This past Sunday morning, I was guest host on The Peter Laufer Show on Green 960, the Air America station in San Francisco. On Sundays, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has brunch and holds court at her favorite spot along the waterfront, just a few blocks from the station.
So she just might have been listening when Don Siegelman came on the air with a special message for the speaker: please permit a floor vote on the contempt citation for Karl Rove.
Gov. Siegelman is Rove-kill, Exhibit A. He is a witness to a hatchet job that sent him from Alabama’s governor’s mansion to a federal prison on phony, political charges, and he fingers Karl Rove as a central figure in the caper. The story is recapped in this audio clip http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/SANFRANCISCO-CA/KKGN-AM/PeterLaufer_091408_Hr2.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&MARKET=SANFRANCISCO-CA&NG_FORMAT=progressivetalk&SITE_ID=5257&STATION_ID=KKGN-AM&PCAST_AUTHOR=Peter_Laufer_/_Green960&PCAST_CAT=News_%26_Politics&PCAST_TITLE=Sunday_with_Peter_Laufer
Siegelman believes that his case, if it’s blown open, could expose more about the politicization of the Justice Department and its US Attorneys. His story includes the theft of his re-election, and a failed prosecution followed by one that got him 7 years in federal prison, he’s now free on bail during appeal.
The House Judiciary Committee voted out the contempt citation in August, and now it’s up to Pelosi to schedule a vote to enforce it. It’s mostly symbolic, but could help Siegelman and future investigations. To me, it’s the bare minimum she can do to deliver some accountability for the clear violations of law and ethical standards by the Bush admin.
Today’s Washington Post reported that Cheney’s lawyer David Addington forged the signature of Alberto Gonzalez on a document intended to provide legal cover for the illegal monitoring of phones and emails in the US. This will not be the last Bushie crime to go uninvestigated, unpunished.
Please call Pelosi at 202-225-0100 and urge the vote on contempt for Rove. And to some of the fine folks who post lengthy comments here, intended to tweak other posters, may I suggest you put the time & effort into getting the word out on contempt for Rove? much obliged.