Rice Under Oath, Bush and Cheney Will See Entire Committee

Washington Post

...And that's it, and they mean it:

Republican officials involved in the negotiations said that the twin announcements constituted a recognition by the White House that the continued resistance to the commission's request was beginning to look like stonewalling as the general election campaign gets underway. Public attention to the longtime disputes between the White House and the commission had increased exponentially following last week's testimony by Richard A. Clarke, formerly Bush's counterterrorism chief, that the administration had responded languidly to near-daily warnings about al Qaeda in the months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

...White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales made the offer this morning in a two-page letter to Kean and Hamilton. "The Commission must agree in writing that it will not request additional public testimony from any White House official, including Dr. Rice," Gonzales wrote.

Gonzales also said the commission "must agree in writing that Dr. Rice's testimony does not set any precedent for future commission requests."

Gonzales said Bush still maintains that he has "the legal authority to decline" the commission's request for Rice's testimony, but said the White House was recognizing "the truly unique and extraordinary circumstances underlying the commission's responsibility to prepare a detailed report on the facts and circumstances of the horrific attacks" on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

What's that word Big Daddy says? CRAP. Mendacity, even. They've been stonewalling the 9/11 Commission from the beginning - they didn't want to have it in the first place, they didn't want to let it have the information it needed, they didn't want to extend the time so it could do its job, and now they didn't want to testify before it at all.

And they want it in writing that no other Administration officials will be questioned. The poor babies.

Maybe they're not guilty of anything, but they've got more ways like people guilty of something than I've ever seen.