Karl Rove came out of hiding to make an unexpected keynote speech at last night’s Federalist Society convention in Washington. As Advance Indiana reported last month, the Federalist Society mailed out a flier promoting its annual convention which touted Rove as one of its keynote speakers. But as Special Prosecutor Peter Fitzgerald’s investigation readied indictments from its 2-year long investigation of the CIA leak case, Rove suddenly dropped out of sight and began cancelling all public appearances. The Federalist Society’s website no longer mentioned Rove being a keynote speaker. After dodging the indictment bullet his good buddy Scooter Libby was unable to avoid at the conclusion of Fitzgerald’s first grand jury, Rove we are now told has rebounded.
In his speech to the conservative group of lawyers, the New York Times reports that the college drop-out attacked the courts’ “judicial imperialism.” MSNBC reported that Rove predicted that “[t]he public will reclaim its rights as a sovereign people”, and “at the end of the day the views of the Founders will prevail.” Advance Indiana is wondering if that includes the views of the Founders who insisted on the legalization of slavery in the new republic, and the notion that women were not entitled to the right to vote because they were second class citizens as the property of their men.
“If the judiciary is not reined in, voters will demand constitutional amendments to rectify what they perceive as bad decisions,” Rove said. Among the decisions Rove criticized was the recent Supreme Court ruling in Roper v. Simmons, which held that imposing the death penalty on juvenile offenders was unconstitutional. Rove complained of the decision that the Court “ignored the fact that at the time, the peoples’ representatives in 20 states had permitted the death penalty for killers under 18.” Of course, two-thirds of these peoples’ representatives once banned inter-racial marriages until the Supreme Court ruled 50 years ago that it was unconstitutional. Mr. Rove probably thought that ruling represented “judicial imperialism” as well.
Rove is reportedly back at work plotting out strategy nationally and locally for Republicans. According to the Times, Rove apparently is taking credit for Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka’s decision to enter the Republican gubernatorial race next year to face off against several lesser-known conservative candidates. Republicans in Illinois who know better will get a good laugh out of that one.
Rove’s renewed cockiness may be short-lived. The Raw Story reports that Rove’s former assistant, Susan Ralston, will be called back to the grand jury to testify about the reason Time reporter Matt Cooper’s call (the one Rove forgot to tell investigators about) was not logged in as other calls made to him were. Rove apparently lied to investigators by telling them that Cooper’s call was forwarded by a White House operator rather than being made directly to his office and, therefore, was not logged. Apparently, that’s just another Rove lie that Fitzgerald wants to learn more about before indicting Rove for making false statements.
And Susan Ralston is also a former assistant to indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who used Ralston as a conduit to Rove to lobby the White House on Indian tribal matters.
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