The Limits of 'Linguistic Parsing'

"'President Clinton has raised executive privilege five times more than President Bush,' [Rep. Ric Keller (R-Fla.)] said, neglecting to mention that the Clinton administration and Democratic Party received more than 1,000 subpoenas, compared with a couple of dozen sent to the Bush administration and Republican Party."

Here's Paul Kane's summary of a Congressional Research Service report about contempt of Congress and how it works.

And here is press secretary Tony Snow's response to the contempt citations: "For our view, this is pathetic. What you have right now is partisanship on Capitol Hill that quite often boils down to insults, insinuations, inquisitions and investigations rather than pursuing the normal business of trying to pass major pieces of legislation, such as appropriations bills, and to try to work in such a way as to demonstrate to the American people that Congress and the White House can work together."

Snow once again insisted that the White House's offer to make some officials available for one-time interviews behind closed doors with no oaths or transcripts was a reasonable accommodation.

And why were those prosecutors fired, anyway?

"MR. SNOW: Actually, the real question is, does the President have the authority to do it? Yes. And was anything improperly done? The answer is, no."

White House E-Mail Watch

The House Oversight Committee announced yesterday: "In two separate letters, Chairman [Henry] Waxman asks when the White House Counsel's office learned about White House officials' use of nongovernmental e-mail accounts for official purposes, and what steps, if any, it took to preserve these records and prevent violations of the Presidential Records Act."

For background, see my June 19 column, Casual Lawbreaking at the White House.

In the letter to White House Counsel Fred Fielding, Waxman writes: "It would be a matter of serious concern if Mr. Gonzales or other attorneys in the Office of White House Counsel were aware that White House officials were using RNC e-mail accounts to conduct official White House business, but ignored these apparent violations of the Presidential Records Act. To assist the Committee in investigating this issue, I ask that you provide the Committee copies of any e-mails sent to or from White House officials' nongovernmental e-mail accounts that were provided to the Office of White House Counsel by any White House official in connection with (l) any investigation related to Enron or the Vice President's energy task force, (2) any investigation related to the leak of [Valerie Plame] Wilson's identity, or (3) any other investigation prior to March 26,2007. In addition, I request that you provide the Committee with the names of any current or former White House officials, including those in the Counsel's office, who reviewed or were otherwise aware of the existence of these e-mails."

Al-Qaeda Watch

Greg Miller writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Undercutting new assertions by President Bush, a top U.S. intelligence official testified Wednesday that Al Qaeda's organization in Iraq is overwhelmingly composed of fighters from that country, and that the terrorist network's ability to operate in Pakistan poses the greater danger to the United States.

"The testimony came just one day after Bush forcefully argued that Al Qaeda in Iraq is substantially controlled by foreign operatives, and that most of them would be trying to kill Americans if not for the ongoing war there. . . .

"Testifying before the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, Edward Gistaro, the nation's top analyst for transnational threats, said the U.S. intelligence community's 'primary concern' is Al Qaeda in South Asia, which he said is 'organizing its own plots' against the United States. . . .