Bush's offer has doomed his presidency and his reputation.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

By refusing to allow his people to comply with Congressional subpoenas, Bush has accomplished two things:

He has forever trashed the reputation of his administration. By hiding behind a faux executive privilege (which would not extend to Hariet, Rove or othe henchmen and lawbreakers, in any case), future generations will look at this time period and wonder why the hell so many Americans sit and took it up the ass from these creeps. That is assuming we survive the next 2 years, at least. Even contemporary historians and social scientists will step back and throw endless scorn on Bush and his cabinet of criminals.

He has forever trashed the reputations of the remaining US Attorneys. Their future (present, and past) efforts, even if apolitical, will be viewed with suspicion. As a corallary, he has managed to trash our whole justice system.

Of course, illegal and uncontrolled FBI spying, NSA spying on US citizen, data mining, Jose Padilla, the Gitmo "military tribunals", torture, Abu Ghraib, IraqNam invasion, and so many other utterly horrible actions and decisions have done damage to our legal and constitutional rights as well.

[Cleita]

1. We all know this, but wait until Rush/Sean/Bill spin this into

the stratosphere and watch the sycophants line up to drink more Kool-Aid.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. even using all my creative juices, I cannot imagine how they

can spin the damage done to the DOJ and the US attorneys' reputations. Their futures are totally fucked.

If you were a criminal defense atty, would you not seek to find out whether the prosecution was politically motivated? would you not use all available resources to find a connection, no matter how tenuous? And wouldn't you make that argument to a jury?

Every single act by this group of US attorneys will be examined by everyone.

[merh]

4. would the republican appointed US District judge allow

you to make that argument to a jury?

See how deep it goes.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. a talented lawyer has many ways to get a point across.

but you are right to wonder about the judicial branch as much as the current crap of US attorneys. I meant crop. Because Fitz and several others are really superb.

[merh]

6. no matter how talented the lawyer

if the judge won't allow the testimony or argument before the jury, it won't get there.

it's happening as we speak

the us district judges know that the us attorneys have the power to investigate them and the ability to investigate them with the same fervor they have used to go after dems.

look at the case of USA v. Hastings and USA v. Nixon - the fact that the judge is appointed for life is no guarantee that they will hold the job forever and/or that the us attorneys with a reason or a differing political view won't go after them

[merh]

2. There is no executive privilege as Ken Starr established

when pursuing Clinton:

This is what John Dean has to say on the issue when this came up during the initial Plame Scandal:

A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit agreed with Starr. The court held that a grand jury was entitled to the information. It also held that government officials -- even when serving as attorneys -- had a special obligation to provide incriminating information in their possession.

In the second case, In re Lindsey, Deputy White House Counsel Bruce Lindsey refused to testify about his knowledge of President Clinton's relationship to Monica Lewinsky, based on attorney-client privilege. Starr sought to compel Lindsey's testimony, and he won again.

This time, Starr persuaded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to follow the Eighth Circuit. The court ruled that exposure of wrongdoing by government lawyers fostered democracy, as "openness in government has always been thought crucial to ensuring that the people remain in control of their government."

Based on these precedents, President Bush has almost certainly been told that the only way he can discuss his potential testimony with a lawyer is by hiring one outside the government.


http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20040604.html

Edited to add: Of course, the emails using the RNC domains take away from the executive privilege claim as well.