Leahy, Lugar make the Sunday rounds
Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) appeared on CBS's Face the Nation this morning; Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) was on NBC's Meet the Press. Speaking on separate topics, both of their appearances are sure to remain part of the news cycle throughout the upcoming week.
On Meet the Press, Senator Leahy made it clear he was ready to go to the mat to enforce the subpoenas his committee recently served on the White House. From an AP article:
"If they don't cooperate, yes I'd go that far," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. He was asked in a broadcast interview whether he would seek a congressional vote on contempt citations if President Bush did not comply. That move would push the matter to court."They've chosen confrontation rather than compromise or cooperation," Leahy said. "The bottom line on this U.S. attorneys' investigation is that we have people manipulating law enforcement. Law enforcement can't be partisan."
Not good news for the Bush White House. Nor is what Senator Lugar had to say on Face the Nation. This was on a different subject - getting out of Iraq - on which Lugar broke ranks last Monday. He calls for starting to pull troops out of Iraq now. From Raw Story:
[Lugar recommends] forming "a diplomatic forum to bring together all the neighboring countries, and we meet continuously and we talk about our interests in Iraq but also our interests with each other," he said."Then withdrawal of a majority of American troops in a calm, orderly way over the next few months so that we refurbish our ability to meet problems elsewhere in the world," Lugar said.
"I think we are too much stretched and I would add to that our recruiting problems have become severe ... I hope something will come of this -- now, not punting the ball down to September," Lugar said.
How is the White House going to spin that on Monday?
