When the new Congress returns to Washington next month, one of the first items of business for Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee may be to subpoena Karl Rove . The move will put the new Obama administration in an unexpectedly dicey situation, as the next attorney general will have to decide whether or not to defend President Bush's longtime political adviser should he tell the committee to bug off.

That’s what Rove did over the summer after the committee asked him to come up to the Hill to answer questions about any role he might have played in pushing the prosecution of Alabama's former Democratic governor Don Siegelman. Critics had charged that the prosecution, which resulted in Siegelman's conviction on bribery charges, had been politically motivated and orchestrated by the White House itself. Rather than answer the committee's questions, Rove left the country. His lawyer argued that President Bush’s exercise of executive privilege gave Rove "absolute immunity" from ever testifying before Congress...