Yesterday, four Senate Democrats called for an investigation into whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has perjured himself during congressional testimony re: the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program and the U.S. Attorney firings (see Washington Post and letter from senators to Solicitor General).
Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) was not one of the four senators, because he was busy issuing subpoenas to White House Political Director Karl Rove and Deputy Director of Political Affairs J. Scott Jennings for information relating to the Justice Department's apparent politicization (see Leahy's statements, letters and subpoena text here).
Leahy subpoenaed Rove and Jennings because documents, testimony and interviews evince that Rove and Jennings were involved in the U.S. Attorney firings -- and because they blew of Leahy's requests that they cooperate. Leahy stated:
"What the White House stonewalling is preventing is conclusive evidence of who made the decisions to fire these federal prosecutors. We know from the testimony that it was not the President. Everyone who has testified said that he was not involved. None of the senior officials at the Department of Justice could testify how people were added to the list or the real reasons that people were included among the federal prosecutors to be replaced. Indeed, the evidence we have been able to collect points to Karl Rove and the political operatives at the White House" (Leahy's statement)
Keep in mind that President Bush (based on an executive-privilege claim) already prohibited former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and current Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten from complying with congressional subpoenas (BN-Politics). He may do likewise re: Rove and Jennings.
Gun Toting Liberal's take on Rove: "a man of questionable moral and legal character; and that’s an attempt on my behalf to paint him in the most positive light possible considering the mountains of evidence against him to date, combined with the fact he is still TECHNICALLY considered to be “innocent until proven guilty.”
Check out Jon Stewart's commentary (Comedy Central's The Daily Show), including Gonzales' apparent admission that some U.S. Attorneys were fired for illegitimate reasons (as Leahy also pointed out in his statement):
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