Rove Jabs Dems, Praises Miers
Presidential adviser Karl Rove took aim at four of the Bush administration's Democratic opponents in the Senate and received a standing ovation from a conservative legal group, defying his critics as he awaits his fate in the CIA leak investigation.
Rove has kept a low public profile since his grand jury testimony a month ago, but he stepped into the limelight Thursday night. He spoke out on behalf of the administration's judicial selections, including Harriet Miers, whose Supreme Court nomination was withdrawn after opposition from the president's conservative base.
"If you like every one of the 200 judges that we have sent forth to the U.S. Congress to be approved in the last three years, there hasn't been one of them who hasn't been researched, vetted, studied, analyzed or recommended by my friend Harriet Miers," Rove told the Federalist Society.
Rove's praise of Miers drew polite applause from the conservative gathering. At society functions earlier Thursday, there was palpable relief that she had withdrawn her nomination, clearing the way for President Bush to tap Samuel Alito, an appeals court judge.
In his 20-minute speech, Rove singled out four Democratic senators who have strongly criticized the White House in the CIA leak probe and have been staunch opponents of some of the Bush administration's judicial selections. The four are Sens. Charles Schumer of New York, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Richard Durbin of Illinois and Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
Rove suggested the four Democrats have met their match in the conservative agenda of the Federalist Society.
"Who would have thought that the powerful members of the world's most exclusive club would be so threatened by a movement of competent, principle-driven egghead lawyers?" Rove said to laughter.
Rove in turn was the beneficiary of a Federalist Society attack on his opponents.
"Karl Rove has pursued conservative policies," said co-chairman David McIntosh. "He's come into the cross-hairs of criticism from the liberal establishment here in Washington.
When the establishment can't defeat the power of one's ideas, "they crank up the engine of personal attack in order to distract the leaders," McIntosh suggested.
Rove is under investigation for his involvement in leaking the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, is under indictment. Rove and Libby were involved in leaking Plame's identity to the news media.
"Everybody's presumed innocent until convicted and a mere investigation shouldn't hinder anyone's political activities," attorney Stephen Yelverton, a two-decade Federalist Society member, said of Rove's appearance.
Plame's CIA status was exposed by conservative columnist Robert Novak in July 2003, eight days after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the U.S. government of manipulating pre-war intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.
Rove spoke to Novak and Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper about Wilson's wife and her CIA status before each of the two journalists disclosed Plame's identity.
Libby, who resigned from the White House when he was indicted Oct. 28, faces five counts of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI. He has pleaded not guilty. Libby told investigators he had learned of the CIA status of Wilson's wife from journalists. Evidence gathered in the probe by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald shows that Cheney, the CIA and the State Department supplied Libby with information about Plame.
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies was founded in 1982. Early advisers to the 35,000-member society included Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who at the time was a law professor at the University of Chicago.