I realize we're all a little distracted by the calamity on Wall Street and Main Street but- What can I say about this story (already diaried at least once) out today but... HALLELLUJHA! It looks like Karl Rove IS going DOWN!
Special Prosecutor Named in Attorney Firings Case
An internal Justice Department investigation concluded Monday that political pressure drove the firings of several federal prosecutors in a 2006 purge, but said that the refusal of major players at the White House and the department to cooperate in the year-long inquiry produced significant "gaps" in its understanding of the events.
At the urging of the investigators, who said they did not have enough evidence to justify recommending criminal charges in the case, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey appointed the Acting United States Attorney in Connecticut, Nora Dannehy, to continue the inquiry and determine whether anyone should be prosecuted....
and in the next 2 paragraphs o the NYTimes article
The 356-page report, prepared by the department’s inspector general and its Office of Professional Responsibility, provides the fullest picture to date of an episode that opened the Bush administration up to charges of politicizing the justice system. The firings of nine federal prosecutors, and the Congressional hearings they generated, ultimately led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales last September.
The investigation, which uncovered White House e-mail messages not previously made public, offered a blistering critique of Mr. Gonzales’s management of the department. It called Mr. Gonzales "remarkably unengaged" in overseeing an unprecedented personnel review, and said that he "abdicated" his administrative responsibilities, leaving those duties to his chief of staff. It said that the process for deciding which prosecutors were fired was "fundamentally flawed."
Is this good great news or what?
And I must add that the distraction of the Wall Street story has been cited in Alabama as a plus for Rove on the Don Siegelman story:
... at least one man was smiling: Karl Rove. The chaos virtually guaranteed that Congress would adjourn without holding him in contempt.
Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman pleaded with Congress to act on Rove before the end of the final 2008 session. Convicted in 2005 on corruption charges but released from federal prison on appeal, Siegelman has charged that he was railroaded by the Bush administration and that Rove engineered the dubious case against him.
The House Judiciary Committee last spring subpoenaed Rove, President Bush’s former chief strategist and political adviser, to answer allegations about the prosecution of the former governor as well as other Justice Department actions.
However, Rove, now a TV commentator and Wall Street columnist who is reportedly still advising Bush and GOP nominee John McCain, says he is not subject to the committee’s subpoena. He has talked a great deal about the case on television and in other venues, always denying that he had any involvement in Siegelman’s prosecution, but he has refused to testify under oath to the committee...
That’s a shame because there are good reasons to believe there were political manipulations of the Bush Department of Justice...
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/...
Oh please, PLEASE get Rove on trial!