What Rhymes With Subpoena?

Things got a little more complicated today in the US Attorney scandal: two subpoenas were issued by Congress, and one of those went to Harriet Miers.

The Senate Judiciary Committee issued the subpoenas to former White House political director Sara Taylor, and Conyers on the House Judiciary went after Miers. Patrick Leahy and Conyers are all over the stories about the subpoenas, and while I tend to try and avoid premature excitement, it is worth noting that Sara Taylor's boss at the White House was Karl Rove.

The Politico piece tries to draw a parallel between the failed vote against Gonzales in the Senate and these subpoenas as some sort of call and response, and I think there's probably some truth to that. I think the White House's response, outlined in the WaPo piece, is totally ridiculous:

White House spokesman Tony Fratto criticized Democrats for issuing the subpoenas, saying that Congress should accept the administration's offer to let officials be interviewed in private and not under oath.

"The committees can easily obtain the facts they want without this confrontational approach by simply accepting our offer for documents and interviews," Fratto said. "But it's clear that Senator Leahy and Representative Conyers are more interested in creating media drama than getting the facts."

I like that constitutionally required oversight can be so simply boiled down to "Let's just talk in private without any sort of consequence for lying."