Squeeze play
Republican Senators like Arlen Specter may actually still have vestigial testicles, however small. Unfortunately, they no longer function to produce fortitude, and are merely convenient loci of pain receptors and thus an effective tool for behavior modification. That is why Karl Rove took title to them long ago, and why he is now waving around his garlic press and making ominous, if desperate, gestures with it. The conservative Insight reports:
Rove must know that the legal arguments proferred by his team are gaining little traction. There is also his standard view that all that ever matters is the politics of the thing. He's done a pretty good job so far of putting an array of straw men and red herrings out for the press to gaze at like parakeets staring at a mirror. The press and thus the public have both been largely distracted. But he knows he needs more this time, so bit of old-fashioned muscle is required.
Oh, Fitz, where are you when we need you?
Congressional sources said Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president. The sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November.
"It's hardball all the way," a senior GOP congressional aide said.
The sources said the administration has been alarmed over the damage that could result from the Senate hearings, which began on Monday, Feb. 6. They said the defection of even a handful of Republican committee members could result in a determination that the president violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Such a determination could lead to impeachment proceedings.
Over the last few weeks, Mr. Rove has been calling in virtually every Republican on the Senate committee as well as the leadership in Congress. The sources said Mr. Rove's message has been that a vote against Mr. Bush would destroy GOP prospects in congressional elections.
Rove must know that the legal arguments proferred by his team are gaining little traction. There is also his standard view that all that ever matters is the politics of the thing. He's done a pretty good job so far of putting an array of straw men and red herrings out for the press to gaze at like parakeets staring at a mirror. The press and thus the public have both been largely distracted. But he knows he needs more this time, so bit of old-fashioned muscle is required.
Oh, Fitz, where are you when we need you?
posted by bluememe at 2/07/2006
3 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Wait, wait, that's...don't tell me...um...extortion? Racketeering? It's extortion, right?
Does Mr. Fitzgerald's authroity extend to this? I thought once the covers got pulled back they stayed back until the conclusion of his investigation.
And if not Mr. Fitzgerald, then why doesn't one of the Republican Senators stand up, expose this publicly, and say, "No More, Karl." All it takes is one and the rest (most of them) would fall in behind him or her. Him probably, being that they are Republicans after all. Are the dollars really worth having Rove in your corner? It makes me wish Mr. Fitzgerald would release an early indictment and then continue his investigation. Or at least name Rove specifically as being under investigation to clip his wings a little. I mean we all know he's under investigation, but I don't think the special prosecutor has ever said so publicly.
Also - I am not calling him Fitz anymore. Or referring to it as Fitzmas. I think he deserves the respect that I was taught to show important people while growing up. But if he happens to break his long silence around the 14th, he should be considered a saint.
Oh - maybe he should wait for March 17th. I know that's sort of obvious, but I haven't heard anyone mention it yet. Not even Al Franken.
Finally- painfully poignant and powerful metaphor with the garlic press and all that. Made me cringe.
Shakes makes the excellent observation that Rove, who is not even someone who was elected to his post, is extorting and threatening congressmen and women, people who were elected to their offices by citizens of this country. Here is a creature of this would-be monarch, threatening to blackball the representatives whose job it is to protect the country from just the illegal actions that Bush is persuing. We should all be outraged. I don't understand why we are not marching in the streets of every city and town. Are the people of this country so cowed and terrified that they cannot see what is happening to our democracy?
Post a Comment
<< Home