Send Karl Rove to Jail

Earlier this afternoon, on the premiere episode of Brave New Films' new show, Meet the Bloggers, I joined Firedoglake's resident Karl Rove expert Marcy Wheeler, along with Baratunde Thurston of Jack and Jill Politics to discuss a question most of us can probably agree on: Should Karl Rove Go to Jail? For so many reasons, I said "yes." But ultimately, the real issue up for discussion was not whether he should be held accountable, it is whether there is any chance on earth he will.

Many others have written intelligently and at length about Karl Rove's recent no-show before the House Judiciary Committee -- most notably Marcy, who has blogged exhaustively on the whole thing. But the short of it is this: The HJC issued a subpoena for Rove back in May. He had until July 10 to appear, to discuss, broadly speaking, his role in the vast politicization of the Department of Justice (which includes the U.S. attorney firings, the illegal hiring practices at the DoJ, and the prosecution of Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.) Instead, Rove had his lawyer send the committee a letter, dated July 1, in which he "respectfully" refused to appear, claiming immunity -- a sort of "executive privilege on steroids" according to one highly reliable source -- and, just to be especially villainous and brazen, skipped town.

Watch this short video for a crash course. The main point? Karl Rove broke the law.

"By ignoring the Judiciary Committee subpoena," House Judiciary Chair John Conyers wrote on Huffington Post, "Karl Rove and the White House once again showed their utter disregard for our system of checks and balances, for Congress as a co-equal branch of government, and ultimately for the American people."

The question that now confronts the Judiciary Committee and, ultimately, the full House of Representatives, is what action to take in the face of such blatant defiance of the rule of law. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I am considering all options.