Maybe all roads really do lead back to Rove

[babylonsister]

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/10796.html

Maybe all roads really do lead back to Rove
Posted 3:45 pm

Last week, in an interview with the Albuquerque Tribune, purged U.S. Attorney David Iglesias said, “I think all roads lead to Rove. I think that’s why the president is circling some pretty major wagons around him to keep him from testifying under oath, which subjects him to criminal prosecution.”

Iglesias appears to be onto something.

Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election- law violations, according to new documents and interviews.

snip//

Dan Froomkin explained the big picture very well.

Why would Karl Rove want to fire a bunch of U.S. attorneys?

If you think it seems out of character, you don’t know Rove — or more precisely, you don’t know the two sides of Rove. President Bush’s powerful adviser is one part spreadsheet-carrying, vote-counting political wonk, and one part no-holds-barred, brass-knuckled political operative.

Vote-counting Rove knows that — particularly in battleground states, where a few votes can make all the difference — every little bit helps. Brass-knuckled Rove has energetically used government power to meet political ends.

Vote-counting Rove has long been obsessed by voter fraud, either because (according to him) it threatens the integrity of the elections process or because (according to his critics) it gives Republicans an excuse to pursue measures that suppress poor and minority turnout. They also disagree on whether fraud is widespread (Rove) or rare (his critics).

And it’s not hard to believe that brass-knuckled Rove decided at some point that politically appointed federal prosecutors were important tools in his bag of tricks — tools that occasionally needed a little sharpening, or replacement.

And Paul Kiel summarizes the details.

more...

[theoldman]

1. I always thought that Rove's main job was to get Republicans

elected. The Iraq war was other peoples job.

[babylonsister]

3. That's basically what this is all about, getting rethugs elected, by any

and all means necessary, legal or not. I recommend you read Palast's transcript from Dem. Now! today. He handily outlines what was going on with the attorney firings and how Rove was involved.

Here's the link:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/14/1426254

[blogslut]

2. The centipede story of KKKarl Rove

Many many legs. ;)

[MADem]

4. I agree with that assessment. Rove will use anyone, do anything, to keep or strengthen the GOP

ranks.

[stillcool]

5. They have way too much power...

with or without Mr. Rove...he just makes it so much more consequential.

[L. Coyote]

6. All roads lead to "the Decider" to the top of the Chain-of-Command except when

a crime has been committed. Then a detour has to be erected and the road has to be redirected to a cut-out or fall guy.

How many times do people need to be taught the simplest aspects of behind-the-scene politics.

Remember Iran-Contra. Who said, "I do not recall" then?

Rove is not in the chain-of-command, he is not an elected official, he is a perfect ruse and diversion to keep the dialogue away from "the Decider."

===========================
Ronald Reagan - The Bonzo Years 1987
A fun review of all the great things Ronald Reagan said during his term in ... six nationally televised days of testimony before the Iran-contra committee. ...
www.quickchange.com/reagan/1987.html

1/9/87 - The White House releases the finding - signed by President Reagan on January 17, 1986 - authorizing the sale of arms to Iran ...
1/20/87 - George Bush says President Reagan "is certain to this very day that he did not authorize arms-for-hostages."
2/11/87 - Reagan tells the Tower Commission that after discussing it with Don Regan, he now remembers that he did not authorize the arms sale in advance.
2/20/87 - "The simple truth is, 'I don't remember - period'" - President Reagan writing to the Tower Commission to set the record straight
3/4/87 - Reagan responds to the Tower Commission ... problem was that "no one kept proper records of meetings or decisions," which led to his inability to recall approving the arms shipment. "I did approve it," says the President. "I just can't say specifically when." ...
4/28/87 - Benjamin Linder, an American volunteer working in Nicaragua, is shot to death by the contras.
5/3/87 - Iran-contra hearings get underway ... "I hope I'm finally going to hear some of the things I'm still waiting to learn," said Reagan.
5/6/87 - Less than 24 hours after Richard Secord implicates him in the Iran-contra scandal, William Casey, 74, dies of pneumonia.
7/8/87 - Oliver North testifies that the late William Casey helped run the secret contra program.
7/23/87 - Poindexter ... used the phrase "I can't recall" (or some variation thereof) 184 times during his five days of testimony.
7/29/87 - Ed Meese used the phrase "I can't recall" (or some variation thereof) 340 times.

[Frustratedlady]

7. And what did he do for Poppa?

Why did Poppa fire him?

The "spots" never change or go away.