Humpty Dumpty Head

The first time I saw a picture of Karl Rove, I thought, "wow, that man looks like Humpty Dumpty!" Then I laughed to myself because how could a real man look like a nursery rhyme egg? But that pale, oval, balding head and contemptuous grin must have inspired the same imagery in roughly 6000 other minds. At least that's how many Google hits I get on +"Karl Rove" +"Humpty Dumpty."

Although I prefer to use the moniker "Humpty Dumpty Head," Rove's more common nickname is "Bush's Brain." Here are some of the brainiac maneuvers he's linked to:

During the 2000 Republican Primary, Karl Rove, working as Bush's chief strategist, allegedly spread rumors about John McCain implying that McCain had committed treason while a prisoner of war, and had fathered a child by a black prostitute.

Rove allegedly leaked the identity of Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA agent -- a political move that compromised U.S. security.

Rove has been accused of election fraud through tactics like voter caging.

Rove is also accused of targetting Alabama Governor Don Siegelman in a selective, politically motivated prosecution.

Rove was possibly involved in firing nine U.S. attorneys in a purge designed to turn the Department of Justice into a Republican reelection machine.

Did I call these brainiac maneuvers? I'm sorry. What I meant to say was mountain of crime committed with complete disregard to the U.S., its people, its institutions, and its constitution.

Last May, the House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Karl Rove to testify explicitly about the attorney purge. That testimony was scheduled to take place July 10. He didn't show. In fact, he was out of the country.

The Bush administration claims that high-level aides to the president are completely immune from compelled congressional testimony. The administration is not claiming that there exists sensitive subjects that cannot be discussed due to national security. They are declaring that these people are above the law and answer to nobody.

This outrageous defiance threatens the pillar of our democracy -- equal justice for all.

So last Thursday, lawmakers faced an empty chair, an untouched glass of ice water, and a little printed sign that read "Mr. Karl Rove."

I don't know what the next step is. The committee has again ordered Rove to appear, but this thing will drag out long after Bush leaves the White House.

Will Humpty Dumpty ever take his fall? Or will he be rescued? I'm reminded of Through the Looking Glass when Humpty Dumpty exclaims "Yes, all his horses and all his men... They'd pick me up again in a minute, they would!" And that's what I'm afraid of.

Loser Takes All

Loser Takes All is a collection of essays covering the vast election fraud that has been perpetrated by the GOP—with the Democratic Party’s acquiescence—since 2000. The number of topics alone is alarming: the myth of George Bush’s victory in Florida in 2000, and FOX News’s key role in propagating it; Senator Max Cleland’s dubious defeat in Georgia in 2002; Bush’s “re-election” in 2004, including evidence of systematic fraud outside of Ohio; startling evidence of fraud committed in the 2006 midterm elections, which the Democrats appear to have won by a far larger margin than officially reported; and, crucially, evidence that the Republicans will attempt to steal the presidential election in 2008.

The book also includes an essay about Don Siegelman, a story that not many Americans are aware of:



The 60 Minutes interview doesn't cover the whole story though. In a recent Air America interview, Don Siegelman made very specific allegations of election fraud against Karl Rove and the Bush administration:

[Thom Hartmann]: Right. Now, in our conversation you have suggested that the original election that you lost to Bob Riley by a few thousand votes in the middle of the night may have been stolen. That is a part of the story that has been treated as if it was radioactive by the corporate press. It has, to the best of my knowledge, I have never heard that in any of the official corporate news reports. Have you asserted that before, have you been saying this all along, or is this…

[Don Siegelman]: Well yes, we have been saying it, we have been saying it since the night of the election. I mean, we won the election, the votes were counted and were declared and then in one county which is controlled by Republicans the, after midnight when everybody went home, when the poll workers were sent home, when the media was gone, they decided to electronically recount these votes and shifted the votes and certified the vote illegally the next day. The, interestingly, Karl Rove’s client sepped in, the attorney general stepped in and said, ‘if anybody tries to hand count these votes we’re going to put them in jail’. We initially had a green light from the local Republicans in this one area that we could come in and hand count these ballots where the electronic shift occurred.[..]

In true Republican style, Karl Rove seems to be angry that the story is being reported at all. Meanwhile, Rove continues to appear on Fox News as a political analyst without disclosure of his ties to Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign.

2008 might be another loser takes all year.