“Evecutive privilege” and “signing statement”, closely followed by “veto” have fast become words or phrases that come from the administration on a daily basis for one reason or another.  We have heard about signing statements almost every time Bush has signed into law anything that he didn’t 100% agree with.  Veto has been his stamp for the past year.  Now, we are back to executive privilege.

Back to the Valerie Plame leak.  A House committe has subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey to supply material concerning the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.  Once again, Bush is singing the executive privilege song.

Representative Henry Waxman, House Oversight Chairman, has asked to be provided with interviews of Dick Cheney by the FBI concerning the Plame outing.

They also include notes about the 2003 State of the Union address, during which President Bush made the case for invading Iraq in part by saying Saddam Hussein was pursuing uranium ore to make a nuclear weapon. That information turned out to be wrong.

So, what’s to hide?

The assertion of the privilege is not about hiding anything but rather protecting the separation of powers as well as the integrity of future Justice Department investigations of the White House, Mukasey wrote to Bush in a letter dated Tuesday. Several of the subpoenaed reports, he wrote, summarize conversations between Bush and advisers — are direct presidential communications protected by the privilege.

Yeah… right… There is just too much secret squirrel stuff going on in the White House.  And, every time anyone requests a document or testimony from anyone who has worked in the Presidential palace, it seems that the Dick and the Decider get squirrely. 

The point of the investigation:

Congressional Democrats want to shed light on the precise roles, if any, that Bush, Cheney and their aides may have played in the leak.

Who was really behind the outing of covert agent Plame?  We all know that “Scooter” Libby was convicted of perjury, obstruction, and lying to the FBI.  We all know that he received a two and a half year sentence.  We all know that Bush commuted the sentence.

That’s about all we know… except that there is something rotten in the White House.  This one is going to be a cat and dog issue, apparently… a dog fight to get the information and not enough cats in Washington to cover the pile of litter.