{"id":822,"date":"2004-03-31T03:57:43","date_gmt":"2004-03-31T08:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wordpress\/2004\/03\/death_of_an_important_principl\/"},"modified":"2004-03-31T03:57:43","modified_gmt":"2004-03-31T08:57:43","slug":"death_of_an_important_principl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/2004\/03\/death_of_an_important_principl\/","title":{"rendered":"Death of An Important Principle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Condoleezza Rice, on any one of one hundred TV interviews earlier this week<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Nothing would be better, from my point of view, than to be able to testify. I would really like to do that. But there is an important principle here … it is a longstanding principle that sitting national security advisers do not testify before the Congress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bush yesterday<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As the commission has done its work, I’ve also been concerned, as has Dr. Rice, that an important principle be upheld: A President and his advisors, including his advisor for national security affairs, must be able to communicate freely and privately, without being compelled to reveal those communications to the legislative branch. This principle of the separation of powers is protected by the Constitution, is recognized by the courts and has been defended by Presidents of both political parties.
\nWe have observed this principle while also seeking ways for Dr. Rice to testify, so that the public record is full and accurate. Now the commission and leaders of the United States Congress have given written assurances that the appearance of the National Security Advisor will not be used as precedent in the conduct of future inquiries. The leaders of Congress and the commission agree — they agree with me that the circumstances of this case are unique, because the events of September the 11th, 2001, were unique.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How do you do something which doesn’t serve as a precedent? Do you get inside a magic “this doesn’t count” machine? What Bush more accurately should have said was that Rice is finally agreeing to voluntarily testify before the commission. And what “unique” circumstances concerning September 11 have just been discovered to warrant this flip flop? The only thing that has changed since the White House began stonewalling months ago is that now public pressure has turned against it. That’s the real<\/i> “unique” circumstance at play.
\nAnd what’s with Bush and Cheney making a joint appearance before the commission rather than meeting separately? Josh Marshall offers three possible explanations<\/a>:<\/p>\n

(1) time constraints limit the commission’s ability to ask questions–two people eat up the time more quickly than one;
\n(2) easier to keep their stories straight; or
\n(3) White House doesn’t trust Bush to appear by himself so Cheney will be there to hold his hand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I suspect that number two is the driving rationale, but number three has some real merit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Condoleezza Rice, on any one of one hundred TV interviews earlier this week: Nothing would be better, from my point of view, than to be able to testify. I would really like to do that. But there is an important principle here … it is a longstanding principle that sitting national security advisers do not […]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"h-entry","8":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}