You've got to be kidding me. A few days ago the White House was claiming that, within the White House at least, the idea of the prosecutor purge was all Harriet Miers' idea. Not only were they lying, there is a paper trail to prove it:
New unreleased e-mails from top administration officials show that the idea of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys was raised by White House adviser Karl Rove in early January 2005, indicating Rove was more involved in the plan than the White House previously acknowledged.The e-mails also show that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales discussed the idea of firing the attorneys en masse weeks before he was confirmed as attorney general.
The e-mails directly contradict White House assertions that the notion originated with recently departed White House counsel Harriet Miers, and was her idea alone.
Two independent sources in a position to know have described the contents of the e-mail exchange, which could be released as early as Friday. They put Rove at the epicenter of the imbroglio and raise questions about Gonzales' explanations of the matter.
The e-mail exchange is dated early January 2005, more than a month before the White House acknowledged it was considering firing all the U.S. attorneys. On its face, the plan is not improper, inappropriate or even unusual: The president has the right to fire U.S. attorneys at any time, and presidents have done so when they took office.
What has made the issue a political firestorm is the White House's insistence that the idea came from Miers and was swiftly rejected.
I'm not really sure what they mean with that last line. The firestorm has nothing to do with who came up with the idea but why they came up with it.
More:
The latest e-mails show that Gonzales and Rove were both involved in the discussion, and neither rejected it out of hand.
So much for the "I have 110,000 employees, how could I have possibly known?!?" line, eh?
These people can't even lie well anymore.
UPDATE: ThinkProgress is all over this. Here's Gonzales' statement from his press conference:
GONZALES: As we can all imagine, in an organization of 110,000 people, I am not aware of every bit of information that passes through the halls of the Department of Justice, nor am I aware of all decisions. As a general matter, some two years ago, I was made aware that there was a request from the White House as to the possibility of replacing all the United States attorneys. That was immediately rejected by me. I felt that that was a bad idea and it was disruptive.
The emails apparently show this to be a lie.
UPDATE II: TPM Muckraker has the email. After reading this, I suspect that the subpoenas are going to be flying fast and furious. If Bush wants to save Rove, he's going to have to throw Gonzales overboard ASAP.
UPDATE III: Schumer is renewing his calls for Rove to testify. Up until now I thought that might be a long shot. But it is starting to look like he may not have a choice.
UPDATE IV: Sen. Leahy just made it official on CNN. Both Rove and Gonzales will be called under oath to testify. And he's hinting that based on the facts of the case "obstruction of justice" may be a very real possibility down the line. wow.
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