Executive Privilege vs. Congressional Subpoenas: Separation of Powers Weakens Every Time Congress and President Clash Over This

Watching the President and Congress clash over subpoenas and Executive Privilege is like watching a chess match. Move. Counter move. Counter-counter move. Check. Counter move.

The firings of eight U.S. attorneys set off this high-stakes game of chess. It goes thus:

Attorney General Gonzales fires eight federal attorneys; no reason is given. Congress demands explanations; Justice declines; Congress subpoenas documents and people; White House asserts Executive Privilege; Congress threatens contempt of Congress charges against anyone refusing to testify; White House says "so?"; Congress again threatens contempt charges; White House orders federal prosecutors not to comply with Congressional contempt citations; Congress threatens to charge Gonzales with perjury.

There seems to be a great deal of confusion as to where Congressional authority ends and Presidential authority begins--and vice versa.

And we have a sitting Congress and President who don't mind intruding on one another's territory, which makes this question even more difficult to resolve. And they've both tried to shred parts of the Constitution that deals with the other.

This is not the first time that a President and Congress have clashed over Executive Privilege; Nixon asserted ExecPriv over his Watergate recordings; the Supreme Court ruled against him. A lower Federal court also ruled against Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal when his aides were ordered to testify before the Starr commission.

Presidents need to pick and choose which battles need to be fought to preserve the separation of powers, not to cover their behinds. And Congress needs to pick and choose which fights really need to be fought and make sure that they're not crossing the line between Congressional powers and Presidential ones.

We are not a parliamentary democracy. The President is NOT a member of Congress as the British Prime Minister is of the British Parliament (as are most of his/her ministers). We are a federal republic with three branches of government, complete with a system of checks and balances to prevent one branch from gaining supremacy over all others.

President Bush and Congress are trying to gain supremacy over the other, and the third branch may be required to step in to put a stop to it. It's only a matter of time now before this is referred to the courts. They've locked us into this course.

What a sorry state of affairs.