[Lerkfish]

this NYT story

is interesting...of note:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 — Faced with a refusal by the Bush administration to provide certain documents related to prewar intelligence on Iraq, the Senate intelligence committee voted in a closed session on Thursday to move toward a possible subpoena, according to senior Congressional officials.

The plan approved by the panel calls for Senator Rockefeller and Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, the top Republican, to issue an explicit warning in a letter to President Bush if the documents are not received, Congressional officials said.

The panel requested the information as part of its inquiry into the administration's prewar intelligence about Iraq, including the disputed intelligence about Iraq's illicit weapons and ties to terrorism, the officials said.

The White House has said publicly that it is complying with the panel's requests. But Congressional officials say the administration is continuing to withhold important information, including copies of the president's detailed daily written intelligence digest.

[quote]

[SimeyTheLimey]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Lerkfish:
this NYT story

is interesting...of note:



I don't know how many people recall this, but right when Bush first took office the Administration refused to comply with a congressional subpoena of documents from the previous Clinton Administration. The idea was to assert executive authority vis a vis that of the legislature. The chose Clinton's documents rather than their own to make it clear that they saw it as a matter of principle over separation of powers.

In other words, expect a fight on this.

[Lerkfish]

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
In other words, expect a fight on this.

oh, absolutely. But whereas you attribute it to principle, I attribute it to "something to hide".

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally posted by Lerkfish:
oh, absolutely. But whereas you attribute it to principle, I attribute it to "something to hide".

It could be both. I'm just pointing out that these kinds of tussles between the legislative and executive branches are common and that this particular White House went out of its way to fire a shot across the bows on executive privilege long before this specific issue arose.

There is also an old cliche that where you sit is where you stand. That professor I mentioned the other day mentioned how presidents who have been legislators flipflopped completely when they went from Congress to the White House. He was talking specifically about the war powers and how presidents like Johnson and Ford went from adamantly asserting congressional primacy to adamantly asserting executive privilege when they moved from one side of Pennsylvania Avenue to the other. So it's not so much principle, as interests built into the structure of our government.

[BRussell]

But the difference is that the White House has said it supports and would cooperate with these investigations. If not, then fine, they'll take the political fallout, if any, for not cooperating. But they shouldn't try to say they are when they're not.

[Secret__Police]

Time to send some troublemakers to summer camp in Gitmo.