Democratic Opposition Creaking To Life

Adding to a newly emboldened Congress, at least at the edges (baby steps, people), Patrick Leahy has rejected the claim of executive privilege that's keeping White House officials from testifying in the US Attorneys case.

A Senate chairman said Thursday that President Bush was not involved in the firings of U.S. attorneys last winter, and he therefore ruled illegal the president's executive privilege claims protecting his chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and former adviser Karl Rove.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy directed Bolten, Rove, former White House political director Sara Taylor and her deputy, J. Scott Jennings, to comply ''immediately'' with their subpoenas for documents and information about the White House's role in the firings of U.S. attorneys.

''I hereby rule that those claims are not legally valid to excuse current and former White House employees from appearing, testifying and producing documents related to this investigation,'' wrote Leahy, D-Vt.

The ruling is a formality that clears the way for Leahy's panel to vote on whether to advance contempt citations against the four to the full Senate.

While we've seen this before, and we've seen both the House and Senate come tantalizingly close to approving contempt citations, this is closer than ever, and does reflect some new strategic tactics from the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman. Rerutled has more.