Apparently, Democrats aren’t the only ones who want to see pertinent documents from judicial nominees. During John Roberts’ confirmation proceedings, the administration largely scoffed at attempts by Senate Democrats to gain previously unreleased documents. But now, as The Hill‘s Alexander Bolton reports, two key conservative Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are calling on the President to release documents on Harriet Miers.
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) are calling for the White House to turn over internal documents related to Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers’s service as White House counsel, breaking with Republican colleagues who say the boundaries of executive privilege must not be pushed.
Perhaps anticipating Republican demands for internal memos, White House staff members yesterday told Senate GOP staffers that the White House will provide evidence illuminating Miers’s legal thinking in action.
[…]
Graham’s and Brownback’s push for greater disclosure will give Democrats political leverage should they ask for memos and other documents shedding light on Miers’s work within the Bush administration’s inner circle. It would take only two Republicans to defeat Miers in committee, although that would not prevent the nomination’s automatic discharge to a floor vote.
[…]
But while Graham and Brownback’s demand for executive documents may coincide with the political aims of Democrats, it is aimed at conservatives who are withholding their support of the nomination.
Regardless of their reasoning, it will be beneficial for the American Democracy if Republicans embrace a more assertive role in dealing with the administration. For far too long, the Republican Congress has shirked its oversight responsibility in offering excessive leeway to the President on a wide range of issues, notably on nominations (think Mike Brown at FEMA, for example). And if the unusual coalition of Democrats and conservative Republicans can compel the President to release information on Miers that actually informs, well, it will be a nice side effect, too.
cross-posted to my blog at Basie.org
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.