Rove won't answer question about emails
Josh Marshall notices and excerpts an article from The Los Angeles Times (subscription required) concerning the continuing saga of the missing Rove emails. This is what Marshall quotes the LA Times article as saying:
UPDATE 10:44 AM PDT-- The AP moves a story with the following lede:
Be sure not to overreach, Democrats. Ooga-booga!
It's also kind of funny how the AP reporter tends to portray this as yet another attempt to "get Rove." That's just silly. Rove may crash and burn, but he's already a failure by any objective measure. His boy polling at 30% pretty much says it all. So yeah, Republicans, be sure to listen carefully to Rove tonight and follow his advice. Remember, he's a political genius.
Karl Rove and other White House employees were cautioned in employee manuals, memos and briefings to carefully save any e-mails that might discuss official matters even if those messages came from private e-mail accounts, the White House disclosed Friday.Rove was in Tigard, Oregon last night to appear before Washington County Republicans. He wouldn't even answer a question from a reporter about the issue:
Despite these cautions, e-mails from Rove and others discussing official business may have been deleted and are now missing.
White House officials spent much of Friday reiterating that the missing e-mails were the result of an innocent mistake. About 50 aides in the executive office of the Bush administration have used e-mail accounts provided by the Republican National Committee to keep campaign-related communication separate from their official White House business.
Rove, who came under fire this week for deleted e-mails in an investigation of the firing of eight federal prosecutors, only hinted at troubles inside the Bush administration. He didn't acknowledge a question from a reporter about the e-mails as he left the room.It's kind of like Bob Haldeman is speaking before the King County Republicans tonight, isn't it? Rove just wants to bash Democrats with the same old tired schtick, when he's the one that has a whole lot of 'splaining to do.
UPDATE 10:44 AM PDT-- The AP moves a story with the following lede:
The fight over documents has gone to red alert.Further down the article we get the "Bill Clinton impeachment" defense from a GOP flack:
The White House acknowledges it cannot find four years' worth of e-mails from chief political strategist Karl Rove. The admission has thrust the Democrats' nemesis back into the center of attention and poses a fresh political challenge for President Bush.
Republican strategist Rich Galen says Democrats could make the same mistakes that Republicans made under House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., in going after President Clinton after winning control of the House.They never stop spinning, do they? Yes, the Blue Dress impeachment is exactly like the politicization of the entire executive branch, especially the Justice Department.
"That's what got us in big trouble in 1998 (midterm elections, when Republicans lost seats) and ultimately cost Newt his job as speaker. We so solely focused on going after Bill Clinton that people said, in essence, `We hired you to solve stuff — and not to spend all day, every day, trying to figure out how to make Bill Clinton's life miserable,'" said Galen, who worked for Gingrich when he was speaker.
Be sure not to overreach, Democrats. Ooga-booga!
It's also kind of funny how the AP reporter tends to portray this as yet another attempt to "get Rove." That's just silly. Rove may crash and burn, but he's already a failure by any objective measure. His boy polling at 30% pretty much says it all. So yeah, Republicans, be sure to listen carefully to Rove tonight and follow his advice. Remember, he's a political genius.
