By Rich Lowry
Monday, July 30, 2007
A majority is a terrible thing to waste. That's not stopping congressional Democrats.
When not trying to force a pullout from Iraq, their main effort
has been chasing Bush-administration scandals that loom large only in
their fevered imaginations. Democrats consider this "change," but it is
really a toxic repeat of the Republican investigative onslaught against
Bill Clinton in the 1990s and of the Democratic one against Ronald
Reagan in the 1980s -- in other words, business as usual when Congress
confronts a hated presidential adversary.
The Democrats' latest tactic is to give an implicit choice to Bush
officials: They can either come to Capitol Hill to testify so Democrats
can try to build a perjury case against them, or they can refuse, in
which case Democrats will cite them for criminal contempt of Congress.
Either path leads inexorably to Democratic calls for a special counsel.
Democrats love the prospect of another couple of Patrick Fitzgeralds,
drumming Bush officials out of public life with onerous legal bills for
their trouble.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has been a particular target,
and why not? He's so incapable of defending himself that, for
grandstanding Democrats, cuffing him around is risk-free fun, like
cruel kids pulling the wings off insects. The new perjury accusation
against him is based on testimony this past week in which he often was
kept from saying two sentences in a row without being interrupted and
called a liar.
He tried to say that the publicly disclosed National Security
Agency surveillance activity referred to as a "terrorist surveillance
program" was uncontroversial within the administration, but that other,
still-classified NSA activities were contentious and led to a dramatic
visit to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft's hospital room in 2004 to
try to get them re-authorized. Between the interruptions, the
difficulty of discussing classified activities in public and Gonzales'
expository shortcomings, it all got garbled, but a well-intentioned
person could understand his point. The Senate Judiciary Committee's Democrats preferred to
pretend that they had witnessed a flagrantly perjurious performance.
Gonzales is being tormented on another front, too -- the firings of
U.S. attorneys. Democrats can't explain how the administration's firing
of U.S. attorneys who serve at its pleasure could be criminal, but
apparently want to spend the rest of the Bush presidency hunting for
evidence of this elusive wrongdoing. A House committee subpoenaed Bush chief of staff Josh Bolten
and former counsel Harriet Miers to testify, predictably drawing a
White House assertion of executive privilege. President Bush would be
remiss if he didn't keep his aides from being forced to reveal
deliberations about such a core executive function as hiring and firing
executive-branch officials. Now the House is moving toward citing these
high-level White House officials for criminal contempt of Congress, an
unprecedented move.
And a futile one. It has been the policy of administrations of
both parties that -- on grounds of separation of powers -- U.S.
attorneys won't enforce criminal contempt of Congress for assertions of
executive privilege. Democrats simply could take the dispute to court.
Instead, they want the contempt citations and constitutional showdown.
The more headlines about subpoenas, contempt of Congress, special
counsels and all the other investigative detritus, they figure, the
better. This is a grave political miscalculation. Absent a
Watergate-style smoking gun, or at least some plausible whiff of
gunpowder, voters aren't interested in scandal monomania. The only
political effect of the investigative onslaught is to please the
bloodthirsty Democratic "netroots" who are desperate for excuses to try
to impeach Bush, while convincing voters that Washington is a
disgusting cockpit of partisan rancor oblivious to their true concerns.
There is a reason President Bush can be at 28 percent approval and
still double Congress' rating in some polls. But Democrats can't help themselves. They've held more
than 600 oversight hearings so far, and these hearings are close to
their only accomplishment. The Democratic majority brings to mind a
paraphrase of the old saw about teaching: Those who can, legislate.
Those who can't, investigate.
U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, right, speaks to a
roundtable of local Project Safe Childhood partners, including U.S.
Attorney Rodger A. Heaton of the Central District of Illinois, left, at
the U.S. Attorney?s office in Springfield Ill., Friday, July 27, 2007.
Gonzales listened to Illinois local law enforcement on their increased
efforts to combat sexual abuse and exploitation of children. Gonzales
has been on the hot seat as Congress continues to try to get to the
bottom of the firings of federal prosecutors.(AP Photo//The State
Journal-Register,Justin L. Fowler)
Related Media:
VIDEO:
Gonzales Aide Admits "Crossing The Line"
VIDEO:
Leahy: Gonzales Must Correct Mistakes
VIDEO:
Head of FBI Contradicts Gonzales Testimony
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