[NYTr] Rove Resignation as Faux News: NY Times Plays Right Along

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[... and right on cue, here's the Editorial Board of the Newspaper of
Record in its lead editorial for August 14th, acting for all the world
as if one of Congress's most important tasks is trying to force Rove to
testify (not impeaching Cheney and Bush, not de-funding the Bush Wars,
not restoring the constitutional rights they gave away when they voted
for Bush's Patriot Act and illegal spying operations. More spotlights
on the Sideshow, of course! That's the ticket! --NY Transfer]

The New York Times - Aug 14, 2007 (posted 8/13/07)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/opinion/14tue1.html

Editorial

Mr. Rove Gets Out of Town

Karl Rove, the architect of so much that has gone so wrong with the
Bush administration, announced yesterday that he is leaving the White
House to spend more time with his family. What he didn’t say is that by
getting out of town he is also hoping to avoid spending any time at all
with Congressional investigators.

Congress should not oblige.

The American public needs to understand the full story of how this
White House — with Mr. Rove pulling many of the strings — has spent the
last six and a half years improperly and dangerously politicizing the
federal government. Mr. Rove is already defying one Congressional
subpoena to testify about the United States attorneys scandal. He
should be made to respond to that one, and should also be subpoenaed to
explain his role in several other cases of crass politicization.

President Bush took a risk when he put someone so focused on politics
as blood sport at the center of his White House. Once he did, he had an
obligation to ensure that Mr. Rove understood that his job was to
promote the interests of the American people — not solely the
Republican Party. Instead, Mr. Rove used his position and power to
relentlessly pursue his declared goal of a permanent Republican
majority.

Mr. Rove appears to have been deeply involved in the decision to fire
nine top federal prosecutors, apparently for either bringing cases that
hurt Republicans or refusing to bring cases to punish Democrats. There
is also mounting evidence that he turned nonpartisan agencies into
campaign boosters, quite possibly violating federal law. Earlier this
month, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales admitted that Justice
Department officials attended political briefings at the White House,
some led by Mr. Rove. Officials at the General Services Administration
and Peace Corps, and even six American ambassadors, among others, were
also given briefings.

Mr. Rove has stonewalled Congress’s legitimate efforts to investigate.
Some of his key e-mail messages on the United States attorneys matter
appear to have mysteriously disappeared, while others are being
withheld with baseless claims of executive privilege. As for defying
that Senate subpoena, some subjects might have been protected by
privilege, but Mr. Rove’s refusal to show up at all is outrageous —
although totally in keeping with his and his boss’s disdain for the
separation of powers.

Mr. Rove failed his own party, as well as the American people, when he
counseled President Bush to turn every serious policy debate — Social
Security, the war in Iraq, even terrorism — into one more political
dogfight. Today, despite Mr. Rove’s claims of invincibility, both
houses of Congress are back in Democratic hands, Mr. Bush’s approval
ratings are around 30 percent and many Republican presidential
candidates are running as fast as they can away from the Bush legacy.

Mr. Rove can now contemplate that legacy from his home in Texas. But he
should not get too settled in. Congress needs to use all its power to
bring Mr. Rove back to Washington to testify — in public and under oath
— about how he used his office to put politics above the interests of
the American people.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company