Excuse me while I chew on a piece of iron.
From an
interview of Wasserman Schultz by Dan Abrams earlier this week: (closely paraphrased text)
DWS: It's Karl Rove's responsibility to come to the hearing.
DA: He's not coming. So what do you do?
DWS: Listen, it's Karl Rove's legal responsibility to come and testify. We are expecting him to come. Quite honestly, this executive privilege he's claiming.... he has to come in front of the committee and claim it there.
DA: He's not.
DWS: I realize that that's your opinion.
DA: But do you disagree? Do you think there's even a chance that he will show up?
DWS: You know what? That's not even the point.
DA: REALLY???
DWS: Well, he's been subpoenaed, and we expect him to come. At the point where he does not comply with that subpoena, then we are going to..., take... I think, to explore our options.... take the next appropriate steps... we have a number of options.... we are going to explore all our options.... all of those options that are on the table.... like with Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton.... we certainly didn't hesitate to move on their contempt citations, and I expect that we won't hesitate here either.
DA: So you expect him to be charged with contempt if he doesn't show up?
DWS: Well... that decision hasn't been made, and I am not the chair of the Judiciary Committee and I am not the speaker of the House. But I know that those decisions have not been made. And I know that we are going to explore all the options available. This is very serious. We're talking about somebody who has intricate detailed knowledge.... not just about the Siegelman case but a variety of things, and it is high time, long past time that he come in front of the Judiciary Committee and answer those questions, especially that he's answered them on national television.
DA: Let me ask you this. Is there any pressure from the leadership in the House to the Judiciary Committee to say, look, don't arrest Karl Rove, don't hold Karl Rove in contempt, don't make too big a deal about this.... have you heard at all, or has the committee heard at all from the leadership about taking this down a notch?
DWS: Not one bit. Let me just tell you... we are all deadly serious about making sure that we can get the information that we think we need. Congress, since Democrats took over, has re-engaged in terms of our oversight role, which was nonexistent when the Republicans were in control. We take our oversight role very seriously. We've had a number of significant administration officials, including the vice president's chief of staff a couple of weeks ago... he felt comfortable enough responding to us in subpoena and coming and testifying in front of us. Karl Rove is no different.
DA: You say you're going to consider your options... look, as a practical matter, everyone on the committee knows Karl Rove's not coming, his lawyer says he's not coming... I know there are two issues here... whether he will testify, which he won't, and the other is whether he will show up to invoke the privilege, which he also won't, based on his lawyer's letter to you. I can assure you, I can promise you, he's not coming. So, when you said you're going to explore your options, I've got to believe that those options have already been explored.
DWS: There are a variety of options available. There are inherent contempt, there is statutory contempt, we have subcategories.... it's a couple days premature.... he hasn't not shown up yet. So we are carefully examining our options... obviously we want whatever action we take to be taken seriously and to be effective. I really feel strongly about jealously guarding the legislature's responsibility as a coequal branch of government, and so do my colleagues on the Judiciary and so does the Speaker. So we want to make sure that whatever option we move on, it is the one that will be the most effective and will preserve Congress's authority.
....
DA: I will say this... you talk about respect. I'm going to tell you, he's not showing up. He's not testifying. He's not even going to invoke privilege. As a result, I don't know what you are going to do; I don't know what exactly you should do. But I do know this has to be taken very seriously and we are going to follow this very closely on Thursday, when he doesn't show up.
So, while Debbie is exploring her options until these criminals run out the clock, we the people suffer the consequences of this shameful, cowardly and complicit charade.
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