Subpoena Standoff

AND SO THE jousting continues. For months the White House has resisted Congress's attempts to compel administration officials to testify about the controversial U.S. attorney firings in 2006. Congress's propensity to let subpoenas fly has been matched only by the administration's hair-trigger reaction of trying to block them by invoking executive privilege. The two sides have thus far failed to strike a compromise; as a result, Bush administration officials, most notably former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers and current chief of staff Joshua B. Bolten, find themselves threatened with criminal contempt for following the president's orders to snub congressional demands. If Congress were to make good on the threat, it would probably try to direct the U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia to lodge the contempt charges in federal court here.
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