By Keith Koffler and Terry Kivlan, CongressDailyAM
© National Journal Group Inc.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

President Bush and Congress appeared headed for a constitutional clash of two branches of government Tuesday, with Bush warning that lawmakers should not "head down the partisan road of issuing subpoenas" and top Democrats saying compelled testimony from key White House aides was the only way to determine why eight federal prosecutors were fired.

Bush, in a hastily arranged news conference, said White House Counsel Fred Fielding's offer to allow presidential political adviser Karl Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers and other senior officials to be interviewed but not questioned under oath was a fair solution that allowed the Legislative Branch of government to investigate the case of the fired prosecutors without the Executive Branch having to disclose privileged internal workings.

"If the staff of a president operated in constant fear of being hauled before various committees to discuss internal deliberations, the president would not receive candid advice and the American people would be ill-served," Bush said.

But Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., promptly vowed to issue subpoenas, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the administration had not earned the right to discuss the matter without taking an oath to tell the truth.

"After telling a bunch of different stories about why they fired the U.S. attorneys, the Bush administration is not entitled to the benefit of the doubt," Reid said in a statement. "Congress and the American people deserve a straight answer. If Karl Rove plans to tell the truth, he has nothing to fear from being under oath like any other witness."

Conyers said the House committee would vote next week on subpoenas for Rove, Miers, her former deputy, William Kelley, and Rove's deputy, Scott Jennings. Leahy said his panel would vote on subpoenas today. "The straighter the path to truth, the sooner we will know the facts," Leahy said. Added Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., who is on the House Judiciary Committee, "The White House is playing a dangerous game of chicken."

During his news conference, Bush said the dismissals were proper, noting here was "no indication whatsoever after reviews by the White House staff that anybody did anything improper." He also restated his confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who has been urged by lawmakers in both parties to resign.

Like Bush, Republican lawmakers were also digging in for battle, saying the only politics being brought to bear was by Democrats trying to get at the mastermind of the president's political successes.

"The Democrats see Karl Rove behind every tree in Washington," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Judiciary Committee. "They have been salivating so much to get Karl Rove under oath that they can't help themselves."

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, called the furor over the firings "a lot of to-do about nothing," since the prosecutors are "political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president, and they all know that."

Fielding, in a letter [PDF] announcing the White House's refusal to allow testimony from the aides, said the House and Senate committees had been given an "unprecedented window into personnel decision making in the executive branch" through the release of more than 3,000 pages of documents by the Justice Department.

Leahy countered that the department "only selectively sent documents" after "erasing large portions that they did not want to see the light of day" and said testifying under oath "is the record for true accountability."