The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a resolution to hold Karl Rove in contempt of Congress for failing to appear to testify as directed by a subpoena.

Rove’s attorney cited executive privilege when the former top White House adviser declined to appear at a July 10 Judiciary Committee hearing.

Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr., D‑Mich., issued the subpoena on May 22 in a bid to force Rove to testify about allegations that the Justice Department has engaged in politically motivated prosecutions of Democratic officials, including former Alabama Gov. Donald Siegelman.

Rove denied any involvement in the matter in a July 22 letter to Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the panel. Rove has offered to submit to an off-the-record, untranscribed interview or answer written questions about the Siegelman case, but not about the broader issue of the politicization of the Justice Department. Conyers has rejected that offer.

The practical effect of a contempt resolution, however, is likely to be limited.

In February, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey refused to refer a contempt of Congress citation against President Bush’s chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten, and Harriet Miers, a former White House counsel, to a federal grand jury, as required by law. The House had voted to cite Bolten and Miers for contempt after they refused to comply, on executive privilege grounds, with Judiciary subpoenas related to the firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

A lawsuit filed by members of the House to force compliance with subpoenas seeking testimony and documents from Miers and documents from Bolten is now pending in federal court.

The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider the resolution at 10:15 a.m. Wednesday in 2141 Rayburn.