Well, that didn’t take long.
ThinkProgress reports that Robert Luskin is already backing off his PR gambit promise to have Rove testify before Congress.
Yesterday, House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-MI), joined by members Linda Sánchez (D-CA), Artur Davis (D-AL), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), wrote to Rove and requested that he testify before the committee about the politicization of the Justice Department, including the prosecution of Siegelman.
But now Luskin is saying that Rove won’t testify unless the White House says he can, claiming that MSNBC took his comments “out of context.” Roll Call reports:
MSNBC provided Roll Call with an e-mail exchange with Luskin that the network broadcast in which a producer asked, “Will Karl Rove agree to testify if Congress issues a subpoena to him as part of an investigation into the Siegelman case?”
“Sure,” wrote Luskin, according to the e-mail. “Although it seems to me that the question is somewhat offensive. It assumes he has something to hide.”
But in an interview with Roll Call, Luskin said that his MSNBC comments were taken out of context.
“Whether, when and about what a former White House official will testify … is not for me or my client to decide,” but is part of an ongoing negotiation between the White House and Congress over executive privilege issues, Luskin said.
See, Luskin, it’s not so easy to roll the press when someone can call you on your claims publicly.
Any bets how long it takes Conyers to get the subpoena pulled together? Hours? Days?
This also raises the likelihood that Solicitor General Paul Clement is hard at work inventing reasons why Rove can invoke executive privilege on an issue that he feels free to blab about in the press.