Democrats to Bush: Bring it on..... It's called Majority Power

[maddezmom]

George W. Bush said Tuesday evening that he'll allow "relevant committee members on a bipartisan basis to interview key members of my staff to ascertain relevant facts" about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

If that sounds like a pretty circumscribed offer, that's because it is. Check out all the qualifiers -- "relevant" committee members, "key" members, "relevant" facts -- and then throw in the way that White House Counsel Fred Fielding has described the president's offer: "Such interviews would be private and conducted without the need for an oath, transcript, subsequent testimony, or the subsequent issuance of subpoenas."

Put it all together, and the White House proposal is more about arrogance than accountability: You agree that you won't subpoena anyone from the White House, and we'll let those of you we deem "relevant" talk to officials we deem "key" about subjects that we deem "relevant," but you can't do it in public, you can't have a transcript, and you can't issue a subpoena later even if you think that whoever it is we let you interview has lied to you along the way.

"My administration has made a very reasonable proposal," the president said. "And if information is the desire, here's a great way forward."

Democrats on Capitol Hill were understandably unimpressed. The House Judiciary Committee will meet this morning to consider the issuance of subpoenas for Karl Rove, Harriet Miers and others. And even before Fielding presented the White House offer Tuesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy had made it clear that private interviews weren't going to suffice this time. "I want testimony under oath," Leahy said over the weekend. "I am sick and tired of getting half-truths on this. I do not believe in this, 'We'll have a private briefing for you where we'll tell you everything,' and they don't."

more:http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/03/21/reaction/index.html



A House Judiciary Committee subcommittee has just approved subpoenas for Karl Rove, Harriet Miers and their deputies as well as for Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The subcommittee on commercial and administrative law did not actually issue any subpoenas; for now, its move seems designed to give House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and other Democratic leaders bargaining power in negotiations with White House Counsel Fred Fielding. As Democratic Massachusetts Rep. William Delahunt explains, the threat of compelled testimony "does provide this body the leverage needed to negotiate from a position of strength."



http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/03/21/committee/index.html

[dmosh42]

1. Most Americans see this as part of 'oversight' responsibility,

-But the 'Bush' team sees it as a 'fishing trip'. The com-plete A-hole!