Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Rove Subpoenaed in Siegelman Case

By Cernig



BradBlog has the details:

(Washington, DC)-Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) issued a subpoena to former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove for testimony about the politicization of the Department of Justice (DOJ), including former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman's case. Yesterday, Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, sent a letter to the Committee expressing that Rove would not agree to testify voluntarily, per the Committee's previous requests.



"It is unfortunate that Mr. Rove has failed to cooperate with our requests," Conyers said.



"Although he does not seem the least bit hesitant to discuss these very issues weekly on cable television and in the print news media, Mr. Rove and his attorney have apparently concluded that a public hearing room would not be appropriate. Unfortunately, I have no choice today but to compel his testimony on these very important matters."

And, since this enquiry is about events in Alabama, there can be no invocation of that magical "executive privilige" without implying that Bush was also involved in any goings on.



Posted by at
Labels:

6 comments:

  1. CurmudgeonMay 22, 2008 at 9:15 AM

    The DOJ has already refused to charge Rove with contempt of congress. If Rove simply refuses to appear this has every indication of turning into yet another exercise of paper tiger 'oversight' unless Congress has grown the balls use their inherent contempt powers.
    I'm not holding my breath.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DEyMay 22, 2008 at 9:42 AM

    Dems. They want to ruin a Republican.

    ReplyDelete
  3. zenpunditMay 22, 2008 at 2:09 PM

    LOL! The Hon. Mr. Conyers staff would not have bargained with Rove's attorney for testimony for one *year* if there was any kind of an underlying issue here that legally trumped the invocation of executive privilege.
    This is simply a political charade designed to, at a minimum embarrass the Bush administration with some headlines and at best, try to find some kind of an oddly worded question by the committee that can in the future, with a Democratic DOJ, can be used as a pretext to try to get a perjury charge against Rove from a grand jury ( which is why the Committee majority wants the transcript more than the content of Rove's testimony itself)
    Rove is right not to play the game and dare the Committee to put their cards on the table before a judge. Conyers however, is too savvy a player to take that bait.

    ReplyDelete
  4. rustedMay 22, 2008 at 2:12 PM

    And the problem people with this administration and being held to having accountability is?

    ReplyDelete
  5. zenpunditMay 22, 2008 at 4:57 PM

    "And the problem people with this administration and being held to having accountability is?"
    I don't have a problem with accountability. Getting rid of the incompetent FEMA guy is an example of accountability in action. But let's be honest, this instance is a case of Conyers trying to nail somebody who has been an effective political oppoonent by trying to find something, anything, that might stick, even if it has to be manufactured. It's a vendetta, not a search for truth.

    ReplyDelete
  6. rustedMay 22, 2008 at 8:51 PM

    By your example of using Mr. Brown and his lousy handling of New Orleans and being far more concerned about his press appearances then his ability to help people and do his job...and more recently the "staged" news conference by I think, FEMA... you have pointed out one of the main problems with this administration... the hiring of people who are clueless... if my memory serves me correctly, Mr.Brown had been in a high management position dealing with horses ... this is so typical of this White House... As for Mr. Rove he has straddled the legal/illegal line many times when working for President Bush ... I would just like to know when it became a bad thing for Americans and Congress to question their President's actions and policies...

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)