The Bush administration claims that one of its main goals was to increase the powers of the presidency relative to Congress. Its sole purpose for these increased powers, though, is to deceive Congress, craft bad policy, and deny the public accountability. You can't have strong presidential privilege without trust, and Bush has done nothing to earn even a modicum of trust from Congress or the people. It has consistently stonewalled investigations by the Republican Congress and refused information necessary for the public to hold the administration accountable.
Moreover, it has demonstrated that it's "principles" serve one purpose: getting Bush re-elected and ramming Bush's extreme agenda through Congress. How else can you explain its willingness to waive its privilege whenever political pressure mounts, or its willingness to declassify nothing but that which helps it politically? Actually, it appears willing to declassify anything that helps it politically, including Richard Clarke's extremely sensitive 2002 testimony.
Just three days ago Condoleezza Rice stated:
Nothing would be better, from my point of view, than to be able to testify. I would really like to do that. But there's an important principle involved here. We have separate branches of government - the legislative branch and the executive branch. This commission, it takes its authority, derives its authority from the Congress, and it is a long-standing principle that sitting National Security Advisors do not testify before the Congress.Apparently, though, the president is willing to sacrifice his principles for political gain. Posted by Research Team at March 31, 2004 11:57 AM