Tuscaloosa AL Op/Ed: Rove Must Be Called To Testify (Discusses Bloch)

[Hissyspit]

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20080509/NEWS/805090302/1027/EDITORIAL

Published Friday, May 9, 2008
Rove must be called to testify

The latest development in Don Siegelman's saga may not be the smoking gun that supporters of the former governor seek. But it should provide plenty of impetus for a deeper probe of partisan politics in his prosecution.

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Earlier this year, in an unusual move, an appeals court ordered him released on bond from prison.

Doug Jones, Siegelman's former lawyer, told the House Judiciary Committee last year that in the summer of 2004 prosecutors told him the case was going nowhere. But then the case took a "180 degree" turn, after Justice Department officials in Washington told local prosecutors to take another look at it, from top to bottom, he testified.

Something disturbingly similar happened last year, according to internal memos made public this week.

A task force formed by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel was investigating the Siegelman case as part of a wider probe into whether the White House played politics in the Department of Justice. It had begun gathering information on the case and was planning to request documents from the Justice Department in October. But out of the blue, Special Counsel Scott Bloch ordered the probe closed.

Bloch himself is now under investigation for employee claims that he abused his agency's authority, retaliated against its staff and dismissed whistle-blower cases without adequate examination.

An anonymous source said he halted the Siegelman probe because of a shortage of time and resources. But there's an alternate conclusion, one that demands a full investigation: Someone feared what the task force would uncover and ordered it off the case.

It's high time for the House committee to put GOP mastermind Karl Rove under oath about this whole seedy affair.