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U.S. Senate Authorizes Subpoenas
 The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday authorized issuing subpoenas to top White House officials in its investigation of the firing of U.S. attorneys. Democrats rejected U.S. President George Bush's offer to talk to his aides, but not under oath and without a transcript and approved the subpoenas after an hour of debate, The Washington Post reported. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., criticized the White House offer as "nothing, nothing, nothing.""The only thing they would accept is if the Senate did exactly what they told them to, which would be closed-door, limited number of people, limited agenda, no oath and no transcript, so nobody knows exactly what happened," Leahy said. The committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., urged the Democrats to "make a counterproposal to the White House" instead of authorizing subpoenas, the Post reported. "I counsel my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, to work hard to find a way to avoid an impasse here," he said. "We don't need a constitutional confrontation." Bush has said he'll go to court to fight subpoenas of his aides. Posted by: Fred 2007-03-23 |
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