Closer to a showdown

The House Judiciary Committee will decide this week whether to issue contempt citations for White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, both of whom have refused to comply with congressional subpoenas for information related to an investigation of the firings of at least eight U.S. attorneys.

Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) announced that the committee has scheduled a Wednesday vote on the contempt citations, which likely will spark a constitutional showdown between the two branches that could reach the Supreme Court.

{mosads}The House and Senate judiciary panels have been trying to gauge White House involvement in the U.S. attorneys’ firings and whether political considerations played any improper role in their dismissals. But the White House has not budged, and last week indicated it will assert blanket executive privilege to deny Democrats access to discussions between presidential and vice presidential aides.

Miers and Bolten refused to comply with Judiciary Committee subpoenas issued for documents and testimony, and Miers failed to appear at a July 12 hearing. White House Counsel Fred Fielding first asserted the president’s executive privilege June 28.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Monday said he plans to remain at the Department of Justice (DoJ) to burnish its tarnished image, conceding in a lengthy statement to Congress that he’s troubled by allegations that politics played a role in the hiring of career employees.

Gonzales will be return to the hot seat Tuesday for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on general oversight of the DoJ. Several GOP senators panned his April testimony about the U.S. attorney firings amid calls for his resignation. But Gonzales and President Bush for months have resisted, even as evidence has mounted that top officials were involved in politicizing the hiring of career employees.

In a 26-page statement submitted to the Judiciary Committee in anticipation of his testimony, Gonzales touted the DoJ’s efforts to fight terrorism; combat violent crime and protect children from predators; investigate and prosecute illegal drug trafficking; curb identify theft; protect the border; and fight illegal immigration.

 At the end of the document, Gonzales spent five paragraphs on the U.S. attorneys scandal that for months has plagued the department.

“I believe very strongly that there is no place for political considerations in the hiring of our career employees or in the administration of justice,” he said.

“As such, these allegations have been troubling to hear. From my perspective, there are two options available in light of these allegations. I would walk away or I could devote my time, effort and energy to fix the problems.

Since I have never been one to quit, I decided that the best course of action was to remain here and fix the problems.”

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), one of the attorney general’s chief critics, immediately ridiculed Gonzales’s intention to remain at the department.

“There are probably only two people on Earth who think the Attorney General ought to stay: Alberto Gonzales and President Bush,” Schumer said in a release. “As long as he’s in charge, the Justice Department, the rule of law and America will suffer.”