Who Is Defending Rove?

[dogday]

It appears that no one in Washington has bothered to ask why it is that the Republican National Committee is leading the defense of Karl Rove. But it's a good question.

If Rove is really the president's deputy chief of staff in charge of policy, as opposed to a political hack operating within the White House and using taxpayer money to do the work of the Republican Party, wouldn't it make sense that his defenders would be current and retired policy specialists? And since the controversy in which he is embroiled has something to do with national security, wouldn't it be at least a little more assuring if a former Secretary of Defense, National Security Adviser or chief of the Central Intelligence Agency were to speak up on his behalf?

But, no, as the controversy about his leaking of classified information heats up, Rove is being defended, for the most part, by RNC chair Ken Mehlman, a political operative who has never been seriously involved in policy matters – let alone national security issues.

Mehlman is a second-string hack, a veteran of the losing presidential campaigns of George Bush I in 1992 and Mr. Elizabeth Dole in 1996.


http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=6473

[Check12]

1. Since no officials are stepping to defend Karl

It will not be long before Barbara Bush decides she has to jettison Rove to protect her son. Her problem is that Rove knows where all the bodies are buried and you can bet that Karl would rat out anyone to keep from doing hard time.

[MichiganVote]

3. O. hatch called it a smear campaign

[Somawas]

2. We would love to discuss this issue

but think it improper to comment on an ONGOING INVESTIGATION.

[cynatnite]

4. Rove's Legal Beagle

Turns out that Luskin, in 1998, had to return $245,000 in fees from a client convicted of drug-money laundering. The settlement with the Justice Department, which argued that the attorney should have known he was receiving tainted money, followed the disclosure that Luskin had accepted half a million of his payment in gold bars.

"Over the last two weeks, Luskin has flummoxed Washington's Fourth Estate with spin and legalisms. He has embarrassed reporters who ran with the cleverly worded denials he dished out. He has contradicted himself, sometimes within the same news article. He may have accidentally paved the way for Matt Cooper's Wednesday grand jury testimony about Rove. .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/07/15/BL2005071500507.html?nav=rss_politics