2007年VOA标准英语-White House, Congressional Democrats Heading fo

President Bush and majority Democrats¹ in Congress are heading toward a constitutional showdown involving the controversy² over the firing of federal prosecutors³. VOA's Dan Robinson reports, Democrats accuse the president and vice⁴ president of being above the law regarding that and other issues.

Fred Fielding (March 2007 photo)

In a letter to Congress, White House counsel Fred Fielding says the president is invoking⁵ executive privilege in refusing to provide documents to committees investigating the firing of U.S. attorneys, and what Democrats believe was possible improper⁶ political influence in the matter.

Those documents involve former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor, both of whom were also supposed to appear at public hearings under congressional subpoenas⁸.

Fielding said the executive privilege claim pertained⁹ only to documents, but he and other officials made clear the president would also apply it specifically to testimony¹⁰ by both former officials.

The White House maintains that its release of 8,500 pages of documents, testimony by Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez at congressional hearings, and an offer to have Miers, Taylor, and Karl Rove, the president's close political adviser¹¹, be interviewed behind closed doors without transcripts¹² should be sufficient.

Sen. Patrick Leahy discusses the Senate Judiciary Committee's issuance of subpoenas for legal basis of domestic surveillance program on Capitol Hill, 27 June 2007

In angry reactions, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Pat Leahy and Congressman¹³ John Conyers accused the president of "stonewalling."

Senator Chuck Schumer also addressed the issue.

"The U.S. attorneys investigation¹⁴ asks so many questions, so many questions about the rule of law and the truth will come out," he said. "Senator Leahy, I talked to him this morning, and we will pursue whatever it takes to get this information to come out, but it is regrettable that the White House is trying to hide the facts. When an administration is trying to hide the facts, when an administration is unwilling¹⁵ to put forward its facts, you wonder what they have to hide."

Democrats also continue to seek documents and testimony on other issues, including the administration's warrantless program of electronic eavesdropping¹⁶. The Senate Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena⁷ to Vice President Dick Cheney's office demanding documents on that matter.

However, the ranking Republican on the committee, Arlen Spector, questioned whether a subpoena to the vice president's office is beyond the scope of the committee's authorization¹⁷.

"I think there needs to be a refinement¹⁸ of these subpoenas to come within the scope of what has been authorized¹⁹ and then to see even within that scope, which is much narrower then the subpoenas issued, to see if we can resolve this matter," he said.

The standoffs over congressional demands, subpoenas, and executive privilege could lead to congressional contempt citations²⁰, and a battle in federal court which might not be resolved for many months, if at all before President Bush leaves office.

Senator Spector suggested that the White House offer for testimony behind closed doors, should be accepted, to move the matter of fired attorneys ahead and lessen²¹ what he calls "disarray²²" in the Department of Justice, even without transcripts.

Democrats and the vice president are also in conflict over another issue, namely his refusal to comply with an existing presidential order regarding the handling of classified documents.

In refusing to allow National Archives information security officials access to his office, the vice president initially²³ claimed he is not part of the executive branch of government but the legislative²⁴ branch, citing his role as president of the Senate.

On the floor of the House, Democrats introduced an amendment²⁵ to financial legislation aimed at cutting off government funding for the vice president's office.

Dick Cheney (file photo)

"The vice president is not above the law and cannot ignore the rules," said Congressman Rahm Emanuel. "The law should follow him, whatever branch of government he chooses to hang his hat in."

Republicans condemned²⁶ the effort, with Congressman Roy Blunt asserting it has political motivations.

"It's not a serious amendment about really de-funding the vice president's office, it is an amendment about something other than that and we know it," he said.

A subsequent statement by the vice president's chief of staff appeared to back away from the original argument.

But that has not quieted complaints by Democrats who point to what they call Mr. Cheney's long history of secretiveness and concealing²⁷ information from congressional investigators²⁸.