Subpoena Showdown: Does No Mean No?
March 22, 2007 — -- A second congressional committee voted Thursday to authorize subpoenas for White House aides, including deputy chief of staff Karl Rove and legal counsel and one-time Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers in the growing controversy surrounding the firing of eight U.S. attorneys late last year.
The move calls the White House on its promise that there will be no negotiations when it comes to executive privilege and the power of Congress to demand answers from high-ranking White House aides.
Just a day after President Bush publicly backed his embattled attorney general, Alberto Gonzales told a crowd in St. Louis, Mo., bluntly, "I will not resign," despite bipartisan rancor over the firings and support for the subpoenas.
While the vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee to authorize subpoena power was never in doubt, the the two hours of debate that preceded the vote showcased the fact that even conservative Republicans, normally supportive of the White House, are uncomfortable with the president's condition that any testimony by his advisers would have to be behind closed doors, not under oath, and conducted without an official transcript.
Republicans on the committee who supported authorizing subpoena power, with the exception of Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, shied away from an on-the-record vote to empower the Democratic-led committee to subpoena Rove and others.
Most Republicans argued that it would be better to negotiate with the White House before engaging the White House in a protacted court battle but agreed with the majority Democrats that any interview of White House staffers should be in public and under oath (or at least transcribed).
Democrats pointed out that Bush, either as a tactic or a matter or truth, said there would be no negotiaton.
Republicans in the Senate argued, in various ways, that the president's offer may not be as non-negotiable as Bush has made it seem.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., reasoned, "A no is not always a no. My wife said no the first four times I asked her out on a date."
Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., sitting next to each other at the hearing, were interruptive and animated as they discussed whether its worth offering a counter-proposal to a White House that has said its first offer is the final offer without a fight in court.
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