Rove’s prior refusals to testify were based on claims of “absolute immunity” due to executive privilege — the idea that even former presidential advisers cannot be compelled to testify before Congress because of the confidentiality of their conversations with the president. But the legality of that claim was rejected by U.S. District Judge John Bates as part of the ongoing suit over executive privilege, House Judiciary Committee v. Harriet Miers.

Apparently, Rove has made it clear that despite the new administration, he still won’t be showing up to testify. In a letter to Rove’s attorney, Bob Luskin, Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) said he won’t delay the hearing any further, just so Rove can continue to blow them off:

Thus, absent an actual commitment by Mr. Rove to comply with the subpoena, I am not in a position to agree to yet a further delay. In essence, given Mr. Rove’s public statements that he does not intend to comply with the subpoena, I am puzzled as to why Mr. Rove needs a mutually convenient date to fail to appear.

Around, and around we go.

The Justice Dept. internally investigated how the White House/Justice Dept. decided which U.S. attorneys were considered disloyal to the Republican Party and should be dismissed. But it didn’t look at the corollary: Did prosecutors avoid dismissal by prioritizing the wishes of GOP lawmakers and state Republican parties?

Justice Dept. Inspector General Glenn Fine said that it was certainly a possibility, and that the Department’s Office of Personal Responsibility is investigating what may have been politically motivated prosecutions by U.S. attorneys.

The most prominent of these possible cases involves former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

Davis has been a leading critic of that prosecution, suggesting that none other than Karl Rove pressured Alabama U.S. Attorney Leura G. Canary to re-open the probe of Siegelman. U.S. attorneys in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have also been investigated for politically tinged prosecutions.

Beyond evoking the Siegelman case, Davis raised another point: “Virtually anyone can say they were politically targeted,” Davis said at the hearing. “Almost everyone on this side of the aisle (meaning Democrats) has been getting phone calls saying, ‘I’m being prosecuted because I’m a Democrat.’”

According to Davis, every federal prosecutor is now– fairly or not– susceptible to having their credibility questioned.

This could, of course, be cleared up if the White House revealed they prosecutors they actually spoke with.