Black Box Report

First, former White House political director and Rove-aide Sara Taylor wanted to honor her subpoena testify for those nice Democrats in the prosecutor purge investigation, she really did, but wouldn't because the White House asked her not to. When that stonewalling bit of legal comedy failed to pass muster, the White House played it's well-worn Executive Privilege card. Again. And the clock continues ticking:

"The White House position is extremely weak," Breuer said. "You can invoke privilege if it's honestly believed, but Congress has an absolute right to understand the basis on which you're claiming privilege. . . . I think the administration has decided that, at this point, they want to fight it as long as they can. It may go to court."

All well and good, to a certain extent. But note what's happening here. The White House position is "extremely weak." But more than that, it's a position that's been to court and lost before. The "administration," though, seeks to burn up the calendar by forcing Congress to reinvent the wheel, just to prove to the American people that the wheel was, in fact, invented at one point. Which will be proven by showing the court the first wheel, and then describing the round and rolling properties of the object the White House claims is something completely different.

The administration has done so much stonewalling in this investigation, the wall itself now stretches from Karl's office to just west of Bethesda and can be seen from space. Even questions over whether Bush's stonewalling claim of executive privilege is legitimate are themselves being stonewalled:

Better yet, as of today, the White House position is that Bush is not only refusing to cooperate with the investigation, he’s also refusing to say why he’s refusing to cooperate.

Fielding said in his letter to Leahy and Conyers that lawmakers can be “assured” that Bush is claiming executive privilege appropriately and that, in his context, “it has been appropriately documented.”

Persuasive, isn’t it? The president is taking an expansive view of privilege, he’s blocking willing witnesses from honoring a subpoena, he’s withholding relevant materials, and he’s impinging on an ongoing congressional investigation, but we should all feel “assured” that the White House’s conduct is entirely kosher. Why? Because the White House says so.

"Trust us," says the White House. "We won't let you check for yourselves, but just take our word that this is all legitimate." Apparently the administration thinks everyone paying any attention here was born last night. We know this because they've just recycled this prize-winner, the offer of "private, off the record interviews."

Here we go again with the "you can talk to them so long as you don't tell the public what they said, and so long as you don't take any notes and they're not under oath - so they can lie." Bush thinks he is accountable to no one, to hell with the law.

So is it a war of attrition, where the White House throws out everything and the kitchen sink in an effort to obstruct any investigation? Other options are impeachment or contempt proceedings, or...play the waiting game and hope Bush passes out from holding his breath.