And Now a Word From Karl Rove

Karl Rove, formerly Bush’s Brain, spent the last four years milking billionaires to fund huge PACs to defeat the Democratic president and congressional candidates. He spent the  last year spending all that loot. Post-election return on investment for his American Crossroads Super-PAC? 1.29%. No wonder he can’t handle the truth.

He also can’t handle the paperwork. His Crossroads GPS organization never filed as a charitable organization in its home state of Virginia, as required by law. Crossroads GPS raised and spent tens of millions of dollars. Fee to register with Virginia’s Office of Charitable and Regulatory Programs: $325.

“Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS Never Filed Legally Required Registration,” Josh Israel, Think Progress

GOP Catches the Flu

H1N1, the virus popularly called “Swine Flu,” is all anyone can talk about. Anyone but Republicans.

When the economic stimulus package was first before Congress, explains John Nichols in The Nation, the bill included $900 million for flu pandemic preparedness and additional funding for the Centers for Disease Control. Karl Rove attacked these items as waste in the Wall Street Journal, and Senator Susan Collins (R, ME) bragged about killing the health provisions in Congress. Critics stripped all medical and research provisions from the proposal, leaving only $50 million to improve IT services at HHS. State and local public health officials were concerned.

“Everybody …  is concerned about a pandemic flu,” Collins said at the time. “But does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill? No, we should not.”

The argument that anti-pandemic measures have no economic ramifications was a bad diagnosis.  The new flu has caused panic on Wall Street as well as Main Street, with more to come. Emergency measures are costing Mexico City’s economy at least $57 million a day and direct costs are unknown. Expect similar local losses across the USA. 

Collins has pulled her flu fulminations off her web site and issued a defensive denial.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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How Many Turkeys Will He Pardon?

President George W. Bush, following a tradition started by Harry Truman, is expected to pardon the 2008 National Thanksgiving Turkey. Mr. Bush has always enjoyed this ceremony, except for the year when things went horribly, tragically wrong, and his pardon came too late.

President Bush has more pardons to consider in his remaining weeks in office, and the herd of turkeys gobbling for clemency is bigger than the one at Turkeyfest in Cuero, Texas. Jailbirds looking to leave the turkey pen include GOP gobblers Edwin Edwards and Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Fowls facing future chopping blocks include David Addington, William Haynes, and others who permitted torture in the name of national security.

Rove in Hollywood?

Globe-hopping fugitive Karl Rove may have returned to the United States, or at least to Hollywood, California, which is pretty close. Mr. Rove bravely testified before some of the finest minds in our country, people who review television shows for newspapers and local TV stations. He assisted fellow Fox News personality Chris Wallace in pimping promoting network offerings for the coming season.

Rove in Yalta

[UPDATE: Rove in Hollywood?]

Karl Rove participated in a meeting at Yalta in the Crimea, at the place where Stalin, Churchill and FDR carved up the World in 1945. The Crimea is now part of Ukraine.

The weekend event, held at the Livadia Palace, was the 5th annual YES (Yalta European Strategy) conference. Mr. Rove was a panelist on a Saturday morning plenary session: Elections in Russia and the USA: impact on Ukraine and Europe. The panel, chaired by Richard Haas,  President of the Council on Foreign Relations, also included veteran Democratic speechwriter Bob Shrum.

Attention Attorneys

Billable hours.

Now that we have your attention, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Bar, a question, please. It does pertain to time.

We at NotionsCapital are the only non-lawyers on our block here in Washington, DC.  Our legal question regards the representation of one Karl Rove in response to a subpoena from a House Judiciary subcommittee, for which he failed to appear.

Karl in the Crimea — Rove, not Marx

 

[UPDATE: Rove in Yalta]

Karl Rove is roving the beaches of the Crimea, not the committee rooms of Congress. Andrew Malcolm of the Los Angeles Times reached the former White House Senior Svengali by cell phone in the Eastern European resort to ask for his reaction to the death of Tony Snow.

Mr. Rove ignored a subpoena and failed to appear for testimony before a House Judiciary subcommittee. According to Rep. Linda Sánchez (D, CA-39), Mr. Rove’s lawyer, Robert D. Luskin (a partner in Patton Boggs LLP), “forgot” to tell committee staffers that his client had scheduled what Rep. Chris Cannon (R, UT-3) described as a “long-planned trip” abroad.

Where in the World is Karl Rove?

[UPDATE: Rove report.]

Where in the World is Karl Rove?  That’s the big Blogosphere question tonight. See it here and here and here.

Mr. Rove, former White House Resident Evil Genius, is a fugitive from a chain gang  subpoena issued by a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee. His attorney has been in contact with committee staff for weeks, but forgot to mention that Mr. Rove would leave the country on what Rep. Chris Cannon (R, UT-3) described as a “long-planned trip” to . . . well, where did he go, anyway? No one seems to know; opinions differ.

 

Failure To Appear

Former White House Grand Vizier Karl Rove ignored a congressional subpoena and refused to testify about political pressure at the Justice Department during his reign.

We thought Mr. Rove was just much too busy down in Texas, writing his book and infecting vegetables with Salmonella, but we are told he has “left the county” on a long-planned trip his lawyer neglected to tell the congressional comittee about. Pehaps he took the advice of General Philip Henry Sheridan, leased out his Texas residence, and gone somewhere warm to do advance work for his retirement.

Did Scott McClellan Read My Blog?

NotionsCapital ran this graphic on November 17, 2007
(Enlarged here because you won’t believe it):

 

Either Scott McClellan reads my blog or I am as prescient as I think I am.

Actually, Mr. McClellan telegraphed his book’s content back in November, but that was back around Thanksgiving, and the media has the attention span of cranberry jelly.

By the way, Ryland Sanders’ “Scottie Says” Web site is still up and running. Generate some new Scottie quotes for yourself. Mine is still good.

Image above by Mike Licht. Download a version here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com and leave the says-it URL