LAT on executive privilege

This morning, in an editorial, the LAT argues that Congress should press the President to"embrace a compromise" and allow presidential advisers like Rove and Miers to testify "for the record but not under oath." And, the LAT argues further, "the besieged Bush" should announce his surrender the same day he reveals that Alberto Gonzales "wants to spend more time with his family." That day will never come.

The LAT declines to accept that Congress has spent six and one-half months investigating the US attorneys firings and has yet to reveal any wrong doing other than bureaucratic bungling. The Justice Department has provided Congressional Democrats with 8,500 documents and Dems have interviewed scores of people under oath, including Gonzales. The president has offered to allow Miers, Rove and others to meet with Congressional investigators to answer questions -- just not under oath and not on the record. The president's offer has been rejected.

Lately, Dems are making a big deal about three grown men racing each other to see who reaches Attorney General Ashcroft's bedside first in order to get him to sign off on their proposals. It was childish in the first instance and it is childish to make a big deal of it now. But this whole matter is childish. There is no substance to any of it, just politics. LAT editorials about it are just as childish.