Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Stonewall Bush Dares Democrats to a Confrontation. They should accept.

George Bush has just finished talking to the American people for the second time in two days. At least he's taking questions today, but it's still as ridiculous as his comments yesterday.

He is clearly challenging the Congress to a confrontation over his staff and former staff testifying under oath about the growing scandal over the firing of nine United States Attorneys (nearly ten percent of all US Attorneys!). He is using the classic argument that says that if White House staffers have to testify under oath to Congress, they will lose any ability to offer confidential advice to the President. That is nothing more than a red herring.

They are free to offer confidential advice to the President until they are blue in the face. Until they start acting unethically. Then, Congressional oversight is warranted.

I still remember the Whitewater Hearings when one after another of the Clinton Administration was dragged before Al D'Amato's Government Affairs Committee to testify there about any number of issues. In these cases, the staff themselves were not suspected of unethical behavior, they were merely a means of seeking damaging information on President Clinton.

There are indeed valid reasons for White House staff to be prevented from testifying to Congress. This, however is NOT one of those times.

The President's position is nothing more than stonewalling. They have made a conscious decision to prevent the truth coming directly from the mouths of his closest and most trusted staffers.
Bush said, "If they are truly interested in information, they need to read all of the emails we have released. They would rather be involved in partisanship. They are just interested in scoring political points."

While he is on message, he couldn't be farther away from the right thing to do. His "fair offer" to have Rove and Miers testify off-camera and off-the-record is wholly unacceptable.

Chairmen John Conyers and Pat Leahy should pick up the gauntlet thrown down by the President. The ONLY reason for Rove and Miers to not testify under oath and on the record is so they A) don't disclose information damaging to the White House, and B) so they don't find themselves facing perjury charges for lying about what they said and did.

This is unacceptable. Democrats need to STAND UP and DEMAND that Congress get to the bottom of this. Otherwise, a dangerous precedent will be created. At risk is the integrity of the Federal legal system.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rock on Lane!

Dr. Rich

Anonymous said...

Hi Mr. lane Hudson!

Before I leave a comment about this post, I would like to introduce myself and say something.

I am Nerissa, a student from the University of the Philippines. I first met your name in our Journalism class when we studied about blogging, blogs and bloggers. Honestly, I am not really a fan of blogging and I did not really knew that this thing exists. Shame on me for that. But you are one of those few people who convinced me to log on the blogger's world because I learned that there is one great thing behind blogging. That is, a more democratic flow of real informations!

I would like to quote what you said in the magazine I read, "there is a judo-like power even a tiny blog can have over a towering public figure". Indeed! It is the power of blogging.

Regarding you post, you are indeed a brave person. You may be one of the ordinary but you a big one in sending out the truth. I am not so knowledgeable about the issue you are talking about but I got your point. You are such a journalist that root out hipocrisy in public life and that brings magnifying glass over people in public life. These are your words and these definitely work in you.

I am a student of state university and I have a role to watch over the actions of the government. I call it a social responsibility. Based on your post, I can see that we have the same mission. That is to bring the truth for the welfare of the pulic and the state.

I admire the way you stand by what you are believing and on what you think is right. Hold on to the truth! Keep it up Sir! The blogging world needs someone like you!

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