Senators Grill Taylor On Firings

The Senate is continuing to hold hearings in the firing of the United States Attorney's, and former White House political director Sara M. Taylor was being questioned by a congressional panel Wednesday. She said that she did not talk to or meet with President Bush about removing federal prosecutors before eight of them were fired. When asked more broadly whether President Bush was involved in any way in the firings, Taylor said, "I don't have any knowledge that he was."

I think there will be a rerun on CSPAN II overnight if you wish to view the proceedings yourself.

Taylor, who left the White House eight weeks ago for reasons she said were unrelated to the firings, was treading a rough line between obeying President Bush's order to not reveal internal White House deliberations about the firings and a congressional subpoena compelling her to do so.

Loyal to President Bush even outside the White House, Ms. Taylor at first refused to answer questions that might violate the president's claim of executive privilege and at one point reminded the committee that as a commissioned officer, she took an oath and that she takes that oath to the president very seriously.

Seeing a chance to weaken Ms. Taylor's observance of President Bush's executive privilege claim,Senator Leahy corrected her: She took an oath to uphold the Constitution, he noted. The exchange was part of proceedings that were as much about the ongoing dispute over what information the White House can keep secret as it was about the stated topic, the firings over the winter of eight U.S. attorneys.

Ms. Taylor began by telling the committee she would observe President Bush's directive to defy the subpoena and refuse to answer questions, unless a court ordered her to do so. Democrats insisted that the decision to cooperate, or not, with the subpoena was hers.

"It is apparent that this White House is contemptuous of the Congress and feels that it does not have to explain itself to anybody," Senator Leahy, of Vermont., said as he opened the hearing. "I urge Ms. Taylor not to follow that contemptuous position and not to follow the White House down this path."

With that, Democrats and ranking Republican Arlen Specter, of Pennsylvania, began to try to unravel Ms. Taylor's adherence to President Bush's directions and prod her into answering their questions about who ordered the firings and why.

Democrats noted that Ms. Taylor, 32, is a private citizen compelled by subpoena to testify, under threat of being held in contempt of Congress. During a first round of questioning, Senator Leahy asked Ms. Taylor repeatedly whether she had met with or talked to President Bush about the replacement of U.S. attorneys. Ms. Taylor repeatedly refused to answer, citing President Bush's instructions.

She got some backup, at first, from Senator Specter. "I think your declining to answer the last series of questions by the chairman was correct under the direction from White House counsel," Senator Specter said. "Whether White House counsel is correct on the assertion of executive privilege is a matter which will be decided by the courts," Senator Specter added. But, in the senator's view, "congressional oversight has the better of the argument."

Nonetheless,Senate Democrats pressed Ms. Taylor, and most did so in a very rude manner, in particular, where Senators Chucky Schumer of New York, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island that treated her answers with disdain.

Apart from her comments about President Bush, Ms. Taylor revealed a few other details: She said she did not recall ordering the addition or deletion of names to the list of prosecutors to be fired. And she disputed testimony by Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff, that Ms. Taylor wanted to avoid submitting a new prosecutor, Tim Griffin, through Senate confirmation.

"I expected him to go through Senate confirmation," Taylor said under questioning by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, of California. Ms. Taylor also issued a stiff defense of her colleagues in the Bush administration. "I don't believe there was any wrongdoing by anybody," she said.

Senator Leahy took the unusual step of allowing Ms. Taylor's lawyer, Neil Eggleston, to sit next to her at the witness table. There, he advised her on which questions she should or should not answer under the president's directive. Democrats said the same standard applied to a second former Bush aide, one-time White House counsel Harriet Miers. Miers, subpoenaed to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, said through her lawyer that she "cannot provide the documents and testimony that the committee seeks."