Firing the potential messenger

The latest message from Texas: Don't tell the truth about anything. Because if you do, it could turn out to involve Karl Rove...and when you mess with him, the punishment is clear:

Elizabeth Reyes, 30, of Austin said she was fired Tuesday after she was quoted in a Post story that ran Sept. 3 about tax deductions on Rove's homes in the District and in Texas...

The Post's story reported that Rove inadvertently received a District homestead tax deduction on his Palisades home, even though he had not been eligible for the benefit for more than three years. Rove was eligible for the deduction when he bought the home in 2001, the story said, but a change in the tax law in 2002 made the deduction available only to District property owners who do not vote elsewhere. Rove is registered to vote in Texas...

When Post reporter Lori Montgomery telephoned the press office of the Texas secretary of state, the press officer was on vacation, and Montgomery was transferred to Reyes. The attorney, who spoke in two separate telephone calls, told Montgomery that it was potential voter fraud in Texas to register in a place where you don't actually live, and she was quoted as saying Rove's cottages don't "sound like a residence to me, because it's not a fixed place of habitation."

It's not as if the story is even particularly big: the mistake was an innocent one, as a district office took the blame for failing to inform Rove of a change in rules. (I'll avoid speculating as to the accuracy of that admission.)

The district's media policy supposedly allows staff to talk to the media on ordinary issues, with the PR specialist to be called in for "special" or "controversial issues". It seems fairly obvious that tax policy unrelated to any individual would be about as normal and uncontroversial as anything a district lawyer would talk about. And indeed there doesn't seem much chance that a PR specialist would have been able to answer the question in any event.

But never mind all that. According to the Texas secretary of state, giving accurate information to the press, even unrelated to an individual, is a termination-worthy offence - at least when that information is later tied to a key member of Bushco. Good to know there's one more group of people going out of its way to make sure Bush and company aren't burdened by anything resembling reality.