A House subcommittee today authorized the issuance of subpoenas for top presidential adviser Karl Rove and other White House and Justice Department aides as it investigates the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, potentially setting up a constitutional confrontation with President Bush.
The House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on commercial and administrative law passed by voice vote a motion giving the committee chairman, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), the power to issue subpoenas for five current and former officials, as well as for "unredacted documents" from the White House and Justice Department. Among the five are Rove, the deputy White House chief of staff, and Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel.
In authorizing the subpoena power over the objections of Republican members, the subcommittee implicitly spurned an offer by Bush yesterday to allow the officials to testify under strict conditions. The White House is demanding limits on the kinds of questions they would answer, opposes having them testify under oath and does not want their testimony to be recorded or transcribed.
If lawmakers actually issue the subpoenas, "the offer is withdrawn," White House spokesman Tony Snow warned in a news briefing today. "The moment subpoenas are issued, it means that they have rejected the offer."
In response to a barrage of questions about the issue, Snow said, "At this point, it is our hope that Congress in fact is going to accept what is a generous, reasonable offer to enable them to do their jobs. . . . If they don't accept the offer, it lifts the veil on some of the motivations, which means that people are less interested in the truth than creating a political spectacle."
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The Senate Judiciary Committee last week authorized its chairman, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), to issue subpoenas for 11 current and former Justice Department officials, including six of the fired U.S. attorneys. But it put off until tomorrow a vote on subpoena power to compel the testimony of top White House aides.
In addition to Rove and Miers, the House committee is seeking the testimony of D. Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales; William K. Kelley, the deputy White House counsel; and J. Scott Jennings, a special assistant to the president and deputy director of political affairs. Sampson resigned March 12 after acknowledging that he did not tell key Justice Department officials about the extent of his communications with the White House about the dismissals, leading the officials to provide incomplete information to Congress.
The attorney purge scandal just keeps getting better here. First, the Bush administration tried to make a deal with the Democratic Congress in allowing Rove and Miers to talk with the key congressmen with conditions. Rove and Miers would not testify under oath, the "interviews" would be conducted in private, with no transcripts, and no subsequent testimony or issuing of subpoenas. In other words, Rove and Miers could go up to the Hill, and shamelessly lie about the Bush attorney purge with no consequences. What is even more amazing is that the Bush administration believes that this deal is a "generous, reasonable offer" that they are giving to Congress.
You can hear the spin coming from the president himself at yesterday's testy press conference:
And finally, Countdown with Keith Olbermann has some good coverage of this press conference. Here is Part One:
And here is Part Two:
What I especially find ironic here is how Bush is now coming out attacking the Democrats in Congress on this attorney scandal. When you look at yesterday's press conference, Bush is almost goading the Democrats into issuing subpoenas and forcing a constitutional showdown here. It is almost like President Bush is trying to bluff his way out of this scandal--I'm the Deciderer here! My firings were legal! If you don't like it, well tough! And if you try to subpoena Rove and Miers, I'll invoke executive privilege! It is almost like he's trying to force down the Democrats on this latest scandal, thinking that the Democrats will not issue subpoenas and start a constitutional crisis this late in his own presidential term, and this early into the 2008 presidential elections. Bush is trying to utilize a classic Rovian tactic of attacking your opponent's strengths here. The problem for President Bush is that his presidency has been so weakened by scandals--from the misuse of Iraq war intelligence, the outing of Valerie Plame, the illegal NSA wiretappings, the Jack Abramoff connection, and now this attorney purge. All of these scandals show a sense of corruption and cronyism taking place within the Bush White House, thus discrediting whatever the latest White House PR-spin they are trying to sell on the scandal.
It is no wonder that Congress has decided to call Bush's bluff here. I guess even Congress knows when they're getting screwed by the Bush White House.
