Circus Is Coming

Abuse Of Power: Threats by Senate Democrats to subpoena White House officials go far beyond politics. Nothing less than the constitutional wall dividing legislative and executive powers is at stake.

President Bush is confronted with a responsibility in which not just his own White House is at risk, but the operational abilities of the institution of the presidency itself.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy is threatening to subpoena White House officials such as presidential adviser Karl Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers over the ouster of eight U.S. attorneys in December. President Bush says he'll let them testify, but not under oath.

Democrats don't like some e-mails they've seen from Rove and Miers to the Justice Department and claim the firings were politically motivated. But the law makes clear such federal prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the president and can be dismissed at will.

Leahy, however, makes it clear he wants to have open-ended questioning of officials appearing before his panel. That means he could get into other matters, including what he called "the problem in the FBI with the national security letters" -- the aggressive anti-terror measures so successful in preventing attacks on the homeland since 9/11.

Just the threat itself of dragging the president's closest advisers before Congress is an abuse. As former Attorney General Edwin Meese noted on Mark Levin's radio show Monday, it would be "a violation of separation of powers for them to even think of calling someone from the president's staff out of the White House."

"Think of it in reverse," Meese added. "Suppose the president suspects that some lobbyist is getting to a senator and so he demands to have the senator questioned as to who he talked to before he cast a vote on a particular bill. That would be the concomitant outrage, if the executive branch was trying to do that to the Senate."

Meese isn't alone when he complains of "a constant desire on the part of the Congress to invade the prerogatives of the president." The endless investigations, he suggests, are "improper."

And what about the hypocrisy of Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee?

Schumer expresses outrage about GOP senators contacting prosecutors to ask about prosecutions in their home districts. But what about Schumer himself writing to the Justice Department with 10 questions on the the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation, including asking questions about the grand jury?

Schumer, who heads Democrats' senatorial fundraising arm, proceeded to use the president's political troubles -- in part created by Schumer and his allies -- to raise money.

Aren't grand jury proceedings supposed to be secret, in case those brought before them for evidence are innocent? Of course. But such considerations haven't deterred Democrats, who smell blood in the water.

We agree with Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican who appeared with Leahy on ABC last Sunday. Cornyn says Schumer and his party really want "a political witch hunt."

Looks that way to us. It's clear Democrats want White House adviser Karl Rove, the man they most hate, to appear for open-ended questioning in a circus atmosphere. Who knows what would happen? Recall that Scooter Libby was basically found guilty of perjury for his poor memory. Think Congress would be kinder to Rove?

It won't just be the elephants getting whipped at this circus. Trampling our Constitution will be the main entertainment. For the sake of his successors -- Democrat and Republican alike -- the president must stand firm against this abuse of congressional powers.

Copyright 2007 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.