House Votes For Subpoenas, White House Will Withdraw Offer

The Dems in the House are insistent on provoking a constitutional standoff over the U.S. Attorney non-scandal and are proceeding with their threatened subpoenas:

WASHINGTON (AP) - A House panel on Wednesday approved subpoenas for President Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove and other top White House aides, setting up a constitutional showdown over the firings of eight federal prosecutors.
By voice vote, the House Judiciary subcommittee on commercial and administrative law decided to compel the president's top aides to testify publicly and under oath about their roles in the firings.

The White House has refused to budge in the controversy, standing by embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and insisting that the firings were appropriate. White House spokesman Tony Snow said that in offering aides to talk to the committees privately, Bush had sought to avoid the "media spectacle" that would result from public hearings with Rove and others at the witness table.

"The question they've got to ask themselves is, are you more interested in a political spectacle than getting the truth?" Snow said of the overture Tuesday that was relayed to Capitol Hill by White House counsel Fred Fielding.

Later in the day Tony Snow said that if subpoenas are issued the White House will withdraw the offer to have Rove, Miers and others appear to answer questions. Take it or leave it.

That's the right move on the Bush Administration's part, though it would have been better if they'd refused any questioning right from the start. If this gets to court the President wins, though it will be played like Watergate in the press.

By the way, for an entertaining comparison of the gung-ho Sen. Pat Leahy of 2007, who wants to get subpoenas going today and to heck with executive privilege, and the timid Pat Leahy of 1999 who thought much more highly of executive privilege when Clinton was the subject of investigations, check out this post at Patterico.