Bush Tries Moving the Goalposts

Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaacson asked Rove who the enemy is.

"Rove said the enemy fell into three categories.

"First, he said that 80 to 90 percent of the bombs that are killing U.S. soldiers are from al-Qaida of Iraq. That differed from the opinion of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said in Aspen on Thursday that al-Qaida was only 10 percent of the problem in Iraq.

"Second, Rove said that Sunni insurgents were fighting the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government, although he pointed out that in some areas, Sunnis were now working closely with American forces to rid certain cities of foreign al-Qaida fighters.

"Third, Rove said that 'criminal elements' were playing a large role, and he included the Shiite militias in Iraq in this category."

Powell's 'Warning'

Also over the weekend at Aspen, Sarah Baxter reports for the Times of London that "former American secretary of state Colin Powell has revealed that he spent 2½ hours vainly trying to persuade President George W Bush not to invade Iraq. . . .

"'I tried to avoid this war,' Powell said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. 'I took him through the consequences of going into an Arab country and becoming the occupiers.'"

White House to Congress: Drop Dead

Laurie Kellman writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush invoked executive privilege Monday to deny requests by Congress for testimony from two former aides about the firings of federal prosecutors. . . .

"In a letter to the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary panels, White House counsel Fred Fielding insisted that Bush was acting in good faith and refused lawmakers' demand that the president explain the basis for invoking the privilege.

"Retorted House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers:

"'Contrary what the White House may believe, it is the Congress and the courts that will decide whether an invocation of executive privilege is valid, not the White House unilaterally,' the Michigan Democrat said in a statement. . . .

"Fielding was responding to a 10 a.m. EDT deadline set by the Democratic chairmen, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Conyers, for the White House to explain it's privilege claim, prove that the president personally invoked it and provide logs of which documents were being withheld.

"As expected, Fielding refused to comply. He said he was acting at Bush's direction, and he complained that the committees had decided to enforce the subpoenas whether or not the White House complied.

"'The committees have already prejudged the question, regardless of the production of any privilege log,' Fielding wrote. 'In such circumstances, we will not be undertaking such a project, even as a further accommodation.'"

Peter Baker anticipated all this in his Sunday Washington Post story, in which he wrote: "Such an action would escalate the constitutional struggle and propel it closer to a court showdown. . . .

"The Senate and House judiciary committees issued five subpoenas seeking documents and testimony by [Sara M.] Taylor, who until six weeks ago was the White House political director, and [Harriet] Miers, the former White House counsel. Bush asserted executive privilege June 28 in refusing to respond to the subpoenas for documents, and the committees then demanded that he provide a legal basis and a records log.

"The log, according to the committees, should describe each document withheld, including its source, subject matter, date and recipients. White House officials viewed the request as a backdoor attempt to get sensitive information about deliberations, the sources said. . . .

"Lanny A. Breuer, who was a White House special counsel under President Bill Clinton during many fights with Congress and special prosecutors over executive privilege, said it is highly unusual to refuse to provide even a privilege log describing the basis for withholding documents. The Clinton White House, he said, regularly provided such logs.

"'The White House position is extremely weak,' Breuer said. 'You can invoke privilege if it's honestly believed, but Congress has an absolute right to understand the basis on which you're claiming privilege."

One Last Chance at Compromise?

Leahy and ranking Republican Senate Judiciary Committee member Arlen Specter had an intriguing on-air exchange on CNN yesterday:

"SPECTER: One thing we haven't done is asked for a meeting with the president. Why don't you and John Conyers and I ask for a meeting with the president? We may be a little tired of dealing with his lawyer.

"LEAHY: Why don't you and I chat about this tomorrow when we're on the [Senate] floor, so we won't be having to be taking up Wolf's time on this thing."

Scooter Libby Watch

John Heilprin writes for the Associated Press: "The Democrat probing President Bush's decision to erase the prison sentence of a former White House aide said Sunday there is 'the suspicion' the aide might have fingered others in the Bush administration if he served time.

"House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers [on ABC] spoke of 'the general impression' that Bush last week commuted I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby's 2 1/2 year sentence in the CIA leak case to keep Libby quiet. . . .

"'What we have here -- and I think we should put it on the table right at the beginning -- is that the suspicion was that if Mr. Libby went to prison, he might further implicate other people in the White House, and that there was some kind of relationship here that does not exist in any of President Clinton's pardons, nor, according to those that we've talked to ... is that it's never existed before, ever,' Conyers said in a broadcast interview Sunday.

"A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, said in response: 'That's a fairly ridiculous and baseless assertion. It may be impossible to plumb the depths of Chairman Conyers' 'suspicions', but we can hope this one is near the bottom.'"

Here's Leahy on CNN: "I mean, this was, actually in my view, a blatant way of guaranteeing that Scooter Libby would not talk about the things that were done, you know, some of the misleading information given out by Vice President Cheney and the president. They led us into this war in Iraq, and they bought his silence."

Sen. Charles Schumer said on CBS that he had spoken to Leahy about calling special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald before the Judiciary panel. Schumer said: "You know, he's not allowed to talk about what happened before the grand jury, but he did interview the president and the vice president not before a grand jury, and he might have some very interesting things to say."

Leahy said he might indeed call Fitzgerald, adding: "It would do no good to call Scooter Libby. His silence has been bought and paid for, and he would just take the fifth."

How Bush Decided

Michael Isikoff writes for Newsweek that Bush was apparently caught between the facts -- and Dick Cheney.

"Uncharacteristically, Bush himself delved into the details. He was especially keen to know if there was compelling evidence that might contradict the jury's verdict that Libby had lied to a federal grand jury about when -- and from whom -- he learned the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, wife of Iraq War critic Joe Wilson. But Fielding, one of the advisers tells Newsweek, reluctantly concluded that the jury had reached a reasonable verdict: the evidence was strong that Libby testified falsely about his role in the leak.

"The president was conflicted. He hated the idea that a loyal aide would serve time. Hanging over his deliberations was Cheney, who had said he was 'very disappointed' with the jury's verdict. Cheney did not directly weigh in with Fielding, but nobody involved had any doubt where he stood. 'I'm not sure Bush had a choice,' says one of the advisers. 'If he didn't act, it would have caused a fracture with the vice president.'"

Eleanor Clift writes for Newsweek: "Looking back at the trial, it was as inevitable as night following day that President Bush would find a way to get Libby off the hook. The fix was in when Libby's high-priced legal team mounted a curiously passive defense. After pointing to Vice President Cheney as an instigator in the Plame naming, hinting they might even call the veep to testify, they abruptly backed off, slow-walking Libby toward conviction with no alibi for his lies other than that he didn't remember. As legal eagles, they didn't impress, but they did preserve the pardon option."

She adds: "Silencing Libby is part of a larger narrative to cover up the trail of deception and manipulation that led us to war."

Via ThinkProgress, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol talks about the timing of Bush's announcement: "Here's why the president acted the way he did. He knew Bill Clinton was joining Hillary in Iowa on July 4th.

"No, I'm serious. So on July 2d, Ed Gillespie, who's a very canny Republican operator, said, Let's pardon Libby. Clinton will rise to the bait, and we could spend the last half of the week debating the unbelievable Clinton pardons against the defensible Bush pardon.

"So I regard this as an extremely clever Machiavellian move by the president. It cheers me up. It cheers me up about the Bush White House, and I'm really heartened."

See my Friday column, The Clinton-Did-It Flimflam.

Bush-Cheney Fatigue

Byron York writes in a Washington Post opinion piece: "'Bush fatigue has set in,' declares one plugged-in GOP activist.

"'We're ready for a new president,' says a former state Republican Party official in the South.

"'There was affection,' opines a conservative strategist based well beyond the Beltway, 'but now they're in divorce court.'"

And Cheney is faring no better.

Tom Raum writes for the Associated Press: "Cheney's relentless advocacy of the Iraq war, his push to expand presidential authority and his hard-line rhetoric toward North Korea and Iran are raising concerns even among former loyalists now worried about the GOP's chances in 2008.

"It seems Cheney fatigue is settling in some Republican circles."

Hendrik Hertzberg, writing in the New Yorker, assesses the recent Post series on Cheney: "[T]he pattern that emerges from the accumulated weight of the reporting is, as the lawyers say, dispositive. Given the ontological authority that the Post shares only with the New York Times, it is now, so to speak, official: for the past six years, Dick Cheney... has been the most influential public official in the country, not necessarily excluding President Bush, and his influence has been entirely malign. He is pathologically (but purposefully) secretive; treacherous toward colleagues; coldly manipulative of the callow, lazy, and ignorant President he serves; contemptuous of public opinion; and dismissive not only of international law (a fairly standard attitude for conservatives of his stripe) but also of the very idea that the Constitution and laws of the United States, including laws signed by his nominal superior, can be construed to limit the power of the executive to take any action that can plausibly be classified as part of an endless, endlessly expandable 'war on terror.'"

Sean Wilentz writes in a New York Times op-ed how the roots of Cheney's "quest to accumulate unaccountable executive power" can be traced back to the minority report of the Iran-Contra Committee 20 years ago.

Impeachment Watch

AFP reports: "Nearly half of the US public wants President George W. Bush to face impeachment, and even more favor that fate for Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a poll out Friday.

"The survey by the American Research Group found that 45 percent support the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against Bush, with 46 percent opposed, and a 54-40 split in favor when it comes to Cheney."

According to the American Research Group poll:

*64% of Americans disapprove of Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence.

* 84% of Americans oppose a complete presidential pardon for Libby.

* 45% of Americans favor and 46% oppose the House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against Bush.

* 54% of Americans favor and 40% oppose the House beginning impeachment proceedings against Cheney.

Press Room Watch

Michael A. Fletcher writes in The Washington Post: "President Bush and first lady Laura Bush are scheduled to welcome the White House press corps back to its newly refurbished digs in the West Wing on Wednesday morning. For the past 11 months, reporters have been working out of temporary quarters in the White House conference center, just west of Lafayette Square. . . .

"The new podium from which the press secretary and other officials brief reporters is framed by two white columns and is flanked by twin 45-inch flat screens that will illustrate the White House's spin on events."

Fish Story

C.J. Chivers writes in the New York Times: "By all available evidence, [Russian president Vladimir Putin] caught a striped bass from the waters near Kennebunkport, Maine. The question was: how big was it?

"Mr. Putin was photographed holding his catch on former President George H. W. Bush's boat, revealing a striped bass that appeared to experienced fishing eyes to be slightly more than 20 inches long. The three presidents on deck said that Mr. Putin's fish was the day's only catch. . . .

"By the time the fishermen reached shore, Mr. Putin's striped bass had grown. Former President Bush told reporters it was 31 inches long."

Cartoon Watch

Mike Luckovich on Dicko; Ann Telnaes on running out the clock.