Rove Defies Subpoena to Speak at Exotic Getaway (along with Dem Bob Shrum)

[mod mom]

IT'S BAD ENOUGH THAT ROVE DEFIES A CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENA WITH LITTLE ACTION FROM THE DEMS, BUT IT APPALLS ME THAT HE MADE A HUGE SPEAKING FEE ALONG WITH FELLOW MONEY PARTY PROSTITUTES SUCH AS BOB SHRUM!


An Empty Seat and An Exotic Getaway

By Michael Isikoff | NEWSWEEK
Published Jul 19, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Jul 28, 2008



House Democrats were fuming recently when Karl Rove defied a congressional subpoena and refused to show up at a House Judiciary Committee hearing into whether he meddled in Justice Department prosecutions. Instead of grilling the former White House political chief under oath, the members found themselves talking to an empty chair. What they didn't know is where Rove was that day: on a jet flying to a speaking engagement at Yalta, the historic Black Sea resort in Ukraine. Rove, who generally charges a reported $40,000 per talk, appeared on a premier panel (along with Democratic strategist Bob Shrum) on the upcoming U.S. election at the fifth annual conference of the YES Foundation, a confab of world luminaries bankrolled by billionaire Victor Pinchuk, the Ukrainian steel magnate and son-in-law of the country's former autocratic president, Leonid Kuchma.

Democrats on the judiciary panel were outraged when they heard about Rove's overseas jaunt on the day he'd been ordered to testify. "That's just extremely contemptuous—it shows the disdain that he has for Congress and which he has encouraged in the Bush White House," said Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee. But Robert Luskin, Rove's lawyer, said the criticism was "fatuous" because, before he took off, Rove had been directed by White House counsel Fred Fielding not to show up. The reason: as a former presidential adviser, the White House views anything he might say to the panel as covered by executive privilege. "What was he supposed to do, sit at home with his lights off?" said Luskin. "I understand that people are unhappy that he didn't show up." But the no-show "was not something we concocted so he could make money in Yalta." Rove himself did not respond to a request for comment. But last week in an appearance on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News show, Rove dismissed the Democrats' demand for his testimony: "They want a circus," he said.

-snip
http://www.newsweek.com/id/147776

[Solly Mack]

1. Yalta European Strategy (YES)

Yalta European Strategy (YES)

09:30 – 11:00 – Plenary session: Elections in Russia and the USA: impact on Ukraine and Europe
What will be the foreign policy of the new Russian and American leadership over the coming years? How will it impact their relationship with the European Union and Ukraine, and EU’s further enlargement?

Moderator: Richard Haass
Panel:
Sergey Glaziev, Director, Institute for New Economy, member of the 1st, 3rd and 4th Russian State Duma
Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, Ambassador to the Russian Federation and First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine
Alexander Rahr, Programme Director, German Council on Foreign Relations, member of the Board of YES
Karl Rove, Former Deputy Chief of Staff to George W. Bush and Chief Strategist for Bush's Presidential Campaigns
Bob Shrum, political consultant and Senior Fellow, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University


Listen to the debate here

[Sal Minella]

2. Well Goodness Gracious, if they wanted an authority for "Elections in Russia and the USA," who could

possibly be more savvy than our own Karl Rove?????

[Solly Mack]

11. Heh! Isn't Rice supposed to the expert on Russia?

[hisownpetard]

3. Oh, how I despise that man.

[CJCRANE]

4. "Book him, Danno" nt.

[mmonk]

5. His empty chair isn't the only one.

Even those occupied are defacto empty. I don't blame Rove. He knows it's for show. He knows he can get by with not showing up.

[Riddler]

6. Would somebody please explain to me why this pasty-faced piece of shit is still walking around

a free man instead of rotting in jail? Is there not one set of balls in the entire Democratic congress?

[Maraya1969]

8. It makes me crazy too and I don't understand how our delegates have the NERVE TO LET HIM DO IT!

Who's proud of their country right now?

[mod mom]

10. It's not only kkkarl but f-ing Ken Blackwell failed to appear for his subpoena will

no recourse. This pisses me off beyond belief.

[formercia]

7. All these 'Lawyers' in Congress and you expect a different result?

Feh!

You could throw them all in a tank of sharks and the sharks would choose to go hungry rather then deny them a professional courtesy.

[lonestarnot]

9. Red Rover's criminality falls under the secret government policing. Our laws do not matter.

So which ones should we test today?

[fascisthunter]

12. Bob Shrum... Mr. lose

gee.... what a coincidence

[mod mom]

13. Shrum-way worse than Mr Lose: (FDL: Million Dollar Assholes: Carville, Shrum & Greenberg):

Friday, April 08, 2005
Million Dollar Assholes: Carville, Shrum & Greenberg




I love documentaries. A lot. Real people in real situations are always weirder, more original and more interesting than any fiction Hollywood can brew.

I saw a documentary that blew me away today but I don't mean in a good way. It was called Our Brand is Crisis, about how the firm of Carville, Greenberg and Shrum (as in James Ragin' Cajun Carville and Bob $5 million man Shrum) travel around the world meddling in political situations they know little about for fun and profit when they're not busy losing Presidential elections.

The film takes place in the Bolivian election of 2002, when Carville et. al. convinced the Bolivian people they needed to elect Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, aka Goni, an American-born candidate who speaks Spanish with an accent and who had failed miserably once before as President during the 90s. He is elected by the thinnest of margins, only to be forced to resign 14 months later amid riots that left 100 people dead.

-snip

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005/04/million-dollar-assholes-carville-shrum.html



Globalism extends to the American way of campaigning, it seems, and the hubris of the gringo strategists — earnest ex-Clintonistas employed by James Carville’s Greenberg Carville Shrum group — would be hilarious if human lives and a country’s political will weren’t at stake.

It’s a galling and provocative experience to viewers of any political persuasion, and a reminder to the left of how easily idealism can run amok.

The Carville boys were hired by Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, a.k.a. ‘‘Goni,’’ a patrician Bolivian businessman who served a rough term as Bolivia’s president in the mid-’90s. Goni’s legacy was an unsuccessful program of ‘‘capitalization’’ (i.e., he welcomed foreign investment and watched foreigners get all the jobs).

By 2002, the time of filming, unemployment is through the roof and rural campesinos are agitating for political representation. Goni is old news and his poll numbers are dismal. Enter Jeremy Rosner, Greenberg Carville Shrum’s point man in Bolivia, an articulate manipulator of mass moods (and a fellow who bears an uncanny resemblance to Seth Meyers of ‘‘Saturday Night Live’’ — reality parodies itself here better than any comic could).

-snip
http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2006/06/30/a_campaign_in_bolivia_thats_made_in_america/

[fascisthunter]

14. worse than I thought.... amazing that anyone here would support these pricks

talk about enemies of our own political party. Take it over DUers..... take over the Democratic Party and kick these bastards out!

[dave123williams]

15. He should probably stay out of the country; he could get shot here..

Ah, he's not a Federal Employee any longer is he. I'm just sayin'.

Shit happens.

[spanone]

16. i expect karl to be arrested first thing in the morning, since no one is above the law.

:sarcasm:

[lala_rawraw]

17. figures that

freak show would go to my other country. i hope everyone spit in his kalbasa and kotelti