Democrats Want Answers on Rove's Role in CIA Leak

From Reuters:

WASHINGTON (July 11) - The White House faced questioning on Monday over top political aide Karl Rove's involvement in a CIA leak scandal and Democratic calls mounted for President George W. Bush to sideline the adviser.

One Democratic lawmaker said the intentional disclosure of a covert agent's identity amounted to an "act of treason." Others urged Bush to sideline Rove by suspending his access to classified information and said the aide should "clear the air" by answering questions from Congress.

After publicly defending Rove two years ago, the White House responded to a barrage of pointed questions on Monday by saying that it would not comment at the request of the prosecutors investigating who leaked the identify of the CIA agent, Valerie Plame.

The sad thing about this mess is that the Democrats are not going to get any honest answers to Rove's involvement in the Valerie Plame CIA leak. Oh, the top Democratic lawmakers will make their political statements and pose in front of the television cameras. And the Bush White House will certainly not reveal any more information in this matter. The problem is that the Republicans still control Congress. They can control any investigations into corruption, and the Republican congressional leadership is not going to investigate the Republican White House. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is not going to investigate his ubber presidential campaign advisor Karl Rove. House Speaker Tom Delay is not going to launch his own investigation--certainly not when he's the center of an ethics investigation for taking trips and money from corporate lobbyists. And President Bush is not going to remove his closest presidential advisor. This Rove flap will continue on for about two weeks, before it will become covered up and ignored.

The problem is that the Democrats do not have control of Congress. With control of Congress, comes control of the legislative agenda, and control of investigation committees. The only thing the Democrats can do now is complain as hints of one Bush White House scandal after another slowly surfaces. Even if the Democrats can gain control of Congress in 2006, President Bush will just about become a lame duck in office, and both political parties will be gearing up to the 2008 elections. So a Democratically-controlled Congress in 2006 will certainly not result in impeachment and removal of President Bush from office.

But a Democratically-controlled Congress will allow the Democrats to create and control committees to investigate these Bush White House scandals. And as more information is revealed regarding the corruption, it can certainly place the President and the Republican Party within a negative image--especially as the 2008 presidential elections get into full swing. Would Frist use Rove in his presidential campaign if greater details of Rove's involvement into the CIA leak become public? Can any Republican candidate distance themselves from the corruption of the Republican leadership in both Congress and the White House? There are a lot of blog sites out there screaming for impeachment and Bush's head on a silver platter. Many of these blog sites are liberal and progressive in their politics. The problem is that these sites should realize that impeaching Bush is a lost cause. These blog sites must continue to expose the lies and corruption that occurs daily in the Bush White House and Republican Congress. They must continue to push for the real answers--both against the Republicans for providing those answers and against the Democrats for demanding those answers. The real goal here is to gain Democratic control of Congress, so that investigations can be started into the corruption of the Bush White House. By exposing the lies and corruption, you can start a new movement of reform that will hopefully solve these serious problems the country faces.