Entries for March 21, 2007

From chief White House correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh:

The possibility that former Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee might run for president has animated many conservative leaders who are unhappy with the GOP choices that exist now. They consider Thompson a strong conservative with stellar communications skills and an interesting resume that includes success and fame as a movie and TV actor. All this reminds many of Ronald Reagan, an icon of the right.

"Fred says he might run and he would be a real threat for the Republican nomination," says aprominent conservative who is neutral in the presidential race so far. The problem: Is Thompson willing to devote the time and energy needed for a run? Some who dealt with him in the Senate say he is too laid back to do what it takes.

"Would he work hard enough? That's always a question with Fred," says an long-time associate. "And you have to do a lot of silly, demeaning things to get elected and become the most powerful man in the world. Fred hasn't shown much stomach for that."

The Department of Justice has released a "Fact Sheet" about its response to the recent report that the FBI had abused the National Security Letter program. As part of the government's counterterrorism program, NSLs allow the government to compel companies to disclose phone, E-mail, and bank records about specific individuals without the immediate approval of a court.

A recent report by the FBI inspector general found, however, that the agency has failed to follow proper procedure in issuing and tracking the letters.

In the DOJ "Fact Sheet," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales writes that he and FBI Director Robert Mueller "agreed that such mistakes would not be tolerated, and the Attorney General ordered the FBI and the Justice Department to put in place safeguards to ensure greater oversight and controls over the use of NSLs."

Among the new safeguards:

• A "retrospective audit" of the previous use of NSLs in all 56 FBI field offices.
• Regular, comprehensive audits in the future.
• New training and guidance, including mandatory NSL training whenever an attorney with the FBI Office of General Counsel is traveling in the field.
• Clarified legislation regarding NSLs and "toll billing records information."

Etc.: The Eyes Have It: Secret surveillance programs and how far is too far, on USNews.com

Mckenzie in Maryland wrote in today to ask what will happen if Congress subpoenas top White House aides and President Bush refuses to allow them to testify. As we noted yesterday, White House Counsel Fred Fielding offered a deal to congressonal Democrats whereby aides like top adviser Karl Rove and former Counsel Harriet Miers would testify privately and not under oath. Instead, the House Judiciary Committee voted today to approve subpoenas for top officials, though they have not yet officially issued them. News Desk consulted several constitutional law experts on the matter.

"An appeal could easily take over a year and run to the end of the president's second term," says law Prof. Jonathan Turley of George Washington University. If Rove, Miers, and others were subpoenaed and didn't show up, he says, they could be held in contempt of Congress.

"Normally, there would be a referral to the Justice Department, which would obviously be a bit odd here," Turley says. Instead, "they could seek a special prosecutor or go directly to court."

As for who would eventually come out on top of the constitutional donnybrook:

"I would be surprised if the president could prevail on the full scope of the executive-privilege assertion here," Turley says. "Clearly, there are some protected areas, but a complete bar is a pretty extreme claim. Most presidents avoid court fights over the privilege in deference to their successors. Since executive privilege is not mentioned in the Constitution, it is a creation of the courts and can rise or fall with such decisions. For that reason, presidents have been very circumspect in going to court."

Richmond University law Prof. Carl Tobias, however, says he doesn't expect a court case here.

"Both sides will negotiate a reasonable solution," he predicts. "Congress will lose time if it goes to court, as it will take too much time, so it must work [out] a solution with the White House."

Update: Martin S. Flaherty of Fordham Law School in New York tells News Desk that the Senate, if a White House official refuses to testify, would go to the D.C. District Court, where the case would probably end up before the Supreme Court because of what he calls "the Linda Greenhouse Effect"--the top court's penchant for hearing cases that are likely to end up on the front page of the New York Times, where Greenhouse covers the Supreme Court.

"It's probably four-four with [Justice Anthony M.] Kennedy in the middle," Flaherty says. It's anyone's guess which way Kennedy would fall he says, though he added that, if he had to guess, he would predict Kennedy to side with Congress.

Photo of Bush by Charlie Archambault for U.S. News & World Report

In the past four years, the federal government has prosecuted 417 cases of domestic terrorism compared with 246 international terrorism cases, according to an investigation by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) issued this morning.

"The finding that there currently are many more prosecutions and convictions involving domestic and financial terrorism than those aimed at international terrorists presents a picture of the government's overall terrorism enforcement campaign that appears somewhat in variance with that emerging from the government's official statements, congressional testimony and the resulting newspaper reports where the battle against international terrorism appears to dominate the effort," the report states.

With the exception of fiscal 2002, when there were 355 international cases and 162 domestic cases, the latter has been an equal or greater priority for federal proseuctors, the data indicate.

Information on the number of convictions won by prosecutors also was made available. Here's a table one what percentage of cases resulted in conviction, by category:

The full report is available here:

--Chris Wilson

Chief White House Correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh reports:

Rummy redux? Some Republicans think so. They see parallels to the political demise of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the current situation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. President Bush publicly insisted that he had no intention of ousting Rumsfeld before he forced the Pentagon chief out of his job just after last year's midterm elections.Some see a similar pattern in Bush's stout defense of Gonzales yesterday and predict that the president is digging in his heels now to show that he won't submit to pressure but will move Gonzales out when things calm down.

"It reminds me of what happened to Rumsfeld," says an informal White House adviser. "Will Al Gonzales be around much longer? I can't see it. Al has no credibility and your attorney general needs credibility or he can't do his job effectively. He has not been straight with members of Congress or he has been out of the loop on these U.S. attorney firings. Either way, this is seen as serious business, and Al has not handled it well."

Candidates hitting the stump today:

• Joe Biden is in Carson City, Nev.
• Mitt Romney attends fundraisers in New York City and Philadelphia.
• John McCain is in Florida this morning and then returns to D.C. for a fundraiser.
• Rudy Giuliani rings the bell at the New York Mercantile Exchange at 2 p.m. today.

• Both the White House and Democrats in Congress are mobilizing their troops for a constitutional fight over whether Bush's top aides will testify under oath about their role in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. A House committee will vote today on whether to issue the subpoenas, the AP reports.
• North Korea disarmament talks are stalling over the release of $25 million of Pyongyang's funds. U.S. officials said Monday that the money would be transferred to an account in Beijing, saying it was up to China to release the funds.
• A glass-bottomed observation desk opened Tuesday over the Grand Canyon, allowing visitors to stare 4,000 feet down into the rift.
• The Defense Department has vowed to get tougher on waste and war profiteering by contractors in Iraq.