Blog post

June 13, 2006 [LINK]

Karl Rove avoids indictment

The office of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has advised Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, that Rove is not a target of the investigation into "Plamegate." See CNN.com. As Rush Limbaugh noted, Rove stayed out of legal jeopardy by simply telling the truth when he was testifying to the grand jury -- five times, altogether. Democrats, who have been gleefully anticipating Rove's indictment by Fitzgerald for months on end, are now disconsolate. The Daily Kos speculates that Rove has cooperated with Fitzgerald so as to pin the blame on Dick Cheney, who is (in their somewhat twisted view) at fault for the Iraq war. Now that's some creative spin!

Coincidentally, just yesterday Rove made a speech to Republicans in New Hampshire in which he pulled no punches in denouncing Democrats for undermining the U.S. war effort, singling out Rep. John Murtha. See Washington Post. I don't often agree with Rove's approach to politics, but on that point, I would concur. The Democrats are stuck in a rut of rhetorical pandering to their lunatic fringe, pretending that the threat of terrorism is not real, thereby making it less likely that they'll retake the House or the Senate this November.

Plame's husband Joe Wilson appeared at the "Yearly Kos" convention of leftist bloggers in Las Vegas this weekend, and his breezy, smug attitude was something to behold. He has yet to come clean for multiple distortions about how he came to be sent on a fact-finding mission to Niger in 2002, and his partisanship puts him in the same league with folks like Tom DeLay or Nancy Pelosi.

Webb wins Dem primary

Former Navy Secretary James Webb has won the Democratic nomination for the Senate, according to the AP; see newsleader.com. "Fightin' Jim" Webb is charismatic and well-known, so that's not a big surprise. Harris Miller had positioned himself in the John Kerry mold -- appealing to the party's left-liberal base, with a few moderate statements for the sake of balance. There was a flurry of controversy last week when Webb's campaign released a cartoon flyer with a caricatured features of Harris Miller, but the hook nose wasn't as pronounced as some people thought. It does make you wonder, however, whether some of the people who are working for Webb are anti-semitic.

"Moderate" blogger Joe Gandelman recently declared that he would vote for George Allen as a protest vote if Webb beats Harris Miller in today's primary.