The arrogance of power (Bob Novak)

Drudge Report (Sun Times) ^ | January 21, 2002 | BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

[agrandis]

Rep. Dan Burton's House Government Reform Committee hearing, scheduled for Wednesday but postponed until February, will continue months of rancor between old Republican comrades. George W. Bush and John Ashcroft have given an excellent imitation of Bill Clinton and Janet Reno by withholding information from Congress. Indeed, they have surpassed their Democratic predecessors in defying the legislative branch.

While President Clinton was trying to undermine investigations of his own campaign finance abuses, President Bush has ruled against the Burton committee's access to old scandals unconnected to him. The Bush team has seemed to back away from an earlier blanket rejection of all congressional subpoenas, but its claim to invoke executive privilege on a case-by-case basis is suspect. Incredibly, it refuses to give up documents about the FBI's Boston office condoning lawbreaking.

More than FBI abuse or executive privilege is at stake. The White House's cavalier attitude toward Burton's subpoenas presaged inept handling of the Enron scandal. Its insistence on secrecy about Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force stems from the same root as its attempt to permit a Republican national chairman to double as a registered lobbyist. That root is arrogance of power.

Nobody is more distressed by this arrogance than Burton, a true-blue conservative Republican from Indiana who wanted no fight with his administration. Nevertheless, he insists his investigation ''really needs to be done'' and cannot be blocked by government lawyers.

The blockage stunned Burton and his staff last summer when they sought government documents in two areas: first, then-Attorney General Reno's rejection of Justice Department recommendations to investigate Clinton campaign scandals; second, FBI misuse of mob informants in Boston decades ago. The message from Attorney General Ashcroft and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales was blunt: Congress never again will have access to any documents reflecting deliberations inside the executive branch.

During a heated Burton committee hearing Dec. 13, Justice Department Criminal Division chief of staff Michael Horowitz modified this hard line by promising a case-by-case analysis. But it soon became clear that no case could ever meet the test. If FBI abuses in Boston failed, what case could succeed?

In Boston, Joe Salvati went to prison for 30 years on murder charges because of lies under oath by star FBI informant Joe Barboza; the FBI knew Salvati was innocent but wanted to protect Barboza. Stephen Flemmi allegedly committed murders over two decades while informing for the FBI and was not prosecuted. Burton wants to know why killers were protected.

''I believe that congressional access to these documents would be contrary to the national interest,'' Bush said Dec. 12 while invoking executive privilege. Burton's response in a Jan. 3 letter to Ashcroft: ''It eludes me how it is in the national interest to cloak this dark chapter of the Justice Department's history in secrecy.''

Reading ample correspondence between Burton and government lawyers makes the Bush team's intransigence look identical to Clinton's. Indeed, a Dec. 19 letter from Assistant Attorney General Daniel J. Bryant appeared to defend Reno's refusal to cooperate. Bryant suggested that Reno had satisfied the committee with an oral interview, which was wholly unsatisfactory.

For Bush's Justice Department to align itself with Janet Reno is drenched in irony. James Wilson, the Burton committee's chief of staff, worked for Michael Chertoff in the 1995 Senate investigation of Whitewater. Chertoff, assistant attorney general running the criminal division today, clashes head-on with Wilson. As a tough prosecutor, Chertoff is regarded by former Capitol Hill colleagues as the real source of this intractable policy.

Burton has come under attack from some conservatives because of praise from Democratic Representatives Henry Waxman and Barney Frank for opposing the pretensions of executive privilege even when a Republican president is responsible. Those critics want Republicans to accept and actually imitate the arrogance that habitually comes with executive power.

[agrandis]

Here, here Bob!

[dts32041]

Gee looks like the shrub figures the FBI can do no wrong, and a man spending 30 years in prison for a crime he didn't do, doesn't deserve a hearing.

Maybe this why he didn't have the rangers investigate the Bar B Que held in WACO, by the FBI.

[Zviadist]

Earth to Dan Burton: We HAVE power now. Cut it out with all the "investigation really needs to be done" stuff. What is wrong with you?

Ever heard of "seperation of the powers," counsellor? Ever had a look at the Constitution? Or are you a good party-state man?

[dalebert]

Bob needs to retire

[Jesse]

It appears the Bushleaguers are out in full force defending practices that they used to slam Clinton/Reno for as corrupt and obstructionist. Which is it?

What exactly is Bush hiding here? Inquiring minds want to know.

[dts32041]

What you object to Dan Burton finding out why the rifleman was allowed to go free and an innocent man held in prison for 30 years.

Obvioulsy you think the gulags were a summer resort.

[agrandis]

Were you being sarcastic in your post? I hope so.

[DoughtyOne]

If Chertoff is behind this Bush policy, he has lost all my respect. I held him in high esteme due to his tenacity under the Whitewater investigations.

Folks, the FBI and the Justice Department cannot be held above reproach. To do so would open this nation's citizens up to abuse on a massive scale. Waco and the rights of the person unjustly held for a murder he didn't commit, are but two glaring reasons why. I'd like to state that the first WTC attack, the OKC Bombing and Flight 800 are three more reasons.

The FBI is on the verge of going rogue. Of course that's if you are not already convinced they have been for years. To now put them beyond oversight is Constitutional Suicide for U. S. Citizens.

Separtation of powers is important. But the importance of that separation is miniscule, if it is going to facilite abuses of U. S. Citizens on the scale we have already seen.

Back off Bush. You're about 1/2 a step away from making the constitution null and void, except where you deem fit. That isn't the way it's supposed to work fella.

[agrandis]

"Bob needs to retire."

Yeah, may as well. Dan Burton may as well, too. The American people obviously don't want justice, with the exception of a few districts in Indiana, Georgia, and Texas. No justice, no peace is right. If the people don't care about justice and freedom, nothing can be done. George Washington was very insightful to warn us against the "spirit of party." There is no right or wrong anymore, just an exaltation of raw power. All very predictable...

[stylin19a]

Joe Salvati got out of prison in 1997. In December of 2000, heretofore hidden FBI documents proved Salvati's innocence and one month later all of the charges against Salvati were dropped. In May of 2001, Salvati, his wife Marie, and his long time attorney Victor Garo, testified about their three decade ordeal before the United States Congress.

Somebody please 'splain me why on God's Green Earth is this all of a sudden President Bush's problem ? What more evidence does congress need in this matter ?

[Zviadist]

What you object to Dan Burton finding out why the rifleman was allowed to go free and an innocent man held in prison for 30 years.

Perhaps you missed something. I agreed with Novak.

[iconoclast]

Bob needs to retire

You Bushies just boggle my mind. Please tell me you are in the age range of, oh say, 16-23. Maybe voted once. I'll feel a lot better.

Or, if your trying to be sarcastic or funny let us know.

[monkeywrench]

You "missed" Clarity's sarcasm.

[Map Kernow]

Earth to Dan Burton: We HAVE power now. Cut it out with all the "investigation really needs to be done" stuff. What is wrong with you?

What's wrong with you? I voted for Bush but that doesn't mean I'm going to espouse the kind of Fuehrerprinzip that seemed to be the only moral principle the Democrats had under Clinton.

Or is your post simply an example of "deep sarcasm"?

[dts32041]

Mea Culpa, posted reply to wrong individual, can you forgive me.

[carenot]

The message from Attorney General Ashcroft and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales was blunt: Congress never again will have access to any documents reflecting deliberations inside the executive branch.

"Earth to Dan Burton: We HAVE power now. Cut it out with all the "investigation really needs to be done" stuff. What is wrong with you?"

Do you think there should not be an investigation?

If so why not?

[Brilliant]

My suspicion is that Bush refused to turn over the Reno information because he was afraid of being accused of participating in a partisan attack, particularly since it appears that his brother will be running against Reno. The reason I suspect that he refused to turn over the other info is more complicated, I suspect. I suspect that even though he wasn't going to turn over the Reno info, he was hoping that the Congress would force its turnover in the courts, thereby causing it to be made public, and giving him political cover when he turns it over. But that would never happen unless both Democrats and Republicans voted to bring a court action to enforce the subpoena. If he had turned over the other info, and not the Reno info, then the Democrats would never have voted to enforce the subpoena. The Republicans would not have done it by themselves because Republicans would be loathe to vote against the President. This way, he has baited the Democrats to join in a court action to enforce the subpoena. In the end, the courts may order the documents produced, and he can honestly say, "It was not my idea."

[okie01]

"What exactly is Bush hiding here? Inquiring minds want to know."

I don't have the foggiest notion.

The only answer that makes sense is that, in the interest of "a new tone in Washington", they will refuse efforts to open up any cans that might contain old partisan worms.

[carenot]

Bob needs to retire

Because he still tells the truth?

I don't believe Bush is protecting Clinton.