Send this Eric Alterman to every mainstream media you know — NY Times, David Broder, Time, ABC, etc. Never mind Howard Fineman. He’s hopeless. Democratic investigations and attempts to question Karl Rove are not tit-for-tat partisan politics. They are about oversight of a corrupt administration that the mainstreamers feared to cross. They are about politicization of the Justice Department and every other agency of government. Of special interest outrages large and small. Lies under oath. Of course the Republicans want the investigations to stop. Of course their hand-maidens are still singing their masters’ tune. The people must demand that the investigations continue.
There’s hope. NPR this morning noted that there are now 18 U.S. attorneys serving without benefit of Senate confirmation. This was Rove’s plan. To stock those offices with pure partisans who’d serve his political bidding at election time. Beat up Sen. Mark Pryor all you want for his double-secret-probation war vote the other day — lampooned last night on the Daily Show. He’s deserving. But thank him for standing in the way of Rove stooge Tim Griffin, who was to run the game plan in Arkansas. The Rove house is tumbling down thanks to Pryor’s gumption.