Democrats vs. President Bush: To the courts or not, and how?

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/v-print/story/18454.html

Posted on Sun, Jul. 29, 2007

Democrats vs. President Bush: To the courts or not, and how?
Margaret Talev and Marisa Taylor | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: July 27, 2007 04:42:39 PM

WASHINGTON — Threats of criminal contempt rained down on the White House from Congress this week. Plus a subpoena for Karl Rove. And calls for a special prosecutor.

With each passing day, the dispute over whether President Bush can claim executive privilege to shield his aides from a congressional investigation into last year's firing of nine U.S. attorneys creeps closer to court. The two elected branches of government appear determined to push this dispute into a full-scale confrontation over the limits of their constitutional powers, and it may be that only the unelected branch can declare a winner.

This week even several Republicans who don’t consider the firings improper — including Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott of Mississippi and Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, a former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee — said the executive privilege question is a matter the courts should decide.
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The House of Representatives, with its larger Democratic majority, could pursue those options one at a time or simultaneously. It could act with or without the Senate, where the Democrats’ 51-49 majority would make anything requiring a vote of the full body subject to a Republican filibuster.

Which course to take, and when, are under review now mostly in back-room deliberations involving Democratic lawmakers, staff counsels, private-sector lawyers and university scholars.


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