All roads lead to Rove

Surprise, surprise: Karl Rove DID pass on complaints from Republicans to the Justice Department about U.S. attorneys who refused to do the party's bidding:

The White House acknowledged on Sunday that presidential adviser Karl Rove served as a conduit for complaints about federal prosecutors as House investigators declared their intention to question him about any role he may have played in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Rove relayed complaints from Republican officials and others to the Justice Department and the White House counsel's office. She said Rove, the chief White House political operative, specifically recalled passing along complaints about former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias and may have mentioned the grumblings about Iglesias to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Iglesias says he lost his job as the top federal prosecutor in New Mexico after rebuffing Republican pressure to speed his investigation of Democratic officials in the state.

Rove said he did not suggest that any of the U.S. attorneys be forced to resign, Perino said.

The new details about Rove's involvement in the firings emerged as the top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee declared their interest in talking to him. The committee is trying to determine whether the firings were part of an effort to exert political influence over federal prosecutions.

Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., confirmed their plans after McClatchy Newspapers reported that New Mexico's Republican Party chairman, Allen Weh, had complained to Rove and one of Rove's deputies about Iglesias. Iglesias was fired Dec. 7.

"Mr. Conyers and Ms. Sanchez intend to talk with Karl Rove about any role he may have had in the firing of the U.S. attorneys," said Sanchez spokesman James Dau.

As soon as Karl Rove denies involvement in something, you know he was involved.

It occurs to me that what we've seen in this Administration is that there is a "tipping point of evil" -- a point beyond which the citizenry becomes so paralyzed from trying to wrap its mind around the horrors being committed by its own government that consequences become impossible.

When you look at the collections of violation of the law, human rights violations, embezzlement, theft, and other atrocities committed by the Bush Administration, that there is as little outcry as there is seems mind-boggling. But it's clear, looking back at the carrying on over Bill Clinton lying under oath about a sexual liaison that should never have been investigated in the first place, contrasted to the Bush Administration's lies to get us into war, flagrant discarding of the U.S. Constitution, war profiteering, tossing of habeas corpus, tossing of the Geneva Conventions, illegal spying on Americans for no reason, and now politicizing the Justice Department, that the message has now been sent to all future presidents: If you're going to do bad things, don't screw around. You can get away with anything, as long as your wrongdoings come fast and furious, and don't let up for a minute. Because once you reach that tipping point, you can do whatever you want and the need Americans have to believe that the men who lead the United States by definition could not possibly be as evil as it appears.