The price of executive privilege?

Washington Times:

President Bush may have strong legal grounds for refusing congressional subpoenas, but the political price for asserting his executive privilege will be high, say lawyers who have worked for both Republican and Democratic presidents.

"I think the political costs are so high it doesn't matter how strong your legal case is," said Abner J. Mikva, who served as President Clinton's White House Counsel from 1994 to 1995.

"It's a very powerful word in politics: cover-up. What are they covering up?" said Mr. Mikva, a former federal judge who now teaches at the University of Chicago law school.

Lanny J. Davis, as Mr. Clinton's special counsel from 1996 to 1998, defended the administration from numerous Republican-issued subpoenas.

"I defended executive privilege then, so how could I not defend it now?" said Mr. Davis, who said executive privilege "is an important principle of separation of powers."

"But the political reality is that you cannot overcome public opinion that does not buy a lack of transparency when it relates to political matters."

Democrats have issued subpoenas for information and testimony relating to the U.S. attorney firings and the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program.

John Yoo, a former deputy assistant attorney general who reportedly wrote the legal framework for the surveillance program, said, "It is not clear whether refusal always leads to a political loss."

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I think the President's political capital account is pretty close to running on empty now so he is unlikely to pay any price for invoking executive privilege. In the cases the Democrats are pushing, it is they who are clearly wrong and overreaching. The firing of the US attorneys is so clearly legal and withing the discretion of the President that Leahy and Schumer, who are pushing this matter are the ones who have something to lose, because they are going to have their positions rejected by the courts.

On the matter of the Democrats' push for terrorist rights on the intercept of enemy communications, the politics is all against them except for the irrational liberals and the NY Times whose credibility has suffered because of its betrayal of this program.