WASHINGTON -- Reiterating a position he has held throughout his effort to win Senate confirmation for Harriet E. Miers as a Supreme Court justice, President Bush said today he would refuse to turn over to the Senate copies of documents reflecting her work at the White House.
Republican and Democratic senators called on President Bush on Sunday to release the documents relating to Miers' service as White House counsel, with some warning that she might not win confirmation otherwise.
But Bush told reporters today that making public such information would dampen the freedom of staff members, in this and future administrations, to give the president unvarnished advice, and "that would make it impossible for me and other presidents to be able to make sound decisions."
"They may ask for paperwork about the decision-making process, what her recommendations were, and that would breach very important confidentiality," Bush said, adding: "It's a red line I'm not willing to cross.
"People can learn about Harriet Miers through hearings, but we are not going to destroy this business about people being able to walk into the oval Office and say, 'Mr. President, here's my advice to you, here's what I think is important.' And that's not only important for this president, it's important for future presidents," he said.
In discussions on television talk shows Sunday, senators of both parties said the biggest obstacle to Miers' confirmation was a lack of information about her capabilities.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), ordinarily a Bush ally but also a social conservative who is expected to seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2008, warned that the Senate "is not a rubber stamp."
"If we're to give advice and consent, we've got to have a full picture," Brownback said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday."
And this is coming from a Republican senator! Continuing on:
Both Brownback, a member of the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the committee's top Democrat, argued that because the president said he nominated Miers because of her White House experience, he should waive executive privilege and release files on at least some of her work.
"The president has based that decision on what he's seen her do in the White House," Leahy said on the same Fox News program. "We ought to at least know what it was she did in the White House."
Brownback added: "I do think we're going to have to see more information. Not attorney-client privilege-type information, but more information of the work product that she was involved in, in the White House, that's not of a legal nature, but that's of a policy nature."
Mr. President, simply parroting the idea that Harriet Miers is qualified because she worked for you and you say she's qualified is not going to get her on the Supreme Court. Like it or not, you better start producing documentation which proves that she's qualified. Because she's made a lousy presentation of herself to both Republican and Democratic senators. First, she submitted one of the worst responses to senators questionnaires. Then she flubbed herself regarding cases in private meetings with senators. And finally, the evangelical right-wingnuts don't believe she's conservative enough for their tastes. Harriet Miers is going down in flames--both due to your incompetence for choosing her, and due to her own poor presentation of herself. And the Democrats don't even have to lift a finger because of it.
But they just may will. The Democrats just may force a nuclear showdown with a filibuster, depending on how Miers does in her confirmation hearings. Or Miers may just screw up so badly in the hearings that she'll be shot down by both Republicans and Democrats--leaving the filibuster ready for if you try to select a Janice Rogers Brown or a Patricia Owens to the bench. If you expect Miers to waltz through the confirmation hearings, claiming she can't say anything about ideological issues since they may come up in the court, a la John Roberts, then you're living in a complete fantasy land.
No comments:
Post a Comment