WP, pg1: Facing reality of checks and balances from Congress, WH finds trouble harder to shrug off

[DeepModem Mom]

Analysis
White House Finds Trouble Harder to Shrug Off
By Peter Baker and Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 14, 2007; Page A01


Mexican President Felipe Calderón, left, walks with President Bush and archeologist Tomas Gallareta during a tour of the Mayan ruins of Uxmal. Bush's visit to Mexico is his last on a week-long tour of Latin America. (By Dario Lopez-mills -- Associated Press)

MERIDA, Mexico, March 13 -- As President Bush toured ancient Mayan ruins and exchanged toasts with the new Mexican president Tuesday, his aides furiously worked the telephones back to Washington. Another administration official was out, and the attorney general was deflecting calls for his own ouster as well.

The cascade of controversies that followed Bush to Latin America has left a president familiar with weathering crises in uncharted territory. For the first time since taking office, Bush confronts political furors on multiple fronts and an opposition Congress armed with the subpoena power to investigate them.

The response to the dispute over dismissed federal prosecutors underscores the inexperience of a White House accustomed to having its own party in control on Capitol Hill. After first brushing aside suggestions from a Congress that had been reluctant to exercise oversight for the past six years that the firings may have been improper, officials then sought to minimize White House involvement in the mass ouster. Tuesday's release of e-mails documenting the role of key administration figures in the decision to dismiss the prosecutors provoked outrage on both sides of the aisle.

In the past, questions about its actions might have died down without the internal administration e-mails being made public. Now the White House is in the position of explaining why it has repeatedly changed its story....

"What you have got is a White House that has become an accountability-free zone that is now facing the reality of checks and balances from Congress," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), a member of the House Democratic leadership. "You had a White House that was used to a rubber-stamp Congress for so long that they could get away with anything. This is the kind of stuff that in the past Congress would have put their head in the sand about."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031301839.html?nav=hcmodule

[Lasher]

1. Too bad, so sad for Junior

I figured they wouldn't be able to adjust the the first oversight ever. And they've just got too many things from the past 6 long years to try to cover up.