Valerie Plame-Wilson slams Bob Novak for hitting pedestrian

Syndicated columnist Bob Novak publicly revealed Valerie Plame-Wilson's identity as a covert CIA agent in 2003, setting in motion an investigation that brought down I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, and seriously damaged the reputation of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and White House political maestro Karl Rove for leaking her name to other journalists.

The Wilsons left Washington two years ago to live in Santa Fe, N.M., where, as Wonkette put it "terrorists and Bob Novak will never find them." Now, from the desert, they are weighing in on Novak's latest brush with the law in the nation's capital -- an incident that happened Wednesday in which the 77-year-old syndicated columnist, driving a black Corvette, hit a pedestrian and kept on driving.

In a statement to ThinkProgress, the Wilsons equated Novak's disregard for pedestrians with a similar disdain for covert CIA officers.

Our sympathies go out to the victim of Novak’s action. Once again Novak has demonstrated his callous disregard for the rights of others, as well as his chronic inability to accept responsibility for his actions.

We have long argued that responsible adults should take Novak’s typewriter away. The time has arrived for them to also take away the keys to his Corvette.

Meanwhile, details are emerging on other aspects of the case.

The victim, 66-year-old Don Likinquist, may be in worse shape than earlier reported. Or not. WJLA-TV is quoting an unnamed source who said the man has casts on his neck and back and is awaiting a surgical team evaluation.

The lawyer who stopped Novak half a block away -- and who does not believe the columnist's claim that he had no idea he'd hit anyone -- turns out to be an Obama Democrat. David Bono, a partner at Harkins Cunningham, contributed $2,000 to the Obama campaign in May during the frenzied primary run against Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

As for Novak, he's not talking, but he told WJLA-TV yesterday that he feels "terrible," adding of the victim, "He's not dead, that's the main thing."

But, as C2C (that's us, Countdown to Crawford) reported Wednesday, Novak has shown disdain for pedestrians before. In 2001, according to the Washington Post's Lloyd Grove, Novak yelled at a jaywalker, later explaining to Grove: "He was crossing on the red light. I really hate jaywalkers. I despise them. Since I don't run the country, all I can do is yell at 'em. The other option is to run 'em over, but as a compassionate conservative, I would never do that."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Chip Somondevilla / Getty Images

Karl Rove denies influencing Don Siegelman prosecution

Karl Rove says he didn't do it.

In a letter to the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Lamar Smith of Texas, Rove says that he never tried to influence the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman on political corruption charges.

"I have never communicated, either directly or indirectly, with Justice Department or Alabama officials about the investigation, indictment, potential prosecution, prosecution, conviction or sentencing of Gov. Siegelman, or about any other matter related to his case, nor have I asked any other individual to communicate about these matters on my behalf. I have never attempted, either directly or indirectly, to influence these matters."

Rove, the former political maestro at the Bush White House, also suggests that the committee should ask Siegelman why he has made "baseless allegations of impropriety" against him. "The committee should require Siegelman to substantiate his allegations about my 'involvement' in his prosecution -- something he has failed to do in either media interviews or court filings," Rove says in the letter, provided to C2C (that's Countdown to Crawford) by the committee Republican staff.

A few weeks ago, Rove was subpoenaed to testify for a hearing on the issue and failed to show up, saying that he was protected by executive privilege. Before and after what's being called "the empty chair hearing," Rove offered to testify in private or answer questions in writing. So Smith, says a committee staffer, decided to take him up on it.

Meanwhile, in advance of the committee's Friday hearing on executive privilege, a coalition of anti-Rove organizations has collected more than 100,000 names on a petition, created by Brave New Films and housed here, urging the committee to hold Rove in contempt and send him to jail.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Jennifer Simonson/AP (corrects earlier post that credited Jennifer Simsonson)

In key Gitmo case, Mukasey stays on White House path

Can caretaker Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey set the Justice Department straight?

That is the question that hangs over the short-termer, who inherited a department set back on its heels by complaints of political interference and a readiness to overlook legal standards in the fight against terrorism.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was quoted in the Washington Post as saying the attorney general was "content to serve as a caretaker for the regime of excessive executive power established by the Bush administration."

This morning, Mukasey made it clear that on one of the most controversial issues facing the department, the Bush administration was not shifting course: The Supreme Court's decision that gave detainees at Guantanamo Bay the right to use federal courts to challenge their imprisonment.

In a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, he turned to Congress to limit the impact of the ruling. He said it should pass legislation barring federal judges from letting out of the prison there any of the detainees, many of whom he said "pose an extraordinary threat to Americans."

He wasn't saying the court decision should be ignored. His point was to find a way of keeping the prisoners at Guantanamo while their court cases proceed.

"Congress should make clear that a federal court may not order the government to bring enemy combatants into the United States" to attend court proceedings, he said.

It is with just such issues that Mukasey's reputation as attorney general is likely to rest.

The Washington Post noted that he has "rejected requests to name a special prosecutor to examine whether Cabinet officials committed war crimes when they approved harsh interrogation tactics for terrorism suspects."

And, it observed, he decided not to revisit the question of whether a public corruption case criticized by 52 bipartisan state attorneys general was a matter of "selective prosecution" -- meaning that politics played a role in the decision to prosecute.

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Karl Rove snubs Congress but gabs with TV critics

He may be snubbing Congress, dismissing a congressional subpoena as just another scrap of paper caught in the war between the White House and a House committee over executive privilege.

But former White House aide Karl Rove, now a Fox News analyst, wasn't too proud to be a prop for Fox News in a Q-and-A session the network laid on Monday at the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour in Beverly Hills. On a panel that also included Fox analyst Howard Wolfson, a former acolyte of Hillary Clinton, Rove opined aplenty. Among other things, he:

-- Warned conservatives to stop insinuating that Democrat Barack Obama is a Muslim when he is in fact a Christian. "I don't think it's particularly healthy for the right blogosphere to harp on this," he said. "The voters who are up for grabs in this election...are going to respond badly to it."

-- Defended his argument that George W. Bush's election signaled a shift to a dominant Republican majority in Congress, even though Democrats are now running the place. "It's going to take some period of time for one party to gain advantage over the other," he said noting that absent a huge event such as the Depression, "It's going to be what they call a rolling realignment."

-- Deflected questions about the Bush administration's incompetence. Asked about his views of the appointment of Bush contributor Michael Brown as head of FEMA, Rove said, "You'll have to wait for my book, unfortunately, which will be available in the fall of 2009 for $29.95."

-- Dismissed critics. Asked if he watches animated shows on FOX that regularly bash him, Rove said, "A lot of people beat up on me. ... My attitude is, you know, I know who I am. I'm not the myth that I've been developed into and there's nothing I can do -- I'm like Grendel and Beowulf."

Read more on the interview at the L.A.Times' Show Tracker.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Karen Bleier / AFP/Getty Images