Karl Rove

A day after Karl Rove admitted he had conversations with Chris Christie about the latter's gubernatorial aspirations, including while Christie was in office as U.S. Attorney, Senate President Richard J. Codey (D-Roseland) again plugged a bill of his that would bar the state’s top investigators from running for political office for two years after leaving their post.

“The recently released testimony from Karl Rove underscores the need to pass this bill," Codey said in a statement. "The public has a right to know whether their top law enforcement investigators are acting in good faith. Given the power that prosecutors hold, it should be clear whether they are motivated by the sole desire to uphold the law or by future political aspirations.

“The rumors were circulating for ages that Chris Christie would run for office and he formally started to explore a run just a few months after leaving the U.S. Attorney’s office," Codey added. "The testimony of Karl Rove only adds fuel to the fire that Christie was planning a run for Governor while he was U.S. Attorney. If  anybody in New Jersey thinks Chris Christie only had this conversation with Karl Rove, and Karl Rove alone, then they probably think they’ll be shopping at Xanadu by Christmastime too. Unfortunately, because it’s a federal post, we may not be able to apply these provisions to U.S. Attorneys, but we can at least have confidence that our other top investigators are acting with pure motives.”

The story of the day on Tuesday was not as much a new Quinnipiac University poll showing Christopher Christie with a nine-point lead over Jon Corzine in the race for governor, but rather the House Judiciary Committee's release of Karl Rove's testimony.   While Rove says that Christie never discussed his duties as U.S. Attorney, the two did chat about the 2009 campaign for governor.  The Corzine campaign is almost sure to turn Rove's interest in New Jersey politics into a TV ad that continues to tie Christie to George W. Bush, as they have with a mega million dollar federal monitor contract Christie gave to former Attorney General John Ashcroft.   And Rove's testimony is likely to fuel allegations by Democrats that he launched his statewide campaign from the Department of Justice.  Watch Democrats to renew their interest in statements made by Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham) over an incident last summer, when other Republicans tried to push him out of the gubernatorial race.

The following is a statement by Maria Comella, Christie-Guadagno Campaign spokesperson, in response to a report that GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie talked to former Bush political mastermind Karl Rove.

“Mr. Rove's testimony confirms what we've known all along, that Chris' appointment as U.S. Attorney was based on his qualifications and his subsequent performance as U.S. Attorney was based on the facts of each case, not on politics," Comella said. "Furthermore, since even before the 2005 election there has been great speculation about whether Chris would ultimately run for some form of elected office. 

"As such, it is not surprising that as the Bush Administration was winding down, Mr. Rove inquired about Chris' future plans once his term as U.S. Attorney would come to an end," Comella added. "In this informal conversation, Chris discussed with Mr. Rove the fact he was being urged to run for elected office and Mr. Rove in turn offered to recommend people who could help Chris reach a decision if he eventually seriously considered running for office.”

Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove says he spoke with then-U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie about his interest in running for Governor, according to testimony Rove gave to the House Judiciary Committee last month.

“I talked to him twice in the last couple of years, perhaps one time while I was at the White House and once or twice since I left the White House, but -- not regarding his duties as U.S. Attorney, but regarding his interest in running for Governor, and he asked me questions about who -- who were good people that knew about running for Governor that he could talk to,” Rove told the panel.

Rove left the White House on August 31, 2007.  Christie left his post as federal prosecutor on December 1, 2008.

Rove said that Christie never discussed his duties as U.S. Attorney.

“He may have said, I am really enjoying the job and, you know, I have got a whole bunch of cases that I am prosecuting and, boy, maybe you have been reading about me. But no; about the sum and substance of it, no,” Rove said.

Rove said he “vaguely” recalls Christie looking into allegations against U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) before the 2006 election, but testified that he had no personal communications with Christie or anyone at the Department of Justice or the White House Counsel’s office about the Menendez investigation. 

Asked if the timing of the investigation was favorable to Republicans in the election, Rove said “I suspect so.”

“I don’t know enough about New Jersey politics and how widely it was covered to make comment,” said Rove.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TRANSCRIPT OF ROVE'S TESTIMONY

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The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed Karl Rove as part of their probe on the firing of nine federal prosecutors.

A subpoena issued to former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove to appear before the House Judiciary Committee has possible implications for the race for Governor of New Jersey.  The panel is seeking information on the "politicization" of the Justice Department and the firings of nine U.S. Attorneys.  Christopher Christie, now a GOP gubernatorial candidate, was reportedly on the list of federal prosecutors to be fired in 2005, but won a reprieve.  If Rove actually winds up testifying - the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed him earlier and he refused -- expect Judiciary Committee Democrats to ask about Christie.

Bill Palatucci, Chris Christie's former law partner, managed campaigns for Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Tom Kean.

Democrats seem determined to tie former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie to President Bush if he becomes the Republican nominee for Governor, but Christie’s allies say that it was the ex-Prosecutor’s friend and top strategist, William Palatucci, who avidly championed Bush when he began running for President in the late 1990’s.

Christie, who was Palatucci’s law partner, raised money for George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign as part of a bigger effort coordinated by Palatucci, a veteran Republican operative who ran campaigns for Ronald Reagan, Thomas Kean and George H.W. Bush.

“It’s hard to imagine the Democrats not using every opportunity possible to highlight the fact that Chris Christie was part of an effort that raised significant money for George W. Bush, one of the most unpopular politicians in a generation” said Ben Dworkin, director of the David Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University. “He’s had an outstanding career as U.S. Attorney. But the connection is different from the one the Democrats tried to use against U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance.”

Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), the Democratic candidate for Congress against Lance, ran repeated TV ads of Lance’s face interposed with that of Bush.  Lance won by nine percentage points.

“But Christie’s different than Lance because Lance didn’t become an assemblyman and senator because George Bush picked him,” said Dworkin. “Christie became U.S. Attorney because George Bush did.”

The main strand of the Bush-Christie connection hinges on what for Palatucci was a fortuitous encounter with the younger Bush as the then-Texas governor geared up for his 2000 presidential campaign.

At that point, Palatucci’s relationship with the Bushes was already long and recurring, and it was in his role as the New Jersey chief of the presidential campaigns of Bush’s father that he developed a relationship with the younger Bush.

State Sen. John Adler’s congressional campaign today charged that the involvement of conservative third-party group in the race proves that Republican Chris Myers is inextricably linked to the Bush Administration.

At issue is Freedom’s Watch, a right wing 501(c)(4) organization that was initially set up to bolster support for President Bush’s Iraq War policies, but has played a role in House races across the country this year. They first appeared in New Jersey in June, using robocalls to criticize Adler and fellow Democrat Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) in the 7th Congressional District over New Jersey’s gas tax, which is among the lowest in the nation.

In the 3rd District, the group has started a new round of robocalls charging that Adler supported “legislation that could give taxpayer funded healthcare to illegal aliens and taxpayers like you would pay for it.”

To view a larger version of this cartoon, click here.

A New Jersey Congressman says that former White House advisor Karl Rove is going to hell: Getty Images Photo
DENVER -- Speaking in front of the New Jersey delegation this morning, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) said that former White House official Karl Rove – for years President Bush’s closest advisor – is going to hell.

Pascrell said that the last eight years have been full of squandered opportunities and missteps, both domestically and internationally, and pinned the blame squarely on the Bush Administration.

“We might have missed the last eight years because folks did not tell us the truth,” he said. “Dante’s Inferno laid out very specifically the very levels receding into hell. And the hottest place is reserved for those who distort the truth, who manipulate our minds, or who attempt to do it, anyway. So I don’t think Bush and Cheney will be at the hottest point in the inferno, but I sure as hell know that Karl Rove will be.”

Karl Rove attended the Republican State Committee fundraiser in Edison last week.  That was supposed to be a secret until Todd Riffle told a Star-Ledger reporter.