Hypothetically, what would Karl Rove's testimony look like? A (Republican) best-case scenario.

Does anyone else feel like they just saw George Bush and Tony Snow try to pull off "the Jedi mind trick" last week? You know the scene in the original Star Wars movie where Obi Wan Kenobi tricks the storm troopers at the check point into letting them pass by whispering "you don't need to see their papers...these aren't the droids you're looking for.. you can go about your business..move along.."

Imagine this scene...

In an unlit Capitol windowless closet... no one's around...

Senator Leahy whispers to the lone staffer: OK you can turn off the tape recorder, stop writing down what I'm saying and leave the room now...

Karl Rove: Are you sure we're alone and this isn't being recorded?

Senator Leahy: I assure you, we ARE alone and this is NOT being recorded....so ... Mr. Rove, do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?

Karl Rove: No. Of course not.

Senator Leahy: OK...NO problem..I'm sorry but those pesky Democratic colleagues of mine made me ask you that....of course I trust you....Have a seat..can I get you anything? Some coffee or a doughnut?

Karl Rove: No thanks..I'm watching my weight.

Senator Leahy: Now Mr. Rove did you or did you not order the firings of eight United States attorneys because they either were investigating prominent Republicans or alternately because they refused to investigate prominent Democrats?

Karl Rove: I didn't.

Senator Leahy: OK, again sorry for that harsh question, but ..you know I had to ask it or my Democratic friends would be upset with me - I accept your answer - Now can I see those internal emails and documents between you, Attorney General Gonzales, Harriet Meiers and the President?

Karl Rove: Of course not. We've shredded them already anyways.

Senator Leahy: Hey that's good thinking! I guess we can just close the books on this one then - let's just forget the whole thing.

Karl Rove: This is getting old...Can I go now?

Senator Leahy: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to keep you from your busy schedule of jamming Democratic campaign office phone lines and planting phone bugs in your own office and then calling the FBI on your political opponents, I know you're a busy and important man....

Karl Rove: OK now - remember you can't talk about anything we said just now.

Senator Leahy: OK. I promise Karl...

Well that's basically "the reasonable proposal" that President Bush and Press Secretary Tony Snow want the Congress and the American people to accept with respect to asking for testimony from Rove, Gonzales, Meiers over Gonzales recent misleading testimony before Congress.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales came before Congress and made false statements when he testified that he fired eight United States Attorneys around the country for "performance reasons". In fact it has turned out that they not fired for performance but were apparently fired for political reasons and this scandal very likely reaches to Karl Rove, Harriet Meiers
and George Bush himself.

Lying before Congress - with or without an oath - is still a crime. It's called Federal Fraud statute USC 18-371. You just can't defraud or deceive the government.

This is a very broad statute that the Supreme Court previously ruled on in Hammerschmidt v. United States, 265 U.S. 182 (1924):

"To conspire to defraud the United States means primarily to cheat the Government out of property or money, but it also means to interfere with or obstruct one of its lawful governmental functions by deceit, craft or trickery, or at least by means that are dishonest. It is not necessary that the Government shall be subjected to property or pecuniary loss by the fraud, but only that its legitimate official action and purpose shall be defeated by misrepresentation, chicane or the overreaching of those charged with carrying out the governmental intention."

In Hass v. Henkel, 216 U.S. 462 (1910), the Supreme Court ruled: "The statute is broad enough in its terms to include any conspiracy for the purpose of impairing, obstructing or defeating the lawful function of any department of government . . . (A)ny conspiracy which is calculated to obstruct or impair its efficiency and destroy the value of its operation and reports as fair, impartial and reasonably accurate, would be to defraud the United States by depriving it of its lawful right and duty of promulgating or diffusing the information so officially acquired in the way and at the time required by law or departmental regulation. "

So you don't even have to lie under oath to break the law, you just have to make deceptive statements designed to defeat legitimate official actions of the government - like when Gonzales defeated Congressional oversight by falsely testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

We've already had Scooter Libby's convictions a few weeks ago on perjury and obstruction of justice in the Plame leak case and just a few hours ago Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice in a Senate committee's investigation of the Abramoff lobbyist scandal - so why shouldn't we trust them?

This President seems to think he is an absolute monarch and above questioning by anyone.

Give me a break Mr. President, Press Secretary Snow....

The President IS NOT ABOVE THE LAW. Congress not only has the RIGHT to subpoena him and members of his administration - it has a Constitutional DUTY to do so where it has any reason to be concerned that all is not well in the Republic.

Everyone else in any legal proceeding no matter how trivial has to take sworn oaths and sign documents under penalty of perjury.

Every other legal proceeding is recorded by the court reporter as it is being taken to insure that the record is accurate and that it can't be denied or distorted later.

Every other legal proceeding is supposed to be conducted publicly in the light of day so that it can be accountable to We the People.

These have been the standard practice in the law and the government going back throughout the entire history of our own American government and before that for centuries in English law.

What makes YOU so special Mr. President?

Just when will "our Constitution work" again? When will "our great Republic resume being a government of laws and not of men?" When will "OUR long national nightmare" finally be over?

The only way out of this mess is for the Congress and the Senate to not back down and actually issue those subpoenas. The President can't say no. The Supreme Court has already decided this issue in United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974) when it ruled unanimously 8-0 that Nixon had to surrender his White House tapes under subpoena.

Congress and the Senate must investigate this matter under oath, with transcripts, in public and pursuant to a compelling subpoena and thereafter it must impeach as required by the Constitution and the facts.