Monday, July 9, 2007

Executive privilege

The two words Presidents of both parties love, and members of Congress absolutely despite. To no one's surprise, Dubya invoked it today in an attempt to prevent two of his former aides -- Sarah Taylor and Harriet Miers -- from testifying in the DA dismissal investigation.

There's no question any executive leader -- whether he or she be a President or Prime Minister -- is entitled to a certain degree of privacy as well as the expectation that policy advice will be given in the strictest of confidence. But that privilege ends when there has been criminal activity or the suspicion of it; or the advisors have counselled something which is patently illegal.

Something tells me this wasn't George W. Bush. The letter may have been signed by him (actually, Fred Fielding, who replaced Miers as Bush's general counsel) but it smells of Dick Cheney or Karl Rove. And I don't think even Republicans, including Sen. Arlen "Magic Bullet" Specter (PA) will stand for it.

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