Pull Up a Chair, Mr. Rove

Members of Code Pink showed up to greet Karl Rove, but instead got only an empty chair. (By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post)
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Congress knows the White House can run out the clock on the various investigations into the Bush administration. White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers have already been held in contempt of Congress -- but even if Bush's Justice Department decides to prosecute those cases, his administration will be out of office before they are resolved. A contempt citation for Rove, which could come as soon as next week, would face the same sort of delay.

That makes the immediate gratification of the empty chair more appealing.

The antiwar activists from the liberal Code Pink group certainly thought so. Before the hearing began, they entertained the arriving crowd with a chant of "They do the crime and we do the time." Then one of them placed an "Arrest Rove" sign on the empty chair. "Ma'am, we can't do things like that," a Capitol cop told her gently. "Let's not go overboard."

No, going overboard was the responsibility of lawmakers. Not only did they have the empty chair at the witness table, but they also put up 18 more empty chairs in the first row, each labeled "Reserved for Witness." Building suspense, the committee members waited until 15 minutes after the hearing's start time to appear on the dais, giving Rove's ice time to melt in his glass.

"Former presidential adviser Karl Rove has refused to appear today to answer questions in accordance with his obligations under the subpoena served on him," Sanchez announced with indignation.

And we thought he was just stuck in traffic.

"We are unaware of any proper legal basis for Mr. Rove's refusal even to appear today as required by the subpoena," Sanchez continued.

Cannon, doing the White House's bidding, attempted to pretend that Rove really wanted to be at the hearing. He asked Sanchez if she was "aware that Mr. Rove is out of the country on a trip that was planned long before this hearing was set."

Sanchez evidently was not. "We were not made aware by his attorney or by Mr. Rove himself," she said.

Of course, the letter from Fielding, supplied by Rove's lawyer, made clear that his absence had nothing to do with his foreign travel. "Mr. Rove is not required to appear in response to the committee's subpoena. Accordingly, the president has directed him not to do so," the White House counsel wrote.

But Cannon, undeterred by this hole in his logic, went on to scold Democrats for opting "to hold a hearing today in front of an empty chair," which he labeled a "partisan stunt" and "partisan antics."

Rep. Lamar Smith (Tex.), the top Republican on the full Judiciary Committee, also had some thoughts about the unoccupied chair. "Madame Chair, although we find ourselves in front of an empty chair, it is not a sign of an administration refusing to cooperate with Congress," he maintained.

Republicans, eager to be done with the empty-chair event, offered to consent to a ruling by Sanchez that Rove's legal excuses weren't valid. But that wasn't good enough for Sanchez, who favored the spectacle of a roll-call vote.

The committee voted, 7 to 1, to order Rove -- again -- to appear before the committee.

The witness displayed no emotion.