Contempt for Congress

NYT Editorial

The Bush administration’s disregard for the rule of law hit another low this week when Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, defied a Congressional subpoena. Ms. Miers, who was called to testify about the United States attorneys scandal, refused even to show up at the Capitol. A second former official, Sara Taylor, did testify, but she inappropriately invoked executive privilege to dodge key questions. Congress should take firm action to compel Ms. Miers and Ms. Taylor to provide the testimony it is entitled to hear.

Congress has been conducting a much-needed investigation of last year’s dismissal of nine top prosecutors. The evidence so far strongly suggests that the firings were done for improper political reasons, to help Republicans win elections, and that Ms. Miers and Ms. Taylor were involved. As part of its supervisory authority, Congress is entitled to question the two women.

Nevertheless, Ms. Miers refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee after President Bush — claiming executive privilege — took the extraordinary step of ordering her not to testify. If Congress is seeking any privileged information, Ms. Miers can decline to answer those specific questions. But executive privilege did not negate her legal duty to appear when Congress subpoenaed her.

Ms. Taylor came when summoned by the Senate Judiciary Committee. But she then episodically invoked executive privilege. She refused to answer such basic questions as who decided which prosecutors to fire and why they were fired. But she did tell the committee that she hadn’t attended any meetings with the president where the firings were discussed. Since executive privilege protects a president’s communications with his advisers, that answer seriously undercuts her basis for invoking it.

The House should vote to hold Ms. Miers in contempt. The Senate Judiciary Committee should review Ms. Taylor’s testimony and demand answers to the legitimate questions she refused to answer. If she continues her recalcitrance she, too, should face contempt. Any lesser response would be an invitation to this executive branch, and every future one, to treat Congress not as a co-equal branch of government, but as a little more than an advisory body.