White House Still Loves Maliki

"Democratic candidates for president and Congress, the GOP argument goes, would then be stuck with their Iraq-is-lost stance, appearing irresolute and beholden to liberal activists just as things are looking better."

Subpoena Watch

Back on June 27, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy announced that he had fired off subpoenas to the White House and the Vice President's office, demanding that they turn over legal documents related to the administration's warrantless wiretapping program.

Yesterday, after two deadlines had come and gone, Leahy announced he's had enough.

Eric Lichtblau writes in the New York Times: "A leading Democrat threatened on Monday to pursue contempt charges against the White House next month over its response to a subpoena for internal documents on the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program.

"'Time is up,' said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 'We've waited long enough.' . . .

"The White House, in a letter to Mr. Leahy on Monday, said it had identified a number of classified documents that appeared to fall under the subpoena but it said the documents could be covered by a claim of executive privilege. The White House asked for more time to research the issue.

"'It remains our goal to avoid a conflict between the branches on this important issue of national security,' the White House counsel, Fred F. Fielding, said in the letter. . . .

"Some administration officials suggested that Mr. Leahy's remarks were merely a negotiating ploy.

"'Senator Leahy regularly uses hyperbole in his reactions to these things,' Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, said in an interview."

The White House has previously blown off congressional subpoenas regarding the controversial firings of U.S. attorneys last year, but these subpoenas will be much harder to ignore. As I wrote in my June 28 column: "There is no way that [this latest] request can be dismissed as a partisan fishing expedition. The subpoenas were approved by members of both parties. They call for basic information about the legal reasoning behind an important government program that appears to violate federal law. They request information that is necessary for the committee to assess the administration's requests to rewrite the applicable laws. And they properly ask for some explanation of why the president blocked an inquiry by the Justice Department's own ethics office."

Cheney's Response

Because the Judiciary Committee separately subpoenaed Vice President Cheney's office, Cheney chief counsel Shannen W. Coffin responded to Leahy with his own letter yesterday. Talking Points Memo has a copy.

Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post: "Vice President Cheney's office acknowledged for the first time yesterday that it has dozens of documents related to the administration's warrantless surveillance program, but it signaled that it will resist efforts by congressional Democrats to obtain them. . . .