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Edited on Sun Aug-19-07 02:44 PM by Peace Patriot
to hold anyone accountable for anything--is wrong, I think. Say Rove had stayed. And--as a theoretical, you understand--some Congressional investigation actually remains rigorous and finds him guilty of Hatch Act violations, the penalty for which is being fired. So then, Congress tells Bush, 'you've got to fire Rove' or we will impeach him and you.' Already, we're in the realm of the fantastic.
So why should Rove resign his spot as righthand man to the Emperor of the World?
Further, say this theoretical investigation also nails Bush. What are the consequences, when the gavel-holder of the new 'Democratic' Congress stated, at the get-go: "Impeachment is off the table"? So why would Rove need to resign to protect his protege?
That's the glitch in Emptywheel's argument. Immunity for Hatch Act violations is possibly one impact of Rove's resignation, but I don't believe that it is WHY he resigned.
I think he resigned because of a much more profound scandal and far more serious criminal acts that go to the very legitimacy of the U.S. government AND Congress: that is, the theft of the 2004 presidential election AND the implications of that theft on the legitimacy of Congress itself.
Bear in mind that the last two elections have been conducted on extremely insecure and insider hackable electronic voting machines, run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled mainly by two brethren, rightwing, Bushite corporations, Diebold and ES&S--a non-transparent, privatized voting system that was fast-tracked into place between 2002 and 2004, with a $3.9 e-voting boondoggle that was passed by the Anthrax Congress in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution (October 2002) (--and is closely related to it).
The legitimacy of the U.S. government is ALREADY in grave doubt, just on these facts. (Non-transparent elections are not elections--they are tyranny.) But what if, buried in those thousands of Rove/RNC emails, is evidence of Rove's communication with Diebold/ES&S technicians--for instance?
So, if THIS is what somebody knows (--has stumbled upon, strongly suspects, has evidence of, has whistleblowers under wraps who will tell), then what does a 'Democratic' Congress do to cover ITS ass: the questioning of ITS elections, and the questioning of ITS motivations in supporting Bushite-control "trade secret" vote counting?
KNOWING that it can ill afford to let the illegitimacy of ALL U.S. elections become public, but holding some cards against Rove on this matter that COULD be played, the 'Democratic' Congress extracts the price of Rove's resignation.
And it all gets covered up.
Three things add credence to this scenario:
1. One is the curious behavior of the 'Democratic' Congress on the OBVIOUS, EGREGIOUS stolen election in FL-13 in 2006. ES&S voting machines 'disappeared' 18,000 votes for Congress in Democratic areas, in a so-called election that was 'won' by the Bushite (naturally!), by only 350 or so votes. When the lawyers for the Democrat (Christine Jennings) requested to review ES&S's "trade secret" code--to try to find out what happened to those 18,000 votes--ES&S REFUSED, and argued that their 'right' to profit from our election system with 'trade secrets' TRUMPS the right of the voters to know how their votes were counted--and some Bushite judged in Florida agreed. But here's the killer. This so-called 'Democratic' Congress has done nothing about this. NOTHING! It has languished in committee. Congress had the power to fix it--to require a new election, to require disclosure of the secret code. Nothing did they do! Nothing!
What kind of scandal lurks behind this inaction? That ALL of our elections are illegitimate.
2. The behavior of the Democratic Party leadership, generally, on "trade secret" vote counting and election fraud. To sum up, they've put on "Iron Curtain" over the subject, that was perfectly impenetrable for about a year and half after the 2004 (s)election (and, of course, during the period of the coup, 2002 to 2004).
The Democratic Party leaders' "Iron Curtain" worked in tandem with the "Iron Curtain" over this subject in the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, but the Democrats' silence, inaction and suppression has been the more lethal of the two. People tend to trust that the LEAST they can expect from the Democrats is vigilance over vote counting. It is mind-boggling that they were in on the destruction of our voting system.
Around the time that the progressive Democrats in California revolted against the party leadership, and got election reformer Debra Bowen elected as Secretary of State (one of the miracles of the 2006 elections--the people outvoting the machines), some cracks were beginning to appear in the "Iron Curtain"--which may bring this Berlin Wall down. It appears that election reform, at least, is starting to succeed, and is snowballing as a movement.
But what of PREVIOUS elections? What about the 'Democratic' Congress ESCALATING the Iraq War--the exact opposite of what SEVENTY PERCENT of the American people wanted them to do? What of all Bush Junta actions since 2004? (--and if you throw in the evidence that the 2000 election was ALSO stolen--evidence that Dan Rather has bolstered with new revelations*--ALL Bush Junta actions for the last seven years, including Supreme Court appointments)?
Laws passed by Congress might as well be written in disappearing ink, and the Constitution might as well be buried in a "time capsule," for all the solidity of a U.S. government based on a fraudulent election SYSTEM, with its predictable fascist results.
But my point here is that the 'Democratic' leaders in Congress have done NOTHING about this as well. They've done nothing about the blatant theft of the FL-13, and nothing about the WHOLE SYSTEM. Nothing!
Individual citizen activists and new grass roots groups are struggling mightily at the state/local level to restore transparent vote counting, and a huge effort was made to move the new Congress to do something. When the Democratic leadership discovered that election reform activists were not going to let them get away with their "poison pill" legislation (HR 811--which threw us the sop of a "paper trail" and a lousy, stinking 2% audit, but put the "trade secret" code in the hands of the President of the United States), they dropped the subject, and are doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to insure a transparent vote count in 2008. (All the work is being done at the grass roots level, and will not likely succeed in time, everywhere.)
Howard Dean's focus on grass roots organization, the basic common sense of the great progressive American majority, the increasing awareness of the voters that the machines are rigged, and what is in our hearts as a people--our passion for democracy and our strong tradition of it--WILL restore democracy, eventually.
But, again, what of past elections? What of horrible things that have been done? What of the compromised elections in the near future?
This Democratic Party leadership collusion in the rigged voting system gives reason to suspect that they don't want Karl Rove's DIRECT orchestration of the 2004 election, behind the curtain of "trade secret" code, to become known. But the rigged voting machines are, at the same time, one of the most likely of Rove's major crimes and one of the most likely reasons for his resignation.
3. The purpose and potential impact of Karl Rove's orchestration of the Dept. of Justice for political purposes speaks more to the NARRATIVE he needed to write, for another stolen election, than to any substantive impact on the voters, from, here and there, a decrease in prosecution of corrupt Republicans, or phony prosecution of a few Democratic office holders or GOTV groups. The yield was--a few headlines here and there, and a tad more fear. But did it really have the potential to alter outcomes on a large scale? I don't think so.
Its purpose was not to influence elections, but to EXPLAIN election outcomes that were achieved in other ways. The Hatch Act violations were not the worst thing that was going on. Rove's writes a feasible political narrative (the "talking points he feeds to the lapdog press) for pre-determined events. That's how it works. (And it doesn't take much talent at all.) The DoJ political prosecutions were just sort of raw writing materials for Rove's overall political narrative, while Diebold and ES&S did the work of insuring Rove's desired outcomes, as to power.
And it is the latter thing--Diebold/ES&S vote rigging--that the political establishment needs to cover up.
I think Karl Rove's resignation has more to do with this general crime against democracy (the installation and use of rigged "trade secret" voting systems, which both parties have supported, and kept hush-hush), than the Hatch Act violations at the WH regarding the DoJ.
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One caveat: I think that about 90% of what is going on in the halls of power in Washington DC right now is obscured to our view. This makes analysis VERY DIFFICULT. And it makes it very difficult to pick out the good guys and the bad guys, especially on the Democratic side. Also, we are faced with threats that may be throwing off all punditry, including leftist punditry. The threat of WW III, triggered by a cornered VP. The threat of LIHOP/MIHOP "terrorist" attacks (insider bad guy instigated "terrorism"). Not to mention threatened economic meltdown (or more hurricanes). Let us hope that open government will eventually be restored--as we restore transparency to our election system. But for now, we should be careful of both apparent reality (--the ghostly "Matrix" of the war profiteering corporate news monopolies), and guesses and speculations about what is really going on. My guess that the 'Democratic' Congress is covering up Rove's theft of the 2004 election--and that his resignation is related to that (more than to the political prosecutions and Hatch Act violations around the DoJ) is just that--a guess. And it could be something else--for instance, Rove's use of the NSA for political spying. That, too, could be something that some 'Democrats' are in on, and using--which might explain their endorsement of it, recently (--talking about handing out immunity like candy!). OR, there could have been a trade--Bush/Gonzo immunity for spying traded for Rove's ouster. (I tend to think there was such a trade on impeachment--no impeachment of the principles, in exchange for no attack on Iran, and getting rid of Rumsfeld. Again, just a guess.)
Note: Diebold this week isolated its elections division from the rest of the corporation, and gave it a new name ("Premier"). Seems like one of those coincidences, doesn't it? Rove resigns in the same week. Could it be that a potential Diebold whistleblower has the link to the RCN emails?
*Dan Rather's amazing recent expose on our election system included the bombshell that Sequoia (the third big election theft industry player) likely deliberately provided flawed, inferior punchcards ballots to Democratic precincts in Florida, in 2000, IN ORDER TO CAUSE the chaos that ensued. Rather doesn't quite come out and say, but lays out all the facts, and some former employees DO say it. One employee says it was done to boost the 'market' for the much more lucrative e-voting machines; another says it was to rig the vote.
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