- WASHINGTON - The White House and Congress are headed toward an unprecedented
legal showdown after Vice President Cheney rejected demands Sunday that
he release information about industry consultations by his energy task
force.
-
- David Walker, head of the General Accounting
Office, Congress' investigative arm, said in interviews Friday and Sunday
that he is prepared to go to court unless Cheney relents in disclosing
whom the task force met with and what they discussed while the administration's
energy plan was being devised.
-
- But Cheney said that the White House
won't back down and is ready for a fight.
-
- "Time after time after time, administrations
have traded away the authority of the president to do his job," Cheney
said on Fox News Sunday. "For us to compromise on this basic, fundamental
principle ... would further weaken the presidency, and we're not going
to do that."
-
- The standoff has been brewing since last
summer, when the White House refused to answer GAO questions about the
energy task force. Walker said he was ready to file suit in early September,
but the issue was set aside after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
-
- Now, the controversy over the collapse
of Enron, an energy trading company with close ties to the Bush administration,
has helped revive the issue.
-
- Walker also described his stance as a
matter of principle: Congress' right to provide "reasonable oversight."
-
- Enron "illustrates what can happen
when important principles of transparency and accountability are violated
in the private sector," he said. "We in the public sector hold
a public trust, and we should be held to a higher standard."
-
- He said he expected to send a letter
to congressional leaders by the end of the week notifying them of his decision.
GAO officials already have begun interviewing law firms to represent the
agency in the lawsuit, which would be filed in U.S. District Court.
-
- The debacle surrounding Enron, which
had been Bush's most generous campaign contributor, raises the president's
political risks in the standoff. Some analysts predict the administration
ultimately will be forced to give in. White House chief of staff Andy Card
may have hinted at compromise when he said on NBC's Meet the Press, "There
are probably ways to address some of the concerns on information."
-
- Lanny Davis, a special counsel who helped
the Clinton White House respond to scandal, said Cheney should release
the information. "Ultimately they're going to have to yield, so why
not do it now?" he said.
-
- The Clinton administration first resisted
but finally complied with demands by Republicans to release the names of
participants in Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care task force.
-
- The Sierra Club, the Natural Resources
Defense Council and Judicial Watch already have filed lawsuits seeking
the information about the energy task force. But a GAO suit would be historic:
Never before has the accounting agency turned to the courts to get information
from a federal official.
-
- Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., accuses
the White House of trying to operate in secrecy. Cheney said Waxman wants
to argue about "process" rather than deal with the substance
of the energy plan.
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- http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/2002/01/27/cheney.htm
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