The subpoena-ing of Rove is a long time coming (Rosebud #79 called for Rove's indictment in March), but the real question is, what are they going to do when he refuses to appear? When the White House—again—claims "executive privilege"? When they, once again, put themselves above the law?

It's sad to realize that, today, the people of Pakistan, a military dictatorship, have more say over what happens with appointments to their judiciary than we do (see Rosebud #154). Impeachment is looking less like some wild suggestion and more like the only answer. The House is only 3 votes away from passing House Res. 333 on the impeachment of Dick Cheney (see Rosebud #155).

Dick Cheney, who, when his approval rating is nonexistent, and the people are calling for his ouster, finds it an apt time to announce, on Face the Nation, on April 15, 2007, "The greatest threat now is 'a 9/11' occurring with a group of terrorists armed not with airline tickets and box cutters, but with a nuclear weapon in the middle of one of our own cities." But fearmongering will not make anyone forget how he told Scooter Libby to call the media.

He's not even an elected official. He came by his position in that funny election in 2000, orchestrated no doubt behind-the-scenes by the neocons' old election hand, Rove; see "Bush's Brain"...

Leahy issues subpoena for Rove
By Klaus Marre
July 26, 2007
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Thursday issued a subpoena for top White House adviser Karl Rove to compel him to testify about the firing of several U.S. attorneys.
“The evidence shows that senior White House political operatives were focused on the political impact of federal prosecutions and whether federal prosecutors were doing enough to bring partisan voter fraud and corruption cases,” Leahy said. “It is obvious that the reasons given for the firings of these prosecutors were contrived as part of a cover-up and that the stonewalling by the White House is part and parcel of that same effort.”
Leahy issued the subpoenas, one to Rove and one to White House aide Scott Jennings, after consulting with Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the committee’s ranking member.
“The Bush-Cheney White House continues to place great strains on our constitutional system of checks and balances,” Leahy added. “Not since the darkest days of the Nixon administration have we seen efforts to corrupt federal law enforcement for partisan political gain and such efforts to avoid accountability.”
The move is a further escalation of the constitutional battle between Congress and the White House over whether Bush administration officials must provide testimony and documents to legislative branch investigators.
Leahy said he is not taking this step lightly and only decided to proceed after “[exhausting] every avenue seeking the voluntary cooperation of Karl Rove and J. Scott Jennings.”
The Judiciary Committee chairman concluded that the investigation has “reached a point where the accumulated evidence shows that political considerations factored into the unprecedented firing of at least nine United States attorneys last year.”
In a letter to Rove, Leahy gives the White House official a week to appear before the panel and testify under oath.
“I hope that the White House takes this opportunity to reconsider its blanket claim of executive privilege, especially in light of the testimony that the President was not involved in the dismissals of these U.S. Attorneys,” Leahy said in his letter. “I am left to ask what the White House is so intent on hiding that it cannot even identify the documents, the dates, the authors and recipients that they claim are privileged.”