Tony Snow believes that executive privilege is a dodge. In fact, he feels so strongly about it that he wrote an op-ed for the St Louis Post-Dispatch. From Glenn Greenwald:
Evidently, [the President] wants to shield virtually any communications that take place within the White House compound on the theory that all such talk contributes in some way, shape or form to the continuing success and harmony of an administration. Taken to its logical extreme, that position would make it impossible for citizens to hold a chief executive accountable for anything. He would have a constitutional right to cover up.
Except, of course, the President of which he was speaking was Clinton, not the current Unitary Executive, and it was published on March 29 1998 under the headline "executive privilege is a dodge."
Chances are that the courts will hurl such a claim out, but it will take time.
One gets the impression that Team Clinton values its survival more than most people want justice and thus will delay without qualm. But as the clock ticks, the public's faith in Mr. Clinton will ebb away for a simple reason: Most of us want no part of a president who is cynical enough to use the majesty of his office to evade the one thing he is sworn to uphold -- the rule of law.
Ah yes, the "rule of law", remember phrase? How quaint. For me, that it invokes Henry Hyde droning that ad nauseam. We're hearing, and will hear, cautionary tales from grim Republicans about how dangerous it will be if the President can't get advice with his advisors fearing they will be hauled up and have to testify under oath. I think it would be nice to throw their words back at them.
Click through and read all of Tony's statements about how wrong he feels it is to invoke executive privilege.
Update [2007-3-21 15:6:57 by Glic]:In today's presser, Ed Henry of CNN asks Snow about the the gap and Tony gets terse and says "ask them" (referring to Justice). Says "the president has no recollection of this issue being raise...". Says is there an expectation if Rove et al give an interview as opposed to testimony that Congress "won't get the true facts...the answer is no." Um...Tony? The answer is "yes." (not from a transcript, from me typing to CNN broadcast)