posted on March 22, 2007 12:12:23 AM
Showdown Looms in Attorney Firings Probe
Updated 2:28 AM ET March 22, 2007
By DAVID ESPO
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress careened closer to a full-blown legal showdown over the firing of federal prosecutors Wednesday as a House subcommittee voted subpoenas for top administration officials in defiance of the White House.
"After two months of stonewalling, shifting stories and misleading testimony, it is clear that we are still not getting the truth about the decision to fire these prosecutors and its cover-up," said Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif.
In response, an unyielding White House threatened to rescind its day-old proposal for top strategist Karl Rove and other officials to answer lawmakers' questions away from the glare of television lights and not under oath. "If they issue subpoenas, yes, the offer is withdrawn," said presidential spokesman Tony Snow. Democrats "will have rejected the offer," he said.
Despite the rhetoric, Rep. John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly suggested there was room for negotiations in a confrontation that has threatened Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' hold on his job and forced his chief of staff to resign.
"What we're voting on today is merely a backup," said the Michigan Democrat, adding that he would refrain from issuing the subpoenas, at least for the time being.
Documents made public during the day did little to clarify the circumstances surrounding the firings of the eight U.S. attorneys. Instead, they showed the Justice Department scrambling to answer questions from California Republican lawmakers critical of the record compiled by the U.S. attorney's office on immigration cases. Carol Lam, the U.S. attorney at the time, was among the group that was fired.
In an apparent attempt to mend fences, Gonzales arranged a series of meetings in the coming days with groups of U.S. attorneys around the country, beginning Thursday in St. Louis.
It seemed likely the next act in the political drama would be a separate vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve a second set of subpoenas for Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers and William Kelley, who was Miers' deputy.
Senate Democrats, in particular, have been insistent on gaining testimony under oath, and Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., dismissed the idea that Rove would be allowed to answer questions on the White House's terms. "Anyone who would take that deal isn't playing with a full deck," he said.
Republicans forced a delay in a vote on Senate subpoenas a week ago, and it was not clear whether any of the GOP members of the panel were now prepared to support them. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the senior Republican on the panel, floated a compromise in which Rove and others would answer questions from selected lawmakers without being sworn in but with a transcription made. It was not clear whether that would satisfy either the White House or congressional Democrats.
The clash comes less than 100 days after the new Democratic-controlled Congress took power and pledged to confront Bush aggressively.
posted on March 22, 2007 10:31:56 AM
clinton did it.
carter did it.
Now that Bush has done the same thing....the whiners are seeking the death penalty.
LOL LOL
It just gets funnier and funnier. They're just SO desperate.
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
posted on March 22, 2007 10:44:25 AM
BUSHY and HIS GANG is being burned slowly by the 110TH Congress. Its time to put a stop to the LIARS and let the TRUTH PREVAIL.
Looks to me its people like LIAR_K that is doing all the whining.
She understands that slowly but surely the 110th Congress will break up the BUSH GANG.
posted on March 22, 2007 12:56:54 PM new
Linda_K
posted on March 22, 2007 10:31:56 AM
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clinton did it.
carter did it.
Now that Bush has done the same thing....the whiners are seeking the death penalty."""
Where did anyone say they wanted the death penalty? Prove it.
AND Clinton and Carter did NOT do it. That is an out and out lie or else you are just very uninformed .
When ANY president takes office, the attorneys all submit letters of resignation. They will be accepted or rejected by the incoming president.
Only on VERY RARE occasions,such as spousal abuse conviction, has any attorney been FIRED.
UNTIL NOW.
The problem is that attorneys who were prosecuting REPUBLICANS were fired. Attorneys who refused to prosecute DEMOCRATS were fired.
posted on March 22, 2007 03:34:49 PM new
There is no "legal showdown". They are patronage jobs given out at the discretion of the President. The ruffled feathers are because most Presidents clean them out at the beginning of their term and not the middle.
posted on March 22, 2007 08:33:15 PM new
True, desquirrel. And clinton got rid of 93 of them during his administration.
Carter got rid of one or two midway during his administration.
But again....it just galls the liberals that ANY president can do this and this one has.
LOL I so enjoy watching them whine about most everything.
One would think they don't have the power in both houses now ....the way they continue carrying on about things they can't CONTROL.
lol lol
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
