Thom Hartmann: Fast & Furious...Why Didn't Pelosi Arrest Karl Rove?

[thomhartmann]

The Republican Chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee convened a vote Wednesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over Holder’s refusal to turn over documents related to the DOJ’s Fast and Furious program. Those documents could compromise active criminal investigations, and have been withheld by the President using executive. But Issa moved forward anyway - getting all 23 Republicans on his Committee to support the contempt vote, while every single Democrat on the Committee voted no. But the best reaction to Wednesday’s vote came from former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi - when slammed it as “strictly political” and reminded reporters that when Democrats controlled the House, they could have arrested Karl Rove for contempt of Congress. Pelosi said: "I could have arrested Karl Rove on any given day...I’m not kidding. There’s a prison here in the Capitol … If we had spotted him in the Capitol, we could have arrested him.” So Republicans hold an Attorney General in contempt over a bizarre conspiracy theory, yet war criminals and operatives who leak names of CIA agents for political retaliation get to walk?

Here's the bigger picture...Nancy Pelosi says she could have arrested Karl Rove anytime. And there's a long list of crimes that Rove was implicated in, from helping set up secret overseas prisons, to torture, to outing a CIA agent, to lying to lead the United States into an unnecessary war, to secretly and illegally wiretapping American citizens. But then -Speaker of the House Pelosi said she wasn't going to arrest Rove - he successfully called her bluff - because not arresting him was "the best thing for the country." In July of 2008, when he was under a subpoena to testify before Congress about his crimes, Rove didn't even bother to show up - instead, he left the country to go to Yalta. Eric Holder at least shows up - eight times so far - and answers former small-time criminal Darryl Issa's questions.

Here's the problem. Pelosi SHOULD have arrested Rove. The Democrats keep doing what they think is best for the country, while Republicans keep doing what they think is best for the Republican Party, and to hell with the country. And, tragically, playing nice with bullies may seem like it's best for the country at the time - "Hey, let's not have a fight!" - but in the long run it's really not best for the country. Karl Rove was prepared to resign in discrace over his role in outing a CIA agent to cover up his and Bush's lies about WMDs in Iraq. The White House was making plans for it, assuming the Democrats would push the issue. But when Rove decided to play hardball and call their bluff, the Democrats wimped out. And now they're reversing roles, only instead of backing off, they're going in for the kill. If Republican House Speaker John Boehner schedules and holds a successful vote in the House of Representatives to hold Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, it'll be the first time in the history of the republic that a Cabinet officer has been so charged.

Just like when Republicans in congress went after Bill Clinton for lying about getting a little under the table with Monica was the first time a President had been attacked for having extramarital sex in the history of the republic. These Republicans are thugs, and the Democrats need to recognize it. They held unemployed people hostage last year, and succeeded in extorting from Democrats a cut in unemployment benefits from 99 weeks down to 74 weeks - so they're expiring NOW instead of after the election, just in time to upset a LOT of people, who will blame it all on Obama.

And now they're holding almost 2 million road repair jobs hostage, while they continue to fire and lay off teachers, firefighters, and cops nationwide in an effort to make the economy as bad as possible. If Democrats had held Karl Rove accountable for his crimes - he might not right now be weilding a $400 million club against Democrats across the nation. Instead, he might still be in jail. Harry Truman once said, "If you want a friend in Washington, DC, buy a dog." He was right. He gave Republicans hell, and he won. Democrats - it's time to wake up and realize these Republicans are not your friends, and they are not friends to 99 percent of Americans.

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings

[Lionessa]

1. I really think highly of Pelosi, very impressed with her record 2009-2011 with regard to many topics

like healthcare reform, which she tried very hard to get right in spite of Obama's complete cave in to the Repubs and such.

Unfortunately, I think she was foolish to take prosecuting Bush, Rove, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, and the whole gang off the table. War crimes, F&F, and I'm sure there's more. She should've filed so many charges, but put that foolish idea that Dems aren't allowed to act in anything that even appears to be vindictive, regardless of validity.