Executive Privilege

House Democrats were correct to go to court to compel White House officials to appear before Congress. A federal judge late last week validated the decision by Democrats to file suit, ruling that White House aides aren't above the law. U.S. District Court Judge John Bates said that chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers must answer subpoenas from Congress. The House Judiciary Committee wants to ask Miers and Bolten about the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and whether they were politically motivated.

On all kinds of issues, George Bush has been accused of waffling. But on one matter of principle and taste, he was absolutely unyielding yesterday. "I'm President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli," he told an alfresco news conference at the White House. Answering questions on the lawn after a tree-planting ceremony, Bush said firmly: "I do not like broccoli. " "I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it," he explained.

Public Advocate Alfred A. Slocum and Gov. Kean have asserted executive privilege in a lawsuit charging Slocum with age discrimination and reverse racial discrimination in his office's hiring practices. Yesterday, a judge in Camden ruled that Slocum must turn over memos between himself and the governor so that the judge can decide whether executive privilege applies and whether the documents are relevant to the case. The case involves H. Ian Wachstein, the former deputy public defender in charge of the Public Defender's Office in Camden County.

Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr yesterday likened his fight with President Clinton's lawyers over what a president may keep private to the Watergate prosecutors' challenge of President Richard M. Nixon. In a professorial address to the San Antonio Bar Association, Starr noted that he was speaking on the 24th anniversary of the day Nixon's attorneys said they would attempt to block prosecutors' access to audiotapes made by a secret Oval Office system. Nixon ultimately lost that effort to invoke executive privilege.

Sidestepping comparisons to Watergate, President Clinton and his lawyers changed their legal strategy yesterday and abandoned their fight over executive privilege with independent counsel Kenneth Starr. The decision opens the way for grand jury testimony by White House communications aide Sidney Blumenthal in Starr's investigation of sex and perjury allegations involving Clinton and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. But White House lawyers will continue to invoke attorney-client privilege to shield another aide, Bruce Lindsey, a longtime Clinton friend and White House lawyer, from answering questions before the same grand jury.

Without help from President Bush, former President Ronald Reagan's chances of keeping his personal White House diaries secret are greatly reduced, a federal judge indicated yesterday. Up to now, Bush's support has been limited to a statement that he believes Reagan's claim is proper. Reagan has claimed executive privilege - a doctrine intended to protect confidential presidential communications from public disclosure - in response to U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene's order that Reagan turn over 33 diary excerpts to John M. Poindexter, who goes on trial Feb. 20 on charges stemming from the Iran-contra affair.

Bill Clinton worked hard for President Nixon's Democratic opponent; his future wife worked as a congressional staff lawyer to get Mr. Nixon impeached. Now, in a sorry twist for the "most ethical administration in history," the Clintons are going to Nixonian lengths to thwart independent counsel Kenneth Starr. All that's missing is for Mr. Clinton to purr, "I am not a crook. " The President has invoked "executive privilege" to excuse top advisers from answering certain questions before Mr. Starr's grand jury.

The White House prepared yesterday for a possible legal fight over President Clinton's ability to protect the secrecy of certain conversations he may have had with top advisers about Monica Lewinsky. As Bruce Lindsey, one of Clinton's closest aides, testified for a second day before a federal grand jury, the White House continued negotiating with Whitewater prosecutors to limit Lindsey's testimony. At issue is a legalism called executive privilege, which protects some confidential presidential discussions from disclosure.

She is the thoroughly modern president's wife who dispenses political and policy advice to her husband. But should Hillary Rodham Clinton's conversations with a White House aide about the Monica Lewinsky investigation be kept secret through a claim of executive privilege? That's one sticky question facing a federal judge who has been holding closed-door hearings on President Clinton's attempts to shield discussions with and among advisers about the Lewinsky matter. "It's unprecedented for a president to claim that executive privilege extends to the first lady," said Mark Rozell, an American University political science professor who wrote a book called Executive Privilege.

Rejecting comparisons to Watergate, President Clinton yesterday insisted that a federal judge's rejection of his claim of executive privilege in the Monica Lewinsky investigation was "quite different" from the historic battle over President Richard M. Nixon's secret White House tapes. "The facts are quite different in this case," he declared when queried by reporters in a White House news conference. However, he then declined to explain the difference, citing the order of Chief U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson that her ruling on executive privilege be sealed.

TRENTON - Gov. Christie says no deal was made to stop the New Jersey Senate from using subpoenas to compel his top advisers to talk about a failed federal education grant application. The Senate Legislative Oversight Committee is examining mistakes that may have cost New Jersey $400 million. Senate Democrats on Monday canceled a planned vote on a resolution granting them subpoena power after Senate President Stephen Sweeney and the governor met. Christie says he only promised Sweeney he would fill outstanding public records request made by the Senate by Wednesday.

Late last month, a federal judge in Washington slapped down some of the flimsiest legal arguments yet from the all-chutzpah, all-the-time Bush regime. The opinion by D.C. District Judge John D. Bates involved subpoenas issued by the U.S. House of Representatives in connection with a probe by the House Judiciary Committee into the administration's sleazy firings in 2006 of nine U.S. attorneys. After being jerked around by the administration for a year and a half, an exasperated committee finally issued two subpoenas.

House Democrats were correct to go to court to compel White House officials to appear before Congress. A federal judge late last week validated the decision by Democrats to file suit, ruling that White House aides aren't above the law. U.S. District Court Judge John Bates said that chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers must answer subpoenas from Congress. The House Judiciary Committee wants to ask Miers and Bolten about the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and whether they were politically motivated.

KARL ROVE ISN'T the only one with contempt for Congress. We're getting pretty contemptuous ourselves as we watch members of House huff and puff and produce only "strongly worded" letters in response to clear defiance of the law. Last week, Rove's lawyer said Rove would defy a subpoena to testify today before a House Judiciary subcommittee investigating the allegedly politically motivated firing of several U.S. attorneys. Rove, now a political commentator for Fox, claims "executive privilege.

There is something more important at stake than Gov. Corzine's potential embarrassment in the court-ordered release of e-mails to his ex-girlfriend: the public's right to know. Corzine should recognize this principle and drop his appeal of a judge's order to release the e-mails. When it comes to the principle of privacy, Carla Katz is not just any former flame. She is president of the Communications Workers of America Local 1034, which represents 10,000 state workers. She dated Corzine from 2002 to 2004, while he was a U.S. senator.

Search cut back MINDEN, Nev. - The search for missing millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett in the rugged and remote high Nevada desert was cut back yesterday. The Civil Air Patrol, which had 20 planes and 60 searchers aloft over the weekend, suspended further flights and left two planes and a small team on standby at the airport here. On Capitol Hill, it seems everybody loves Mukasey WASHINGTON - The nomination of Michael Mukasey for attorney general was greeted by congressional Democrats as a goodwill gesture with the potential to thaw some standoffs with the White House over executive privilege, several lawmakers and their aides said yesterday.

Hey there, news junkies! Summer's here, but that's no reason to lose track of the latest headlines, is it? Of course not - so test your savvy with this little pop quiz. You never know what you'll learn . . . 1. The primary job of the surgeon general of the United States is to: a. Protect the nation's physical and mental health b. Protect the president's political health c. Sit down and shut up 2. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales still has his job because: a. He's good with words b. His positives outweigh his negatives c. He still has the confidence of the president d. He still has negatives of the president 3. Hillary Clinton is: a. Much nicer than most people think she is b. Not as nice as most people think she is c. About as nice as most people think she is d. Trying so hard to be nice that her teeth might explode 4. Which of the following organizations has met its most recent recruiting goals?

President Bush and his top lieutenants just want to be left alone. They'd really rather not tell the American people much about what they're doing in the so-called war on terror - from Guantanamo to the CIA's secret foreign prisons to wherever it is that the National Security Agency conducts its warrantless wiretaps. Don't even think about tracking the movements of Vice President Cheney, whether he's prowling the corridors of power or a duck blind in Louisiana. In fact, his aides don't want you even to think of him as a true member of any of the three known branches of government.

It's the season for fireworks in Washington, and that's not a reference to the annual PBS "A Capitol Fourth" concert. These pyrotechnics are erupting in the form of congressional subpoenas, amid a widening legal showdown between a newly emboldened Congress and the Bush administration. Lawmakers are mounting a much-needed challenge to President Bush on several fronts: the Bush antiterrorism tactics, including the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program; the purge of eight federal prosecutors; and the black-box style of governing championed by Vice President Cheney.