March 31, 2007

fns-mcconnell.jpg Please Mitch, don't you know what day it is? I know you never thought Chris Wallace would punk you like this and neither did I.

WALLACE: Senator McConnell, my point is that back in 1996, you were saying those White House aides should testify in open hearing. These were White House aides of Bill Clinton, in open hearing under oath. Why shouldn’t the same rules apply for the Bush White House and people like Karl Rove?

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You probably never thought he would reveal your hypocrisy on FOX NEWS of all places. I too was offended, but then I realized it was April 1st. The joke was on us!...(transcript below the fold)

Hat tip to Think Progress for the transcript.

WALLACE: Given that same reasoning, Senator McConnell, shouldn’t Karl Rove, shouldn’t other White House officials be called before Congress, testify in public and under oath?

MCCONNELL: Well, first of all, with regard to Justice Department, there are going to be hearings. The attorney general’s coming up. There was a hearing Thursday.

With regard to White House officials, it’ll be up to the president to decide, frankly, whether and when and under what circumstances members of his own administration testify.

Sometimes — of his own White House staff. Sometimes White House staff has testified, sometimes not. When presidents have dug in their heels, it’s gone to court.

This kind of tug of war has gone under administrations of both parties for a long time.

WALLACE: Senator McConnell, my point is that back in 1996, you were saying those White House aides should testify in open hearing. These were White House aides of Bill Clinton, in open hearing under oath.

Why shouldn’t the same rules apply for the Bush White House and people like Karl Rove?

MCCONNELL: And what I’m telling you is the president’s going to make that decision. I was a senator. I was talking about an administration. The president made the decision in 1996, President Clinton, as to how that would be done, and this president’s going to make the same decision and we’ll see how it all works out.

WALLACE: Well, you’re still a senator. So the question is do you call on this president to do the same thing?

MCCONNELL: I’m calling on this president to do what he thinks is appropriate with regard to his aides testifying. What Fred Fielding, the White House counsel, has offered is, I gather, still under discussion as to how and when and under what conditions the White House aides will testify

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