A short time ago in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at which Alberto Gonzales is appearing, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) posed the question we were pondering this morning: Did Karl Rove or his crew give political briefings to officials at the Justice Department, as they did at more than a dozen other departments and agencies?
Here is Kennedy’s exchange with Gonzales:
So Gonzales claims he is not aware of any such briefings at DOJ, saying he thinks he would know about them if they had occurred (of course there’s been a whole lot going on in his department that you would think Gonzales should know about but hasn’t). As for whether such briefings elsewhere in the federal government violated the Hatch Act, Gonzales said, “We’ll look to see whether or not there’s something there.” Left unsaid was that Gonzales was White House Counsel when some of the earliest briefings were being given.
You may have also noticed in the clip Kennedy’s emphasis on today’s WaPo report that Rove’s political briefings were given to Peace Corps officials. That has to be a particularly bitter pill for Kennedy since the creation of the Peace Corps was one of the crowning accomplishments of his brother’s presidency.
