Washington Memo: Target Rove

By Massimo Calabresi

Scratch the surface of any investigation in Washington these days, and it seems you will find Karl Rove. One of the few things Alberto Gonzales could recall at his Senate hearing on the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys was Rove's mentioning the names of three he thought were underperforming. Rove is at the center of the White House's lost-e-mail fiasco. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department is talking to Rove's former assistant as part of its probe into disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's contacts with the White House. And on April 24, the Los Angeles Times reported that the independent Office of Special Counsel is investigating whether Rove and his staff engaged in a broad range of illegal political activities. What's with Rove's omnipresence? For starters, some investigators are newly empowered congressional Democrats, and he's the guy they're after. "They're throwing as much at him as they can, no matter the merits," says White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. But Democrats aren't the only ones digging. Several Abramoff investigators are Republican appointees, as is the head of the Office of Special Counsel, Scott Bloch.

What the investigations have in common is this: they are looking into charges that politics inappropriately influenced policy. Rove is not only Bush's closest political adviser but also a top policy aide. If few have played both sides as openly as Rove, even fewer have succeeded in staying clean in the process. Rove may have, but if there's any dirt, it will probably come out. Last Wednesday, for example, House Democrats voted to give immunity to Monica Goodling, a key White House liaison in the U.S. Attorney firings.