(Graphic by twolf)
There’s a few things really funny (as in smells funny, not funny ha ha) about Rove and Luskin’s identical attacks on Obama’s decision to comply with Fitz’s request that he not reveal the contacts between his transition team and Blago until next Monday.
Here’s Rove:
Rove: And it’s not gonna be a couple of days, last Thursday he said they’d, quote, do it in a few days, now we’re being told it’ll be next week.
Colmes: That’s because of the prosecutor, Karl, the prosecutor has asked Obama to wait a week.
Rove: Again, first of all, the prosecutor can ask; the President-elect ought to decide what is in his best interest, and saying clearly and candidly to the American people like he should have said ten days ago, "Of course we’re going to be talking to him about who my replacement should be, but if any suggestion was made of a quid pro quo, my people would have said no right from the get-go." I just don’t buy this that the Obama transition operation is resisting giving out this information only because they’re being held back by the prosecutor’s office.
And here’s Luskin.
Robert Luskin, a Washington white-collar defense lawyer who knows Mr. Fitzgerald well, said he doesn’t doubt the prosecutor would have asked that Obama officials keep quiet until his investigation is further along. That is to prevent witnesses from tailoring their stories to what they learn others are saying. But, he said, Mr. Obama and his aides don’t have to comply. They are using the prosecutor as a "fig leaf" to avoid answering questions just now, Mr. Luskin said. They could just as easily have decided that assuring the public about their actions is more important than acceding to the prosecutor’s request.
The Investigations that Weren’t
One really minor gripe is this. The Obama team has–apparently–done an investigation and turned the results over to Fitz. Not a radical thought, I know. But consider:
Remember the Abramoff scandal–the one that should have shown Abramoff sending emails via Susan Ralston’s secret email to Karl Rove? The White House claimed to do an investigation into Abramoff’s ties to the White House. Only, they somehow missed the large number of visits (not to mention close contacts) Abramoff had with Rove and his buddies.
And how about the Plame outing? Contrary to laws about disclosure of classified information that specifically require an investigation, the Administration failed to investigate who in the White House had outed Valerie Plame?
Two big scandals, both involving Karl Rove, and yet Karl Rove thinks he’s entitled to complain about those who actually do an investigation?
Gold Bars and Turdblossom Reveal The Nakedness Behind Their Rotting Fig Leaf
And then there’s this: Karl Rove and his defense attorney, insisting, in no uncertain terms, that a prosecutor can’t ask someone to remain quiet about an ongoing investigation.
Let’s see. Blago was arrested on Tuesday, just one week ago. Yet Karl and his defense attorney are up in arms that Obama hasn’t yet come clean about Rahm’s conversations with Blago.
That’s coming from a pair that refused to talk about outing Plame for three months before an investigation started, a further two and half years until Fitz informed Luskin Rove would not be charged, and another two and a half years since!!!! And Rove’s impatient with the week’s delay?
But now that you mention it, Rove still hasn’t talked about his role in outing Valerie Plame. If a prosecutor can’t legally require you to shut up–this very same prosecutor no less!!!–then I suppose Karl and Bob are ready to tell all about Karl’s role in outing a CIA spy?
C’mon Karl, we’ve got a week before Fitzmas, you can ‘fess up while we’re waiting.
Rove’s On-Going Silence About Chicago
Finally, remember that Rove is not even an innocent bystander in this matter. In fact, in the course of the Tony Rezko trial, two witnesses testified that Rezko and a buddy had been working with Rove to get Fitz fired (a third witness at the trial corroborated the story with reporters).
In a hearing before court began, prosecutors said they hoped to call Ali Ata, the former Blagojevich administration official who pleaded guilty to corruption yesterday, to the stand.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Carrie Hamilton said she believed Ata would testify to conversations Ata had with his political patron, Rezko, about working to pull strings to kill the criminal investigation into Rezko and others when it was in its early stages in 2004.
"[Ata] had conversations with Mr. Rezko about the fact that Mr. Kjellander was working with Karl Rove to have Mr. Fitzgerald removed," Hamilton told U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve. [my emphasis]
You see, Rove is, personally, implicated in this investigation. If Rezko gets chatty–as he seems to be doing–Fitz may well get Rezko to confirm directly that Rove told him he was working on firing Fitz.
In fact, for several months last year, Rove repeatedly refused to talk about this stuff, using the "fig leaf" that his official duties included trying to fire Governor Siegelman (and also, that Rove couldn’t answer any questions about other issues, like the allegations he tried to have Fitz fired).
Rove himself is refusing to talk about precisely this investigation!!!
Don’t you find it sort of ironic–nay, even suspicious–that he’s attacking Obama for holding off a week on these issues so the investigation can go forward?
You’d almost think Rove was pressuring Obama to ignore Fitz so as to diminish Fitz’s opportunities to get Rezko talking?
Update: Post tweaked.