The chorus of complaints against Karl Rove has been long and constant. The White House has dismissed the criticism as unsubstantiated political sniping, sour grapes from the losers. With each chapter and each episode of behind the scenes corruption and abuse of authority that becomes public, the White House defense grows weaker and weaker. No one can quite explain why Rove still holds a security clearance after having admitted to intentionally leaking classified information regarding Valerie Plame. Such actions, by law require removal of clearance for top level security information. And that is only one of the myriad hijinks that Rove has been involved in.
Now, however, Rove is directly implicated in a couple of scandals that involve violations of law that do not seem to sweep so easily under the Oval Office rug. There is no GOP controlled Congress to deliberately look the other way as the laws are disdainfully ignored. Evidence has come forward through insiders and former White House and Justice personnel that Rove and other White House aides have been using an "underground" e-mail system. This secret communications channel, run through the Republican National Committee offices, was set up and operated specifically to circumvent the Presidential archives law requireing that all records of communications involving the operation of the White House be archived. After the Nixon experience, the country needed to assure that there would be a mandatory paper trail. In a related scandal, Rove involvement in the Justice Department’s strategic firing and replacement of US Attorneys in order to install political loyalists has come to light after repeated denials of White House involvement. Both strands are unraveling yet intertwined because some proof of the Rove involvement in the Justice Department scandal may lie in the underground e-mails.
Bush apparently has decided to clean up the matter by assigning Scott Bloch of the Office of Special Counsel to investigate the matter. He is charged with investigating the source and content of the e-mails, whether improper political motives were behind the firing of the US Attorneys, and the extent of White House involvement of those firings. Appears to be a very logical and responsible move, doesn’t it?
Before you answer that question consider the background. Scott Bloch is currently under investigation by the Inspector General of the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) based upon whistleblower allegation that he fired subordinates in his department for purely political reasons. Staff were not hired or removed because of relative competence or actual performance, but on the basis of whether they disagreed with Bloch's heavily Right Wing GOP philosophies. Hiring or firing staff largely based upon their agreement with his own political views and beliefs would be clearly improper and probably illegal. Consider also that the OSC has no independent power to enforce subpoenas, and therefore his "investigation" would have no ability to actually compel any witness to come forward and comply with document requests or testify. The White House has already offered to allow key witnesses like Rove to testify, but only if they are not under oath and there is no transcript. This same testimony will, no doubt, be offered to the OSC in their inquiry. Is the picture coming into focus?
The White House “investigation” of the matter is hoped to provide a “report” that whitewashes the controversy to distract the public from a Congressional finding of corruption. The Congress moves more slowly than the OSC could move. And Block has a very strong incentive to find no wrongdoing, as this would not only allow Bloch to avoid the wrath of the White House, but also set an "acceptable" standard of behavior and political corruption that would help in the OPM investigation against him.
The style of house cleaning being conducted by Bush and the White House is like trying to clean the barn with a manure spreader. There will be a lot of activity and noise, and there will be a lot of dust flying. The only thing guaranteed, however, is that the end result will stink to the high heavens.
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