Good News for Justice

A judge has ruled that the White House claim of Executive Privilege to prevent Harriet Miers, Josh Bolten and others from testifying before Congress is without legal merit, according to the Associated Press (reported everywhere, here's one linke from England's Guardian).

Perhaps we'll finally get to the bottom of what exactly happened at the Justice Department. There's been plenty of news about it in the last few days, like the list of questions Monica Goodling would ask potential employees, such as my favorite "What is it about President Bush that makes you want to serve him?" (the Justice Department is not supposed to serve the President, they're supposed to serve Justice).

But the thing I really find interesting is where the White House will go from here. They're really in a bit of a pickle, in my view. The common wisdom is that they will appeal this result, but if they do that, they run the very real risk that the case is settled for good just before the election, allowing for the testimony at just the wrong time for Republican chances (who really needs testimonial proof of eight years of misdeeds on voters minds as they go to the polls?).

Worse yet, if it takes until after the election to settle, there's the very real chance of repercussions for them. I strongly believe that the only thing keeping the Democrats from impeaching Bush and Cheney is the fear of a backlash a la Clinton, who carried some of his strongest approval ratings at the height of his own impeachment. Once the election is over and settled, there will be no such issue, and if impeachment proceedings were brought, that would negate Presidential pardons for all involved (Presidents can not pardon people for crimes related to an impeachment proceeding).

So I'm guessing that unless they're quite certain that there are skeletons in the closet they simply can't afford to have come out, the White House will grit its collective teeth and allow Miers, Bolten and the rest to testify. Perhaps they will try to negotiate a deal whereby those two testify but Rove doesn't, we'll have to see if that flies.

But in my view if the White House decides to appeal this ruling, it means one of two things: Either they are so afraid of something that might come out that they're willing to take even that risk in the hopes of avoiding publicity, or President Bush is as petulant and childish as I sometimes suspect, refusing to be told "no" for as long as he can manage to avoid it.