Turley: Rove testimony to likely be just part of a show trial David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster

Published: Thursday March 5, 2009





Print This Email This Members of the Democratic Party "would love to have me barbecued," jested Karl Rove.



The onetime top adviser to former president George W. Bush made the observation during a Thursday interview on Fox News, his occasional employer.



Yet just hours after the announcement that--after three fruitless subpoenas--Rove had agreed to testify before Congress, both Rove and constitutional attorney Jonathan Turley agree on one thing: the whole affair may end up a show trial.



Or, in Turley's words, it could all be at best a deliberate, faux-drama "Kabuki dance," he said Wednesday night on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann.



Following news that Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers had agreed to testify in private, but still under penalty of perjury, came a sobering second blow: the deal had been reached not through Congress, but between a sitting president and his predecessor.



"[Obama] frankly does not want to fight this fight," said Turley on Countdown. "He doesn't view it as something that's important to him. He's focused on the economy."



Turley assessed that the battle for Rove's unfettered testimony "was going to put [Obama] in a direct fight with George Bush."



"I don't think Obama wanted to see that happen," continued Turley. "I don't think George Bush did either. And so, I think they both wanted a compromise and they seem to have gotten it."



Turley said House Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers (D-MI) feels the compromise to be worthwhile because it is not uncommon for a witness to give a deposition before public testimony, and not only will Congress get to question Rove and Miers, but a new cache of Bush administration documents will be unlocked to them.



"Conyers doesn't think he's giving up much in all of this," said Turley. But, he added, "I think you're going to find [Rove and Miers] saying the favorite phrase in Washington: 'To the best of my recollection, I have no recollection.'"



This video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast Mar. 4, 2009.









Download video via RawReplay.com





Mike Sheehan contributed to this report.





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