Rove refuses to appear before House Judiciary panel

Karl Rove, former White House deputy chief of staff and President Bush's top political adviser, is refusing to appear before the House Judiciary Committee to testify on "politicization" within the Justice Dept. Rove had been scheduled to appear next Thursday, July 10.

Rove's refusal to respond to a Judiciary Committee subpoena drew a stern response from Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Commercial and Administrative Law subcommittee.

"We want to make clear that the subcommittee will convene as scheduled and expects Mr. Rove to appear, and that a refusal to appear in violation of the subpoena could subject Mr. Rove to contempt proceedings, including statutory contempt under federal law and proceedings under the inherent contempt authority of the House of Representatives," Conyers and Sanchez wrote in a letter to Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin.

Luskin, in a letter to the two Democratic lawmakers on Monday, pointed out that the committee is already involved in a civil lawsuit against the Bush administration over the White House's claim of "absolute immunity" from having to respond to subpoenas issued to current or former senior aides once the president has asserted executive privilege.

According to Luskin, Rove "is simply not free to accede to the Committee's view and take a position inconsistent with that asserted by the White House in the litigation."

Luskin has offered to make Rove available to the committee in private, without taking an oath and with not transcript kept, or would allow him to respond to written questions from the panel. But Conyers and Sanchez have rejected the offer as inadequate.

Judiciary Committee Democrats want to question Rove about his knowledge of the prosecution of former Alabama Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman, as well as the firing of nine U.S. attorneys back in 2006. Rove has denied a report on the CBS show "60 Minutes," which aired a claim by GOP lawyer Dana Jill Simpson that Rove was behind the Siegelman case. Rove has denied the allegation.