Karl Rove, the man President Bush referred to as "Boy Genius" when Rove served as his deputy chief of staff, has been subpoenaed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee today.

If Rove, now a pundit for Fox News, fails to show up - his lawyer said he wouldn't - Congress should find him and arrest him. If lawmakers fail to do so promptly, the law itself will lose its meaning and Congress will lose what little respect the public has for it.

The committee wants to ask Rove about his possible involvement in what many believe was a politically-motivated and successful attempt to send Arizona Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman to jail on charges of corruption. Siegelman's prosecution for alleged bribery was so suspicious that 52 former state attorneys general signed a letter calling on Congress to investigate. On that list were three former AGs from Massachusetts and one each from Maine and Vermont. No former New Hampshire attorney general joined them.

The committee could charge Rove with contempt of Congress and wait and see if he shows up later for questioning, but that would not be productive. Several former White House officials, among them former White House counsel Harriet Miers and former chief of staff Josh Bolton, have ignored subpoenas and congressional contempt charges because Bush asked them not to compromise what he asserts is his executive privilege to keep some conversations private.

Congressional contempt citations are rare, but when issued, standard protocol calls for them to be forwarded to the Justice Department, which can then empanel a grand jury to determine if the evidence is convincing enough to act upon. So far, however, Attorney General Michael Mukasey has said he won't act to enforce the subpoenas, since, in citing executive privilege, the White House was probably acting on the advice of the Justice Department itself.

Congress can either agree to that Alice in Wonderland interpretation of the Constitution or it can send the House sergeant at arms to arrest Rove. Once upon a time, it was common for the House and Senate to order the arrest those who refused to comply with a subpoena and to jail them in the basements of their respective chambers. That course should be considered with Rove, who is also wanted for questioning by the Senate, which is looking into what are believed to be the politically-based firings of numerous U.S. attorneys.

Rove is now a private citizen. In his role as a political wag, he has said that he never discussed the Siegelman matter with the White House. That makes his assertion of executive privilege all the more ludicrous. Rove has offered to testify by e-mail, or if he can do so not under oath and with no recorded transcript. But it is Congress that makes the rules, not Rove, his lawyer or the president.

Many Americans choose which laws to obey and which to flout. When caught, they can claim all they want that the law doesn't apply to them or plead that their boss told them not to talk. Those people generally wind up behind bars. If he continues to thumb his nose at Congress and the rule of law, that's what should happen to Rove.