Congress must continue to push for answers to questions regarding the involvement of top presidential advisors in the firings of at least nine US attorneys last year.
Both the House and Senate are inching toward a showdown with the White House over whether current and former presidential aides, including President Bush’s chief of staff, Joshua Bolten and former advisor Karl Rove, should have to comply with congressional subpoenas.
On Nov. 29, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) took a next step toward seeking to enforce the subpoenas in court. He formally ruled illegal President Bush’s claim of executive privilege for his aides. The House has also taken steps to force a confrontation with the White House that could require the intervention of the new attorney general, Michael Mukasey.
It’s not clear what happens next. But what is clear is that Congress must exercise its constitutional responsibilities to stand up to the President.
The former attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, the man ultimately responsible for the US attorney firings and more importantly, the politicization of the Justice Department, lost his job over this mess. But the American public deserves to know who in the White House and to what extent were they involved in the decisions to fire the prosecutors for apparently refusing to succumb to partisan political pressure.
The entire episode is a blow to the integrity and credibility of our criminal-justice system, which must provide equal justice for all. And it comes at a time of corrosive public cynicism and distrust of government that has been fueled by recent political scandals. A failure of Congress to investigate and disclose to the American people will only exacerbate those feelings.
The Justice Department and our U.S. attorneys have a long history of nonpartisanship and of enforcing the nation's laws in a fair manner. That reputation has been tarnished and must be restored. Gonzales is gone, and that is the first step toward restoring credibility. But only by disclosing the full truth about the role that the White House played in this episode will the integrity of the Justice Department be fully restored.
Congress must demand that the presidential aides who are being asked to testify do just that.