Rove and Gonzales Resigned White House Posts

Rove, Followed by Scandal, Resigned

The Architect of the Bush presidency resigned! Shocked White House watchers wonder how Bush 43 would function without Karl Rove. Chief Advisor to the president, Rove claimed he was leaving to spend more time at home. Most believed that impending investigations from the Senate Judiciary Committee dogging Rove as he vacated the West Wing were the real reason for leaving. He was wanted for questioning about his role in purging U.S. Attorneys who weren’t willing to bring partisan prosecutions for the championship of the republican party. As of June 2007, the Committee now wanted to question Rove about the Don Siegelman Prosecution, a prime example of political abuse of the Justice Department by “loyal Bushies.”

Alberto Gonzales Resigned 2 Weeks Later

Alberto Gonzales resigned exactly by two weeks after Karl Rove did. Both men had scaled great heights, each in a fabled rags to riches climb to power. Now they were plagued by scandal and at a crossroads.

Rove under his buddy and president, George Bush, directed the politicization of the federal government, especially the Justice Department. U.S. Attorney Gonzales, a life-long loyal Bushie, faithfully approved the dismissal of U.S. attorneys when they refused to use their office for republican party’s purposes rather than justice. Rove and Gonzales feared prison for themselves and exposure for their boss as subpoenas were issued and investigations got underway.

Gonzales would fade from the national scene, while Rove would reinvent himself and go on to be a 4-star general in the radical-right dark money revolution.

Politics is the primary consideration. . .The rule of law goes out the window

The influence of Rove’s government politicization was much wider than the Justice Department. Protecting Rove’s big-tobacco client was one such influence. The lead prosecutor in a landmark lawsuit against tobacco, Sharon Eubanks, accused the Bush Justice Department of obstruction. She claimed that Bushies in Alberto Gonzales’s office worked to let tobacco companies off the hook by spoiling the government’s claim that big tobacco had deliberately lied to US smokers. Tobacco was a major dark money contributor to the Bush/Rove campaign.

Failed to Represent the interests of the American public

“Political interference is happening at Justice across the department,” Eubanks said. “When decisions are made now in the Bush attorney general’s office, politics is the primary consideration . . . . The rule of law goes out the window. . . . And because of that, we failed to zealously represent the interests of the American public … ”

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TIME 05.10.07
Inside the Scandal at Justice
By Karen Tumulty and Massimo Calabresi

“The Attorney General is extremely upset with the stories on the U.S. Attorneys this morning,” his spokesman Brian Roehrkasse wrote in an e-mail. The papers that day were full of news . . . . regarding the firing last year of eight U.S. Attorneys.”

Politico 08.13.07
Rove Resigns from the Bush Administration
Associated Press

Karl Rove, President Bush’s close friend and chief political strategist, plans to leave the White House at the end of August, joining a lengthening line of senior officials heading for the exits . . . .

Salon 08.27.07
Why did Gonzales resign?
Sidney Blumenthal

In the weeks leading up to his resignation, Gonzales was undoubtedly aware of the various investigations into his activities, the avenues being pursued and the witnesses questioned, not all of them in public.

NYT 08.28.07
The House Lawyer Departs
Editorial

In many ways, Mr. Gonzales turned out to be the ultimate “loyal Bushie,” a term his Justice Department chief of staff used so incredibly inappropriately to describe what his department was looking for in its top prosecutors.     

The Guardian 08.28.07
New blow to Bush as attorney general resigns
by Ewen MacAskill

In a short statement in Texas, Mr Bush . . .  said: “After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the justice department, Judge Gonzales decided to submit his resignation and I accepted his decision.

Washington Post 09.14.07
Rove to Leave White House Post
By Peter Baker and Michael A. Fletcher

Rove, 56, who holds the titles of White House deputy chief of staff and senior adviser, said he had been thinking of leaving for more than a year and has wanted to spend more time with his family. Although he is the object of multiple investigations by the Democratic Congress, Rove scoffed at the notion that they prompted his decision.

IndieStar (USA Network) 11.15.16
What’s Mike Pence hiding in his emails?
by Fatima Houssein

“Mike Pence wants his communications limited from public access. Experts say this sets a “dangerous precedent.”

About Friends of Siegelman

Friends of Siegleman is a group of volunteers who are composed of family, friends, and colleagues of the former Alabama Governor, Don Siegelman. We believe that he was unjustly politically prosecuted.