From Insight on the News:
The White House has been twisting arms to ensure that no Republican member votes against President Bush in the Senate Judiciary CommitteeÂ’s investigation of the administration's unauthorized wiretapping.
Congressional sources said Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president. The sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November.Karl Rove. Reuter's File Photo
"It's hardball all the way," a senior GOP congressional aide said.
The sources said the administration has been alarmed over the damage that could result from the Senate hearings, which began on Monday, Feb. 6. They said the defection of even a handful of Republican committee members could result in a determination that the president violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Such a determination could lead to impeachment proceedings.
Over the last few weeks, Mr. Rove has been calling in virtually every Republican on the Senate committee as well as the leadership in Congress. The sources said Mr. Rove's message has been that a vote against Mr. Bush would destroy GOP prospects in congressional elections.
"He's [Rove] lining them up one by one," another congressional source said.
Mr. Rove is leading the White House campaign to help the GOP in NovemberÂ’s congressional elections. The sources said the White House has offered to help loyalists with money and free publicity, such as appearances and photo-ops with the president.
Those deemed disloyal to Mr. Rove would appear on his blacklist. The sources said dozens of GOP members in the House and Senate are on that list.
So far, only a handful of GOP senators have questioned Mr. Rove's tactics.
Some have raised doubts about Mr. Rove's strategy of painting the Democrats, who have opposed unwarranted surveillance, as being dismissive of the threat posed by al Qaeda terrorists.
"Well, I didn't like what Mr. Rove said, because it frames terrorism and the issue of terrorism and everything that goes with it, whether it's the renewal of the Patriot Act or the NSA wiretapping, in a political context," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, Nebraska Republican.
A couple things about this story. First, it doesn't surprise me that Rove would use a blacklist to keep the Republican senators in line with the White House talking points on the "terrorist surveillance program," also known as the illegal NSA wire-tapping. The fact that this story came out in the ultra-conservative, Moonie-controlled press is in itself, a message to the Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee--march in step with the White House talking points, or you're on your own.
This story also reveals another aspect of the Bush administration. The White House is certainly worried about the damage that can come about in the Senate Judiciary hearings on the illegal wire-tapping. The Bush White House is worried that the Republican senators might consider the illegal wire-tappings as a White House violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which certainly could bring up impeachment proceedings against the Bush administration. There have been a lot of scandals coming out of the Bush White House--misuse of WMD intelligence, Valerie Plame affair, Katrina, the relationship between George Bush and Jack Abramoff, and now this NSA spying. The White House spin-meisters of Rove and company are worried that any more revelations could politically damage the Republicans during this midterm elections, and possibly changing control of Congress to the Democrats.
Reflecting on this story brought an off-the-wall quote from the movie Star Wars. There is a scene where the imperial governor Grand Moff Tarkin is talking to Princess Lea, just before the Death Star destroys Lea's home planet of Alderaan. When hearing Tarkin's boast that the fear and power of Death Star will keep the Galactic Empire together, Princess Lea responds, "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." In a way, this comment also applies to the current White House strategy of maintaining control of the Republican Party. Hard ball tactics of blacklisting senators and representatives, can only work up to a point. Fear of being blacklisted, or not getting preferental White House treatment of election campaigning can only work if the White House has control of the media, propaganda spin, and the polls in generating their own political image of the issues, and in maintaining the American public's acceptance of the White House's version of its spin. But the White House doesn't have control of the propaganda spin, the media, or control of what the American public believes anymore. Bush's poll numbers have dropped down to around 38 percent, with a majority of Americans believing that the country is on the wrong track. And while the American public may accept the idea of domestic spying if it helps in the fight on terrorism, they are uneasy about the fact that such spying may occur without a court order. And the more this domestic spying issue remains on the front pages of the news, the greater the political damage can occur against the Bush White House. How many Republican senators are going to fall prey to these White House tactics? How many of them are going to start saying enough of this White House politicizing of everything, as Republican senator Chuck Hagel has said?
Stay tuned.
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