NY Times Condemns Bush’s Abuse of Executive Privilege, Applauds Democratic Challenge

The editors of the New York Times find that Bush's claims of Executive Privilege lack merit, and they are pleased that Democrats in Congress are aggressively exercising their oversight responsibilities. After six years of kowtowing to the White House, Congress is finally challenging President Bush’s campaign to trample all legal and constitutional restraints on his power. Congressional committees have issued subpoenas for documents and witnesses in two major cases and have asked for the first — and likely not the last — criminal investigation of an executive branch official who might have lied to Congress. (…) Mr. Bush’s claim of executive privilege in the attorneys scandal is especially ludicrous. The White House has said repeatedly that Mr. Bush was not involved in the firings of nine United States attorneys. If that’s true, he can hardly argue that he has the right to conceal conversations and e-mail exchanges that his aides had with one another and the Justice Department. (…) [E]xecutive privilege cannot be used to cover up actions and policies that involve an outright violation of the law, as the spying program did.