The Rove/Ashcroft connection

The ABC Note that I quoted in the entry right below this one made the semi-cryptic comment that "students of recusal politics will have to consider the Rove-Ashcroft history". Curious, I went to the Time article the item links to, and found this:

Bush knew Ashcroft mostly by reputation when the Missourian flew to Austin on Dec. 20, but had long considered him the kind of guy he wanted for AG. Bush's father knew Ashcroft well, and Rove had done campaign work for him since 1985 and assured Bush that Ashcroft was solid. In the meeting, Bush made it clear that he expected his Cabinet members to be team players, not independent operators.

I don't know what the legal rules are on recusal, but since Rove is at the center of the speculation, and since Rove has worked on Ashcroft's campaigns for almost 20 years, I'd say there even if it doesn't fit the legal definition of a conflict of interest, it certainly fits the concept of a "perception of a conflict of interest", and are they supposed to avoid that, too?

This may be just a bit more ammo for the effort to get Ashcroft to turn this over to an independent investigator.

Posted by thorswitch at September 30, 2003 05:06 AM | TrackBack