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Politics

Bush suggests limited interviews of aides

By WASHINGTON POST
Published March 21, 2007

WASHINGTON - President Bush sought Tuesday to defuse the controversy over the firings of U.S. attorneys, offering strong support for embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales while proposing to make Karl Rove and other top aides available for private interviews with congressional investigators.

The White House, however, placed limits on the kinds of questions the aides would answer and said the interviews could not be conducted under oath or with the preparation of a transcript. The conditions enraged congressional Democrats, who vowed to go ahead with plans to issue subpoenas as early as today that would compel the aides to testify.

The actions raised the likelihood of another clash between the White House and the congressional Democratic leadership, which has already been pressuring the administration to bring U.S. troops from Iraq and improve the care of wounded service members. The president also seemed eager to portray the scandal as another partisan sideshow.

Bush signaled a willingness to go to the courts if necessary to prevent his aides from giving public testimony. He described his plan for private interviews as a reasonable balance that would give Congress the information it needs while preserving the president's ability to receive confidential advice from the White House staff. The Justice Department also released thousands of pages of internal agency documents - though not internal White House records.

The president said some Democrats appear more interested in "scoring political points" than in fact-finding. "It will be regrettable if they choose to head down the partisan road of issuing subpoenas and demanding show trials when I have agreed to make key White House officials and documents available," Bush told reporters at a brief news conference in the Diplomatic Reception Room.

Reaction from Democrats was swift and negative. "I don't accept his offer," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. "It is not constructive and it is not helpful to be telling the Senate how to do our investigation, or to prejudge its outcome."

The Senate, meanwhile, voted to strip Gonzales of his authority to fill U.S. attorney vacancies without Senate confirmation. The vote was 94-2, with Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Mel Martinez of Florida voting for the legislation.

Democrats contend the Justice Department and White House purged eight federal prosecutors, some of whom were leading political corruption investigations, after a change in the Patriot Act gave Gonzales the new authority.

Asked at his news conference about the declining support for Gonzales on Capitol Hill, Bush interjected: "He's got support from me." Bush called the attorney general earlier in the day and reaffirmed his strong backing, aides said.

Still, Gonzales' standing among Republicans remained shaky. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, said the attorney general's ability to lead the Justice Department had been "greatly compromised."

"He himself should evaluate" his future, Putnam said. He added that Republicans are hesitant to come to his defense because of the surprise dismissal of Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon the day after the midterm elections, despite repeated public assurances by Bush that the secretary of defense would remain in his job.

The controversy centers on the firings of eight U.S. attorneys - seven on Dec. 7 - an unusual act in the middle of a presidential term. The Justice Department and White House have offered shifting explanations for the moves, at first saying most of the prosecutors were fired for performance reasons, but later acknowledging that some were dismissed in part because they failed to support the administration's agenda.

Democrats are also suspicious that partisan politics may have had a hand in the dismissals, since a number of the prosecutors were involved in investigating corruption by GOP officials. One of the e-mails released last week showed that Rove, Bush's top political adviser, had asked in early 2005 about a plan to fire U.S. attorneys. While the e-mail does not suggest Rove's point of view, Democrats want to put him under oath to find out.

The White House position is that the administration did a poor job communicating the reasons for the dismissals but that Bush was within his rights to fire presidentially appointed prosecutors.

In a letter to lawmakers, White House counsel Fred Fielding indicated he would make four White House aides available for private interviews - Rove, former counsel Harriet Miers, deputy counsel William Kelley and political aide J . Scott Jennings.

Fast Facts:

Prosecutors' ranking

Six of the eight U.S. attorneys fired by the Justice Department ranked in the top third among their peers for the number of prosecutions filed last year, according to an analysis of federal records by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. In addition, five of the eight were among the government's top performers in winning convictions, the analysis found. It undercuts Justice Department claims that the prosecutors were dismissed because of lackluster job performance.

[Last modified March 21, 2007, 01:52:26]