Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Don't Take the Offer!

Huffington Post
Cenk Uygur
Don't Take the Offer!

The president has said he will allow his top aides to talk to the Senate if they are not in public, under oath or on the record. Under no circumstances should the Democrats take this offer! None. It's not even close.

Why on God's green earth would the Senate allow anyone to testify without being sworn in?

There is no national security on the line here. It's not even the president or the vice-president (not that I think that's a good excuse). It's the president's political advisers. Of course they should be sworn in.

There is one and only one reason why someone wouldn't want to be sworn in under these circumstances - they want to be able to lie. Only the world's biggest sucker would let them.

No transcript? Are they kidding? Not only do they not want to be criminally liable for their testimony, they don't even want a record of it. How desperate are they to lie?

Finally, politically speaking the Democrats lose nothing by demanding the normal course of business. You get a subpoena, you follow it. Period. The Bush administration looks like they are trying to dodge legitimate questions on this - because they are. They keep getting pounded by the press and the public - because they should.

There is no downside for the Democrats. They are asking perfectly legitimate questions through perfectly legitimate channels. Meanwhile the Bush administration is running from the law and offering no clear explanation for their actions.

If this administration keeps this kind of obstructionist politics and wanton rule-breaking up, they are going to drive their party into the ground. If they refuse to give in to any form of accountability, the only people who will pay a steep price is their own party.

It's not the Democrats that should be pleading with the White House to let the aides testify in public, it's the Republicans. After all, it's their ass on the line in 2008.