Karl Rove said Rep. Nancy Pelosi was "dead wrong" when she suggested Wednesday that she could have had him arrested.

"The only way I could have been arrested is if the House adopted the resolution, which it did not," the Republican operative and former adviser to President George W. Bush told Fox News on Wednesday night.

"So, it's nice to know that Speaker Pelosi wanted to have me arrested. It's nice to know that she thinks she had the power to, but we're still a nation of laws and she has no authority to do so and had she attempted to arrest on any of the number times that I was in and out of the Capitol, without a resolution passed by the entire House of Representatives, she would have been up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle."

Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, made her comments Wednesday after House Republicans moved to pursue contempt of Congress charges against Attorney General Eric Holder.
“I could have arrested Karl Rove on any given day,” the California Democrat told reporters. “I’m not kidding. There’s a prison here in the Capitol. If we had spotted him in the Capitol, we could have arrested him.”

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"You know, she sounds a little bit like Inspector Clouseau and a little bit the Mad Red Queen, but Speaker Pelosi was dead wrong in her assertion today and I'm sure she had a good laugh and it's nice to know that she dreams of slapping me in her own personal jail. But she didn't have any authority to do it," Rove said.

Karl Rove, President Bush's longtime political guru, refused to obey an order to testify before a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday.

Rove's lawyer asserted that Rove was "immune" from the subpoena the committee had issued, arguing that the committee could not compel him to testify due to "executive privilege."

The panel is investigating allegations that Rove and his White House allies dismissed U.S. attorneys and prosecuted officials who they saw as political opponents.

The panel subpoenaed Rove in May after his lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, made clear the former White House deputy chief of staff would not appear voluntarily.

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Rove refuses subpoena, leaves country, July 10, 2008

Former White House adviser Karl Rove has ignored a subpoena from congressional Democrats to testify about allegations of political pressure at the Justice Department and his alleged role in the prosecution of a former governor of Alabama. (Don Siegelman)

A House subcommittee voted 7-1 Thursday to reject Rove's claim that executive privilege freed him from an obligation to testify, leaving open the possibility the Republican political guru will be held in contempt.

During the hearing, Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) revealed that Rove was out of the country. .....

Karl Rove failed to appear before the House Judiciary subcommittee. His lawyer revealed that he was out of the country.