Posted on 04/04/2008 12:39:37 AM PDT by kingattax
WASHINGTON -- Karl Rove says a one-time Republican campaign worker who has accused him of dirty tricks against a former Alabama governor is a "complete lunatic," and he calls CBS a "shoddy operation" for airing her allegations.
In an interview with GQ magazine, President Bush's former political guru says he has never met Jill Simpson, an Alabama attorney and GOP campaign volunteer who has claimed that Rove tried to sabotage Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman's career.
"She's a complete lunatic," Rove is quoted as saying. "This woman was not involved in any campaign in which I was involved. I have yet to find anybody who knows her."
Asked why CBS aired her allegations, he said, "Because CBS is a shoddy operation." It aired the story to get good ratings, he said.
Kevin Tedesco, a CBS spokesman, said "60 Minutes" stands by the story and will report on it further Sunday with an interview with Siegelman, who was recently released from prison while his corruption conviction is on appeal. Tedesco said Siegelman would challenge Rove to testify under oath.
Simpson's attorney, meanwhile, said she would ask GQ to retract Rove's remarks and apologize to Simpson.
In the original "60 Minutes" broadcast aired in February, Simpson said Rove asked her to try to find evidence that Siegelman was cheating on his wife. She said it wasn't the first time that Rove - who was heavily involved in Alabama politics before moving to Washington - had asked her to find dirt on Democratic politicians.
Simpson has also claimed she heard conversations among Republicans suggesting that Rove pushed the Justice Department to go after Siegelman as he was running for re-election in 2002.
That claim has attracted attention from Congress, and the House Judiciary Committee called her to Washington last year for a sworn deposition. The committee is looking into the Siegelman case as part of a broader investigation into political meddling by the White House at the Justice Department.
Siegelman was elected in 1998 and narrowly lost re-election in 2002.
After a years-long investigation and prosecution, he was convicted in June 2006 on bribery-related and obstruction charges. He was sentenced last year to more than seven years in prison.
The prosecution stemmed from his appointment of former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy to an influential hospital regulatory board in exchange for Scrushy arranging contributions to Siegelman's campaign for a state lottery.
The Justice Department - as well as the career prosecutors who handled the case - have insisted that politics played no role, emphasizing that Siegelman was convicted by a jury.
Last week, a federal appeals court approved Siegelman's release from prison while he appeals, saying the former governor had raised "substantial questions of fact and law."
Rove is smart and effective, but he is just political operative. In the minds of some Democrats he is SPECTRE’s, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Rove makes them crazy.
Karl would do better to just ignore this. The more agitated it seems to make him, the more it encourages his detractors to keep slinging mud at him. And it makes people on the fence think there might be something to it. If and when it comes to legal action, that’s the time to make a vigorous defense. Until then, just laugh it off.
This Gov. took money from a guy who looted Health South and is himself doing 7 years.
Or what the driveby media considers news. Funny how they tried to paint Pres Bush with the EVIL Ken Lay of Enron infamy yet couldn’t find anything, just the “Kenny-boy” nickname, but that was enough for years of innuendo and besmirching.
Along comes an even bigger crook than Lay, Health South’s Scrushy, who was caught RED-HANDED giving $$$ bribes to a dem governor, and it’s all political meddling by Pres Bush’s Justice Dept, and deserving of gallons of newsprint ink and trillions of television bits on baseless speculation on whether they’ve finally “Fitzmased” Karl Rove. Pathetic.
The democrats are really good at taking THEIR CONVICTED FELONS and making it about some nefarious Republican wrongdoing that got their people CAUGHT.
It’s hard to ignore it once there is announced that there will be congressional investigations and a call for a special prosecuter.
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