Why are you paying Karl Rove's salary?

[babylonsister]

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/49306/

Why are you paying Karl Rove's salary?

Posted by Cenk Uygur at 7:48 AM on March 16, 2007.

Cenk Uygur: Rove's role in prosecutor-gate underscores the question of the US taxpayer funded political operative....


Karl Rove is in trouble now for being involved in the decision to fire US attorneys for political reasons. But, of course, he was involved. That's what his job is at the White House: politics.

What I don't understand is why the American taxpayer has to pay for a political operative to operate out of the White House. Of course, every president gets advice about policy and politics from his staff while he is in office. But Karl Rove doesn't do policy, he only does politics.

The White House made this very clear when they moved Rove out of policy positions before the 2006 elections so that he could focus on the 2006 campaign. So, why were we paying him to do that?

If the Republican Party wants to hire him as their consultant, that's one thing. But why should American taxpayers of all political persuasions pay for a consultant to sit inside the White House and try to engineer Republican victories?

And now we find out that part of that engineering involved pressuring Justice Department prosecutors to launch investigations of Democrats and/or stop investigations of Republicans. If they didn't, there would be consequences. And there were.

The Republicans lost the elections. Exactly one month later, seven of those prosecutors were fired. They're not strong on subtlety in the Bush administration.

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[LSparkle]

1. I have been screaming this for YEARS!

If his specialty is POLITICS, then what is he doing in a POLICY position, in a taxpayer-funded position determining the governance of our country?

I loathe the man but it's DOUBLY infuriating that I'M PAYING TO HAVE HIM IN MY FACE AS A REPRESENTATIVE OF MY GOVERNMENT!

:argh:

[Virginia Dare]

2. YES, taxpayers should not be supporting political operatives..

this is utter crap, and it's a loophole that needs to be changed, for both Dems and Repubs.