President Bush is waging enough wars without battling Congress over whether Karl Rove and Harriet Miers will be allowed to testify on Capitol Hill about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
The president says he’ll invoke executive privilege to limit Rove and Miers’ testimony. We urge him to change his mind and make them available to give sworn testimony in public.
The House Judiciary Committee is examining the White House role in the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors, and it makes perfect sense for the panel to press for sworn testimony. After all, the administration has given conflicting and inaccurate explanations for the firings and has glossed over troubling evidence of political interference in prosecutors’ work.
It’s possible some prosecutors were told to resign after they refused to use their office to carry out partisan hits, or to clear the way for White House cronies. Congress should act aggressively in this matter, in a way that is consistent with the division of powers under the Constitution.
There is a proper time and a place for executive privilege, but in this case the administration seems to be concocting a constitutional crisis out of whole cloth by threatening to defy House subpoenas.
In a twist of irony, the man who is now White House spokesman argued against executive privilege when then-President Clinton sought to invoke it in an effort to keep internal White House deliberations about the Monica Lewinsky scandal from Congress. In 1998, Tony Snow wrote: “Most of us want no part of a president who is cynical enough to use the majesty of his office to evade the one thing he is sworn to uphold – the rule of law.”
Indeed. The rule of law. The credibility of the federal prosecutorial system is at stake, and the fate of beleaguered Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may hang in the balance, partly because his testimony before Congress proved to be false.
The president’s charge that hearings involving Rove and Miers would be a “show trial” is a smokescreen intended to avoid accountability. Rove is the president’s top political adviser, and Miers served until recently as White House counsel. After news reports emerged about a White House plan to fire all 93 U.S. attorneys, the administration contended it was Miers’ idea and was never seriously considered. Subsequently released White House e-mails showed it actually was Rove’s idea.
Congress needs to get to the bottom of the machinations and motivations involved in this matter. To that end, a judiciary subcommittee on Wednesday voted to issue subpoenas. The episode requires a full airing, not an artful dodge.
