"Why are the taxpayers still paying Karl Rove's salary?"

Fifth wheel

This morning in the Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Arlen Specter asked the Attorney General if the White House ever gave Justice Department officials political briefings. Gonzales, of course, didn't know.(He doesn't know much.) Specter wondered whether it might not violate the Hatch Act. And then they moved on to something else.

It really wasn't all that long ago that such a question would have been unthinkable, and if it were asked it would create screaming headlines, non-stop chatter on the cable shows and calls for special prosecutors. Now, it's just a rather mild question in a committee hearing, answered with a shrug.

Specter asked because this morning the Washington Post revealed that Karl Rove is still giving his partisan power point presentation to members of the federal government:


The article also runs down some of the earlier political briefings going back to 2001 to agencies as far flung as the Peace Corps. (I'm kind of surprised the Republicans have even kept that office open.) It is amusing that Rove and Taylor laid the blame on "corrupt" officials and "complacent" incumbents, but it does bring up one important question that I've asked many times. Why are the taxpayers still paying Karl Rove's salary?

I've never been entirely comfortable with the idea that someone with his portfolio was a government official anyway, but since he's supposedly no longer doing any policy work, he's a purely political entity. Nobody from the White House is running for office again and the taxpayers don't usually pay for the executive branch to employ political directors for either Party. I doubt that any congressmen are all that eager for Karl's help at this point, and he can't have any pull in legislative affairs after he cast the blame for the 2006 defeat squarely at the feet of everyone but his boss and himself. So what exactly is Karl Rove's job now?

White House defends political briefings

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer Tue Jul 24, 11:39 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The White House said Tuesday that there was nothing improper about Bush administration political advisers briefing top diplomats about key congressional and gubernatorial races and President Bush's re-election goals.

"You've got political appointees getting political briefings," White House press secretary Tony Snow said Tuesday with a dose of sarcasm. "I'm shocked. Shocked."

Snow was asked about political briefings requested by six envoys — all political appointees, who were rewarded with coveted ambassadorial positions in western Europe for their long-standing ties to Bush and the Republican Party.

At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said the briefings had not violated either the Hatch Act or the department's own "very strict guidelines" that bar partisan political activity by diplomats.

"In this particular case, it was something that they set up with the White House," McCormack said.

Despite the administration's insistence that the briefing was not illegal, some have questioned its propriety, particularly the official State Department channel through which it was requested and the appearance in the presentation of a slide explaining the political strategy of targeting Democrats.

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