Prosecuting the Bush White House one book at a time

Maybe this is why Texan Lamar Smith, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, disdainfully refers to the committee's investigation into President Bush's policies as "the book-of-the-month club."

Since George W. Bush took office in 2001, books have proliferated about his alleged misdeeds, and Congress has made eager witnesses of their authors.  No one likes books more, it seems, than committee chairman Democrat John Conyers of Michigan. "You should see Mr. Conyers' library," confided one staffer.

There was Allen Raymond, whose "How to Rig an Election," prompted hearings into whether Republican operatives routinely steal elections -- and why the Justice Department is not prosecuting them.

Then there was Scott McClellan, the former White House spokesman who wrote a book called "What Happened." In the aptly named kiss-and-tell memoir, McClellan accused Karl Rove (the president's man), I. Lewis Scooter Libby (the vice president's man) and even President Bush (presumably his own man) of misleading him during the Valerie Plame incident.

Now comes journalist Ron Suskind, whose "The Way of the World" alleges that senior Bush administration officials ordered the forgery and dissemination of false intelligence documents to convince Congress -- and the public -- of the need to go to war in Iraq.

Conyers has ordered a thorough review of the underlying allegations and the interrogation of Suskind's research assistant by federal agents in Manhattan who confiscated his notes. In a statement today, Conyers said:

I am particularly troubled that the decision to disseminate this fabricated intelligence is alleged to have come from the highest reaches of the administration.

Some witnesses have simply ignored the committee's subpoena to testify. Rove, the political maestro of the Bush White House, refused to attend a session -- quickly dubbed "The Empty Chair Hearing" -- claiming executive privilege. The committee had wanted to talk to him about his role in the firing of U.S. attorneys and in the prosecution of Don Siegelman, the popular Democratic former governor of Alabama.

Maybe after his book comes out...

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, with committee chairman John Conyers, prepares to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on June 20. Credit: Matthew Cavanaugh / EPA

Comments

[PFJ]

WOW you do a great job of hurling vacuous accusations. Let's not forget that the interviews for the book were recorded. As usual with the conservatives when they don't have any real arguments against teh evidence at hand they attack character. This is why their mantra is Character matters.

[The Fanonite]

What a silly post. But could one really expect otherwise from a 2nd rate establishment hack? Nothing is mentioned of the content of the books, or the arguments made therein. Instead, we get snide, vacuous opinion with the studied cynicism of a metro desk rookie. The scepticism seems absent, however, when it comes to the administration. I am touched by the use of the word 'alleged'. As Robert Newman would have put it, you appear to have all the credulity of a 70s porn actress (’Gee mister, you mean the time machine only works if I take off all my clothes?’).

So what exactly is your argument here? There should be no investigation, because the allegation comes in the form of -- a book? Are files OK? Or are those overdone as well. What about video? I know audio is too 50s.