On Don

I seem to have annoyed at least one other blogger in my previous post about the Rove testimony regarding former Governor Siegelman. Roger Shuler at The Legal Schnauzer is nice enough to say I must have been having an "off day" when I posted that Rove denied involvement with the Siegelman prosecution, and I will give him the point that Rove only partly denied it...other times he said he "didn't recall" or "not to my knowledge". But for Mr. Shuler, those answers are suddenly fraught with meaning, evidence that Rove is tap dancing around perjury. A few points. As I asked before, and have not so far seen an answer: why were so many of Mr. Siegelman's supporters insisting that Rove be required to testify under oath (as Ms. Simpson had) if they knew (and surely they did know) he would "dance around perjury" with his answers? What were they expecting? Second: look at the broad nature of the questions to which Mr. Rove is issuing those non-answers:

Q. Again, in the period of time between Governor Siegelman's election and the end of 2002, did you or anyone working for you ever have any communication with anyone about a possible criminal investigation, prosecution, or illegal acts by Governor Siegelman?"

Well what kind of an answer would you expect from such a wide ranging question? You or anyone working for you...ever....any communication with anyone.... Let's see...Roger Shuler is called before the committee to testify:

Q. Mr. Shuler, during the three year period ending in March of 2009, did you, or anyone you are in regular communication with, ever have any kind of communication whatsoever with anyone associated with the blog timlennox.com? A. uh, not to my knowledge?

Look, Rove may very well be a snake. Former Governor Siegelman may very well have been the victim of selective political prosecution. But if you have blinders on, it's easy to see only what you want to see. And by the way, just because I linked only to The Birmingham News story about the Rove testimony in my original posting, that doesn't mean that was the only story or document I read.