisonment of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman this year is drawing widespread condemnation as a political prosecution engineered by Karl Rove.

The New York Times is calling for a judicial and political examination that would free the wrongfully imprisoned Siegelman, just as the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh District freed and exonerated Wisconsin’s Georgia Thompson.

Some highlights from today’s Times editorial:

McClatchy Newspapers’ Margaret Talev and Marisa Taylor break a story on Alberto Gonzales aide Matthew Friedrich.

“Friedrich agreed to find out whether Justice officials knew of ‘rampant’ voter fraud or 'lax' enforcement in parts of New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and report back,” to Karl Rove or Rove’s deputies, the McClatchy piece reads.

“But Friedrich declined to pursue a related matter from Wisconsin, he told congressional investigators, because an inquiry so close to an election could inappropriately sway voting results. Friedrich decided not to pass the matter on to the criminal division for investigation, even though (resigned Gonzales Chief of Staff Kyle) Sampson gave him a 30-page report prepared by (Wisconsin) Republican activists that made claims of voting fraud.”

Madison, Wisconsin—The opinion by the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit that explained the freeing of the innocent state worker Georgia Thompson is being used by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel to provide political cover for US Atty Biskupic. 

The Journal-Sentinel editorial, “Mistakes aren't crimes” (April 24, 2007), seized a slender reed at the end of the 14-page opinion that was also used by Biskupic in his own audacious public relations move after the written opinion was issued April 20.

Reads Biskupic’s statement on the Court’s opinion: “We are studying the decision to determine its impact on other cases. Meanwhile, given the initial rhetoric surrounding the result, we are heartened that the opinion notes the good faith legal difference inherent in the case.”