The Bushies Try Running Out the Clock
Michael Froomkin writes:
The Cocktail Party Strategy: The White House's offer to the Senate that it would make Rove and Miers available only for a secret off-the-record no-oath "chat" is risible.... [S]urely Fred Fielding understands that.... Which raises the question of why the White House is proffering such a silly idea....
I've heard a fourth explanation, but it's so crazy, that only someone who thought that the administration was hell-bent on creating disasters would believe it:
The administration wants to create a constitutional crisis. It thinks it will win any votes in the Senate as it only needs a third plus one, and also win the in court of public opinion just like Clinton did.... And the hardliners (Cheney) think that the precedents set by previous administrations of recognizing that senior appointees can be required to testify was mistaken; what's more, they think that their hand is strong enough to allow them to rectify this. In short, they see Congress much as they saw Iraq.
Say it ain't so.
I think that it's not a "create a constitutional crisis" strategy. It's a "run out the clock" strategy. By July of 2008 the focus of attention will be on November. So all the Bushies have to do is stonewall and delay to prevent the emergence of a 2/3 majority for impeachment until July of 2008. They will do it, too--Republicans are saying that Gonzales should resign, but no Republicans are voting to subpoena White House staffers.
Thus I think that Leahy should introduce a resolution impeaching Alberto Gonzales for obstructing justice today. Get the ball moving.
