You think he has something to hide? The Bush gang knows that all they have to do is run out the clock. And if the controversy arising from the stonewalls harms the Republicans in November, so be it. This President doesn't give a damn. But there is a principal involved here. No one is above the law. Congress should pursue investigations of this White House so that the American people know what crooks these people are. And the idea that investigating the President is harmful to the party doing the investigations is obviously not consistent with the facts. The Republicans maintained control of Congress and won the Presidency in 2000.
President Bush invoked executive privilege to keep Congress from seeing the FBI report of an interview with Vice President Dick Cheney and other records related to the administration's leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity in 2003.
The president's decision drew a sharp protest Wednesday from Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of House Oversight Committee, which had subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey to turn over the documents.
"This unfounded assertion of executive privilege does not protect a principle; it protects a person," the California Democrat said. "If the vice president did nothing wrong, what is there to hide?"
Waxman left little doubt he would soon move for a committee vote to hold Mukasey in contempt of Congress.
[...]Bush's assertion of privilege prevented Mukasey from complying with the House subpoena for records bearing on the unmasking of Plame at a time that the administration was trying to rebut criticism from her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, of Bush's rationale for going to war in Iraq.
Cheney's chief of staff in 2003, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was later convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI about his role in leaking Plame's name and CIA affiliation to a reporter. Last July, Bush commuted Libby's 2{-year sentence, sparing him from serving prison time.
In grand jury testimony played at his trial, Libby acknowledged he told the FBI early in the Plame probe that "it's possible" he spoke to Cheney about whether to share information with reporters about Wilson's wife.
In addition, Congress should resist every effort by this White House to acquire powers never given to a previous President. No administration in American history has so disregarded the Constitution. It is up to Congress to defend our country from this renegade administration.
The House on Wednesday passed legislation governing next year's intelligence budget that demands lawmakers be given greater access to the nation's most closely held secrets.
The bill is the latest attempt by Democrats, struggling to challenge President Bush on major national security issues, to step up their role in overseeing an intelligence program they say has gone astray. Lawmakers complain that the Bush administration left most of them out of the loop on highly classified — and controversial — matters, including creation and destruction of CIA interrogation tapes and Bush's warrantless wiretapping program.
The bill, which passed on a voice vote, would block two-thirds of the federal covert operations budget until each member of the congressional intelligence committees is briefed on all secret operations underway. Panel members also would be granted access to any other details necessary to assess the value of intelligence operations.
Failure by Congress to stand up to George Bush explains, in part, why their job approval has plunged to new record lows.
Congressional job approval ratings have sunk to their lowest point in three decades, according to the latest Gallup Poll.
A survey of 1,016 adults taken July 10-13 found that 14% approve of the job Congress is doing. That's half President Bush's record low 28% job approval number, and the lowest congressional rating since Gallup first began asking the question in 1974.
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