Update: Ex-EPA Chief Whitman Agrees to Testify

[sabra]

Source: ABC News Blotter

Ex-EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman abruptly reversed herself Friday and agreed to testify before Congress on her agency's response to the environmental fallout of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Two days ago, Whitman's lawyer Joel Kobert had denied a request from a House panel chaired by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., for his client to testify, noting she was named in two lawsuits related to the issue.

But today, Whitman herself told Nadler in a hand-delivered letter that she was willing to participate in a hearing "if you insist."

Nadler had originally invited Whitman to testify at a May 22 hearing. In a press release today announcing Whitman's decision, Nadler said he would reschedule Whitman's hearing to a date "in the near future."

Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/05/update_exepa_ch.html

[catgirl]

1. Kick...her time has finally come!

[CottonBear]

2. Oh yes, we insist, Christy.

:grr: You are complicit in the ruination of the American environment by Bush*CO. :grr:

[DavidDvorkin]

3. Denied the request?

I'd like to think that Nadler said something to her lawyer that caused him to advise her to change her mind quickly.

[waiting for hope]

4. Please take Rudy down with you!

You need company and some comfort....:)

[tmlanders]

5. Excellent!

And she didn't even ask for immunity!

:toast:

[Kool Kitty]

7. She didn't ask for immunity because she

probably will come down with a real large case of Gonzal-itis. You know what that is-everyone used to call it CRS-Can't Remember Shit.

[AlCzervik]

6. "If you insist"? WTF, insist---no you just should.

[Captain Hilts]

8. Why'd she go along with the sanitation of the NYC air quality report?

Who in the WH asked to remove passages?

[Divernan]

16. That was Bush's boy, James Connaughton, Chair of WH Council on Env. Quality.

High level "environmental lawyer", who started out as a plaintiff's lawyer in asbestos cases, and switched sides to represent Big Industry. What is the most eggregious is that with Connaughton's background in the science and medicine of breathing in toxin to the lungs, he would have immediately known, upon seeing the towers collapse, all of the asbestos, let alone other deadly elements, present in the air and detritus at ground zero. Connaughton was probably reporting directly to/controlled by Cheney or Rove, since Bush was not expected or trusted to comprehend such technical information.

[Straight Shooter]

9. "if you insist"

I have an image in my head of Whitman whining that phrase while rolling her eyes.

[Greyskye]

10. But will she testify under oath?

Anyone know? :shrug: Because otherwise, I would trust her testimony just about as far as I could throw Rush Limpwad.

On edit: Of course, this whole mis-administration has shown us that oaths aren't something that they take very seriously anyway. :grr:

[Demeter]

12. Doesn't Matter!

Happy days are here again!

[driver8]

13. Really? Has one of them testified under oath??

That is certainly news to me!

As someone once said, "You would think that an administration that loves the bible so much wouldn't be so afraid of putting their hands on it!"

[Greyskye]

14. I had thought so.

Didn't AG Gonzo testify under oath earlier - regarding the Ashcroft hospital incident - saying that nothing out of the ordinary happened? And now there is conflicting testimony? Was Gonzo not under oath?

Love your quote!

[Demeter]

11. My, O My, o My, O My, O

The fan is incoming!

[emilyg]

15. Make the popcorn

this should be great.