May
22, 2002 12:10 p.m. Lieberman
Subpoenas White House
GOP
asks, “Why the rush, Joe?”
he
partisan split that has been building inside the Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee burst out into the open Wednesday morning as Joseph Lieberman,
the committee chairman and potential 2004 Democratic presidential candidate,
forced through a subpoena to the White House for information about its
contact with Enron. All nine committee Democrats voted for the subpoena,
and all eight committee Republicans voted against it.
Contentious arguments
that had previously taken place behind the scenes came out in the debate
before the vote as Lieberman argued that the White House has failed to
answer his request for Enron-related information. The committee, Lieberman
said, has been "slow-walked at best and stonewalled at worst"
by the White House in the seven weeks since March 27, when Lieberman first
wrote a letter to the White House requesting Enron-related materials.
Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, who also heads the committee's permanent
subcommittee on investigations, said that waiting any longer to issue
the subpoena would only result in "more weasel words, more slow walking,
and more obfuscation" from the White House.
But Fred Thompson,
ranking Republican on the committee, argued that in the campaign finance
investigation, the Republican-controlled committee waited four months
to subpoena the Clinton White House — and then only after significant
allegations of wrongdoing on the part of high-ranking officials. This
time, Thompson said, Lieberman is hurrying to issue a subpoena after just
seven weeks without any charges of White House misconduct. Given that,
Thompson said, the subpoena represents "nothing more than a desire
to have a look-see to see if something will turn up" about the White
House's contacts with Enron.
In addition, Republicans
pointed out that Lieberman and his staff have been negotiating with White
House counsel Alberto Gonzales for weeks now, and Gonzales has promised
to give information to the committee during the month of May, perhaps
as early as today. In a letter to the committee on Tuesday, Gonzales wrote,
"We are gathering and reviewing documents. We are gathering and reviewing
e-mails. We are gathering and reviewing visitor entry records. We are
interviewing individuals with relevant information. And we are preparing
to respond soon to assist the committee's inquiry in a time frame we had
originally discussed with your staff."
After reading Gonzales's
letter, several Republican senators questioned why Lieberman wanted to
rush through the subpoena before seeing what the White House gave to the
committee. Maine Republican Susan Collins called the subpoena "clearly
premature" and said she was "perplexed" over why Democrats
would hurry forward with the subpoena without evaluating information from
the White House. "It just does not make sense to me," Collins
said.
In an angry exchange
with Mississippi Republican Thad Cochran, Lieberman denied that the investigation
is politically motivated or that he is trying to suggest the White House
has engaged in some sort of wrongdoing. Raising his voice, Lieberman said,
"I am making no accusation about the conduct of anybody at the White
House . . We are not asking anything unreasonable here."
Although the White
House no doubt did not want to face a subpoena, Wednesday's developments
will allow administration officials to suggest that Lieberman's actions
are politically motivated. If even a single Republican had gone along
with the plan to issue the subpoena, Lieberman would have been able to
say the investigation was bi-partisan. Now, with every Republican, including
some clear moderates, voting against the subpoena, Lieberman will face
a more difficult task in arguing that the investigation is not a partisan
exercise. Moving ahead so quickly, said Susan Collins as the debate wound
down, "casts a cloud" over the entire investigation.
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he
partisan split that has been building inside the Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee burst out into the open Wednesday morning as Joseph Lieberman,
the committee chairman and potential 2004 Democratic presidential candidate,
forced through a subpoena to the White House for information about its
contact with Enron. All nine committee Democrats voted for the subpoena,
and all eight committee Republicans voted against it. 
