ROVE IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS

Karl Rove ain’t coming to the party. And he ain’t talking.

Despite being subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee to testify on his role in politicizing the Justice Department the erstwhile Boy Genius has announced that he isn’t showing up today

He claims that the president’s assertion of executive privilege “obligates” him to disregard the Congressional order.

By doing so, Rove is thumbing his nose at Congress, legal precedent, the public’s right to know the truth — about, among other things, the firing of nine U.S. attorneys and the blackballing of Justice Department hires — and the Constitution.

Rove’s refusal is, of course, part and parcel of the Bush White House’s ongoing efforts to keep its actions cloaked in secrecy. But beyond that, it is further evidence that for Bush/Cheney and company the ultimate power in America lies in their hands, not in the hands of the people or the laws that govern us.

This is no petty partisan squabble; this is a fight about the foundations of our democracy.

True to form, Rove has offered to meet with the Judiciary Committee — but only in private, without being under oath, and with no transcript kept. Shades of the conditions imposed on the 9/11 Commission by Bush and Cheney, who only agreed to meet with the Commission members in tandem and with no record kept (indeed the members’ notebooks were confiscated).

Rove has been cited for contempt by the Senate Judiciary Committee for refusing to testify about the U.S. Attorney scandal.

In theory, according to the Congressional Oversight Manual, Rove could be arrested, “brought before the House or Senate by the Sergeant-at-Arms, tried at the bar of the body, and can be imprisoned in the Capitol jail.”

But that’s not going to happen. Odds are the Committee will move to hold Rove in contempt. The matter will then be turned over to the Justice Department — the same Justice Department Rove is accused of politicizing — which will likely do the same thing it has done with Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton, i.e. nothing. The matter will then be tossed to the courts… and Rove will go on pontificating on Fox and advising John McCain. Pretty sweet set up.