Congress has issued the first subpoenas for White House officials over the US Attorney firings. Executive privilege claims come next. Then what? The White House will never budge, which tells me that eventually the US Attorney for the DIstrict of Columbia will have to decide whether to settle the question by picking up a contempt referral from Congress. He won’t do it either because he’s a hack or because he doesn’t want to ref a balance of powers fight, so unless Congress works up the balls for an impeachment I have a hard time seeing the White House not coming out on top.
***Update***
via dKos, the AP story:
Two congressional committees are issuing subpoenas for testimony from former White House counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor on their roles in the firings of eight federal prosecutors, according to two officials familiar with the investigation.
Presumably they started with Sara Taylor because you always try to roll the little fish before you move on to bigger game.
***Update 2***
The timing has to do with emails released last night that provided even more evidence of White House involvement in the U.S. attorney firings.
***Update 3***
Not an encouraging sign:
Statement from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT): “The White House cannot have it both ways — it cannot stonewall congressional investigations by refusing to provide documents and witnesses, while claiming nothing improper occurred. … Some at the White House may hope to thwart our constitutional oversight efforts by locking the doors and closing the curtains, but we will keep asking until we get to the truth.”
Asking the same thing over and over may sound pointless, but don’t mock Pat Leahy. That really works!