President Bush denied requests by Congress for testimony from two former aides about scandal swirling around the firings of federal prosecutors.

 Bush invoked the little used “executive privilege” and in a letter to the House and Senate Judiciary panels, White House counsel Fred Fielding insisted that Bush was acting in good faith and refused lawmakers’ demand that the president explain the basis for invoking the privilege. (the cajones this man has!)

This is just another move on the chessboard in the fight between the executive branch and the Democractic-led legislative branch.

You may be assured that the president’s assertion here comports with prior practices in similar contexts, and that it has been appropriately documented,” the letter said.

Then this fight turns schoolyard: 

Fielding also complained that the committees had decided to enforce the subpoenas whether or not the White House complied.

The committees have already prejudged the question, regardless of the production of any privilege log,” Fielding wrote. “In such circumstances, we will not be undertaking such a project, even as a further accommodation.”

In response, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, House chairman:

Contrary what the White House may believe, it is the Congress and the courts that will decide whether an invocation of executive privilege is valid, not the White House unilaterally,” the House chairman said in a statement.

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