Like every other Kossack I have been incensed by the glacial pace of the contempt citations against Karl Rove. I get free long distance on my cellphone and I use it to badger the staffs of Reps Conyers and Nadler of the HJC and Leahy and Feinstein of the SJC. The House reacted a little more quickly with a committee vote for contempt less than a month after the crime, but now Pelosi says she will delay the floor vote until September.
Sometimes I fnd myself shouting at the staffers, and of course that isn't cool, but the nonresponsiveness drives me to that.
Bulk of the rant on the flip
Since Senator Leahy is the chairman of the SJC, and since the Senate has been sitting on the contempt charge since August of last year, I call his staff to ask, in essence, what's the hurry? I am told that since the Committee has voted for the contempt citation, getting it to a floor vote is in the hands of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
So I call Mr. Reid's staff and ask why it is being held up. The standard response is, and I am not making this up, is that Senator Reid is studying the case and assembling the "facts." Now this drives me up the wall, because there doesn't seem to be any gray area betweeen appearing and not appearing. Isn't the only important "fact" that Rove did not appear? How would it take a year to figure that out?
Bottom line, Senator Reid is protecting Rove from contempt charges, and protecting his fellow senators from having to go one the record as voting either for corruption or accountability.
I usually point out to the beleaguered staffer that the guy who drives the getaway car is just as guilty as the guy who sticks up the bank, and wonder why Senator Reid is aiding and abetting a criminal in his getaway.
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