rove takes oddly-timed vacation

from think progress:

This [thursday] morning, Karl Rove refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee to testify about the politicization of the Justice Department, despite a subpoena. During the hearing, Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) revealed that Rove had not only skipped out of the hearing, but had skipped out of the entire country.

apparently rove had never mentioned this to congress previously.

karl rove is now to the point of being amusingly criminal. now that he's off the bush staff (or at least, off the payroll) it's just fun to watch him squirm while congress tightens the noose.

think progress and their friends in the progressive nerdosphere are insisting this means karl rove has 'fled the country'. while normally if a public figure skipped town in these circumstances, i'd simply brush that off as some leftists trying too hard to read between the lines, and assume that the person subpoenaed would be back quickly to testify. but this is karl rove we're talking about.

this reminds me of a conclusion that rupert and i have come to, and relish in bringing up whenever one of these kooks does something wacky: the bush administration has long ago fallen into what espn blogger/resident-annoying-boston-sports-fan bill simmons refers to as "the tyson zone". named after mike tyson, it is a state of being for a public figure in which "if a friend said, "Did you hear that (fill in celebrity's name) just (fill in the insane behavior: urinated on a police officer, began breeding unicorns, etc.)?", I would have no problem believing it was true." i'm pretty sure that moment arrived when dick cheney shot a guy in the fucking face.

either way, i just can't wait until we actually get rove. the second he gets threatened by jail time, this disingenuous little piggy is going to squeal, and congress will have plenty of evidence to impeach and try everyone right up to emperor george. then we'll find out about all the really crazy stuff they've been doing.

link.