Karl Rove was not "vacationing" in Crimea last month.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

He was here:

http://www.yes-ukraine.org

You can view the full list of participants here:
http://www.yes-ukraine.org/en/List_of_participants8.html

Bob Shrum was there, too. And Richard Haass. And, yes, Mikhail Saakashvili.

So make of that whatever you will, but you can stop with the "Why was Rove on vacation in Crimea?" stuff. Hell, I think Haass being there is scarier than Rove being there anyway.

[Mist]

1. Yes, the CFR being involved IS scary. nt

[yellerpup]

2. He should have been there when the bombs started dropping.

Or else in the jail cell in the WH basement.

[DailyGrind51]

3. So he wasn't "vacationing",which makes my point.

Rove was "there" stirring trouble. The "vacation" was the cover story.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

8. He never said he was on vacation.

That was inferred by the blogosphere, who just took the word "traveling" from the LA Times story about Tony Snow passing away to mean that he was on vacation for their "OMG ROVE IZ FLEEING THE COUNTRY!!!1!1!UKRAINE HAS NO EXTRADITION TREATY!!!11!!" stories, which also turned out to be total bullshit. A simple five minutes of googling disproves it, but I'm not a blogger so I guess I have the free time to actually research shit before I fly off the handle.

[DailyGrind51]

17. You're right, the "vacation" part was something I heard originally

from a caller to the Thom Hartmann show yesterday. I checked Google to see if there was any "traffic" on the story, and there was.

[flor de jasmim]

4. He was also the only "FORMER" anything--everyone else is actively fulfilling a particular role

yeechhh

[DailyGrind51]

5. Rove was no longer part of the Bush Administration, what possible role could he have had there?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

7. Gerhard Schröder was there last year.

He's a "former" somethingorother. Plenty of journalists and other randoms, too. Read the attendee list.

[DailyGrind51]

12. Schroder was at least a former Chancellor.

Journalists are there in their professional capacity as journalists. Rove "was" a campaign advisor.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

15. Technically he was Deputy Chief of Staff...

...so he did have a proper position in the administration. And he is Bush's Brain, after all. Well, maybe Bush's former brain at this point.

[DailyGrind51]

18. "he was" are the operational words here.

If George H. W., Bill clinton, or Jimmy Carter had been there, that would have been comparable to Shroder, not Karl Rove.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

20. Again, Bob Shrum was there.

I don't see how it matters whether he's a current or former whatsit. It's a conference for discussion, not treaty negotiations. And it's hard to argue that Rove wasn't a central figure in shaping Bush administration policy. He's certainly more relevant to the clusterfucked condition of the world today than Shrum or half of the other attendees.

[malaise]

9. Election campaign work

for McLobbyking

[gratuitous]

10. Well, we know that private citizens can't conduct foreign policy

So if he was making any statements or doing anything that might be confused with the official policy of the U.S. government, he was in violation of the Logan Act. But then, that might be another one of those laws that Attorney General Mukasey has decided it isn't a crime to break anymore.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

13. The Logan Act only applies to direct negotiations with foreign governments.

Making statements or participating in panel discussions doesn't count. Otherwise nobody but administration officials could ever attend a policy conference.

[gratuitous]

21. The president of Georgia was at the conference

And shortly after the conference, Saakashvili made a reckless decision that prompted the Russian invasion of his country. Subsequently, Saakashvili seemed to think that the United States was bound by some promise to defend Georgia, and issued public pronouncements to that effect. I wonder where he got that idea?

Well, AG Mukasey would conclude that it's probably not a crime, so there's no point in even investigating whether Karl Rove might have spoken with President Saakashvili or what might have been said between the two of them.

[DailyGrind51]

14. Thank you, on both your points!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

6. Bob Shrum isn't a "former" somethingorother yet?

Why the hell NOT?!?

[spanone]

11. did 'we' pay his fucking way?

[DailyGrind51]

16. Great question!

[leftchick]

19. absolutely!

That is a BFEE tradition. Have the US taxpayer PAY for their various criminal adventures going all the way back to Prescott. And Pay in EVERY sense of the word.

:grr: