Waxman Secures a Subpoena for Rice
WASHINGTON _ The gloves are off and it’s becoming a full-fledged brawl as Democrats Wednesday added Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the list of subpoenaed Bush administration officials.
Democrat-led investigations of the White House now range from the firing of U.S. attorneys to Bush’s prewar claims of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, raised the stakes in the predominantly partisan slugfest by securing a subpoena for Rice.
Waxman wants her to testify about claims that Saddam Hussein tried to get weapons-grade yellow-cake uranium in Niger. Waxman also wants ex-Bush chief of staff Andy Card to testify about the claims, but is still trying to work out a deal with the White House for Card to appear.
“There’s an old saying in Brooklyn: payback’s a bitch,” said Baruch College political commentator Doug Muzzio. “The Republican Congress gave President Bush a free ride for six years, but now the Democrats are performing the public function of checks and balances.”
But some Republicans also seem to have gotten the message and are supporting the Democrat-led probes.
Team Bush, however, doesn’t seem that concerned, at least not in public. “There is a difference between oversight and overreaching,” said spokeswoman Dana Perino.
Claims of Saddam Hussein seeking weapons of mass destruction led to the CIA leak probe that took down Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis (Scooter) Libby.
“The Democrats just want to muddy up Condi,” said Crystal Dueker, spokeswoman for Think Condi, a group trying to draft Rice to run for president. “They want to destroy her because they are afraid of her clout.”
The House and Senate Judiciary Committees, meanwhile, are going after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Bush political guru Karl Rove over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.
The House committee granted immunity to Monica Goodling, Gonzales’ White House liaison, and have scheduled a May 10 hearing for Gonzales. The Senate committee approved a subpoena for Sara Taylor, deputy political adviser under Rove.
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