I've been following the live blog and trying to figure out where Abu fits within the larger conflict between the white house and congress. I think we see a key in the performance of some of the repo senators, as well as in Abu's testimony.
The larger context, of course, is that the white house is battling to keep Karl and his Roving band of RNC servers out of the Congress' clutches -- and don't be fooled, Bush may want to keep Abu, but he needs to keep Rove. The move by Congress to request RNC e-mails directly from the RNC has exposed the white house, for the first time, to the serious prospect that rather than waiting on Congress to find a U.S. attorney who will prosecute a contempt action, it is now the white house that will have to go to court, in the event Congress issues subpoenas to the RNC, to quash those subpoenas.
More below.
The RNC, you see, is a third-party, outside of the government, and if it disobeys a congressional subpoena, it will be more difficult for the white house to claim that there is an inherent intra-branch conflict in the U.S. attorney enforcing the subpoena (the "unitary executive" problem). (As an aside, I also do not think the white house would have standing to object based on any of the requirements of the Presidential Records Act). The key all along has been for congress to find a way to get into court, because once in court there are very serious problems on the merits with the Preznit's claim of executive privilege, as well as with his assertion of authority under the PRA. Because of Rove's use of RNC servers, however, it is now the white house that will probably have to initiate legal action to quash a subpoena. Once the subpoena issues (assuming it issues), the clock will be ticking.
My read on Abu's testimony, thus far, is that his number one priority was to not point anything in the direction of Rove. Don't give congress -- or the MSM -- any additional incentive for a fight over the e-mails or white house testimony. Thus far, from what I've seen, he has been largely successful in confining the evidence of Rove and white house involvement to the limited documentary evidence that we already have. There's not much he could do about that. Abu's second priority has been to not commit perjury, but he's probably the only person in this country, other than Mrs. Abu, who really cares about that.
Accordingly, Spectre and several other repos were given the green light to do what they will with Abu, so that they can move on and demand his resignation. And thus far (with a couple exceptions) even the repos have done some damage to him, albeit with not much enthusiasm. Coburn's flat-out request for the keys to the DOJ executive suite men's room stands out, of course. But this is all for show (which is always true of Spectre, anyway). After this is over, they may all comfortably assert that because of his lack of leadership and loss of credibility, he will have to go.
The quid pro quo, however, is that the repos will stand up to any further pursuit of Rove, the white house, and the RNC. Any congressional vote on the subpoenas will be on strictly party lines. The american people will be told that the problem has been fixed. And Abu will move on to that soon-to-be-vacant position at the World Bank, which probably needs a real estate lawyer to handle all those foreclosure proceedings when half the world defaults on its loans.
Expect Spectre and everyone else to say, immediately after Abu resigns, that the show is over, justice has prevailed, a new day has dawned, our long national nightmare is over, etc. etc. And by the way, we don't need all those e-mails anymore, and anyone who says we do is just piling on for partisan reasons, not a serious person, giving aid and comfort to the enemy, endangering our way of life, not supporting the troops, interfering with the grieving process, etc. etc.
Don't let it happen.