It Isn't 'Risky' to Investigate the White House
In today's NYT White House Memo, Sheryl Gay Stolberg insists that a confrontation over assertions of executive privilege in the investigation of U.S. Attorney firings would be risky for the White House and for Democrats. The risk for the White House is obvious: if the administration loses the battle and can't continue to stonewall, the truth might come out. The risk to Democrats is less clear.
Stolberg says Democrats "run the risk of looking like they are waging a fishing expedition." Even if Alberto Gonzales and other DOJ witnesses to date hadn't been so evasive and inconsistent in their testimony, and if White House emails hadn't disappeared, the "fishing expedition" charge would still ring hollow. At this point, it's obvious to the casual observer that Democrats are being stonewalled in their search for answers to legitimate questions. If this is a fishing trip, it's one the American public is willing to take.
To support her "Democrats need to worry about issuing a subpoena" thesis, Stolberg turns to Ari Fleischer. Democrats should take advice from Comical Ari?
Here's Fleischer's logic:
"Congress shouldn’t go down this subpoena line because they’re only cooking their own goose. It’s great for the base, but lousy for the country.”Why "this subpoena line" will cook a Democratic goose is a question Stolberg evidently didn't bother to ask. Stolberg moves instead to Republican strategist Charles Black, who believes Democrats haven't subpoenaed Rove because they want to delay their investigation "to keep the controversy alive." If that's the administration's worry, Rove can deal the Democratic strategy a quick defeat by making a prompt voluntary appearance before Congress to answer under oath questions about his involvement in the firings.
You won't find that suggestion in Stolberg's memo. She moves instead to the president, who bemoans the spectacle of Rove's participation in a "show trial," and to Dana Perino's complaint that the Democratic "obsession with trying to get Karl Rove is bordering on the weird." Stolberg evidently found no reason to ask Perino why it is "weird" to wonder whether Rove helped select the U.S. Attorneys who were axed.
Using subpoenas to learn the truth about the U.S. Attorney firings is not "risky" for Democrats. The risk to our democracy of an unchecked executive outweighs any political risk to legislators who investigate misconduct.
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