Beyond Gonzales: Scrutiny in US attorneys case may shift to Bush staff

[maddezmom]

Beyond Gonzales: Scrutiny in US attorneys case may shift to Bush staff
The White House could become the new target in the controversy surrounding the dismissal of federal prosecutors.

Washington - Now that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales doesn't look like he's going anywhere, the focus of the controversy over fired federal prosecutors may shift to the White House itself.

That's the probable course of events in the wake of the Senate's failure to pass a symbolic no-confidence vote against Mr. Gonzales on June 11, according to some lawmakers and legal experts.

Yet the Bush administration is likely to resist congressional subpoenas for testimony on the issue from political adviser Karl Rove and others. The bottom line: The issue of the US attorneys could be headed toward a difficult struggle over executive privilege.

The main issue now is whether current or former White House officials will talk to Congress and under what terms, says Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia.

Democratic congressional leaders had hoped that the no-confidence vote might pressure Gonzales into resigning his post. Even Sen. Arlen Specter (R) of Pennsylvania, current ranking minority member and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, publicly predicted that Gonzales would probably step down rather than undergo such public censure.

more:http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0613/p02s02-uspo.html