Informed Speculation

President Bush is trying to draw a line in the sand regarding AttorneyGate, but the Democrats are not playing along so far:

President Bush sought yesterday to defuse the controversy over the firings of U.S. attorneys, offering strong support for embattled Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales while proposing to make Karl Rove and other top aides available for private interviews with congressional investigators.

The White House, however, limited the kinds of questions the aides would answer and said the interviews may not be conducted under oath or transcribed. The conditions enraged congressional Democrats, who vowed to go ahead with plans to issue subpoenas as early as today that would compel the aides to testify.

TIME’s reporting describes an even more forceful Bush:

The President had choppered back into Washington at 5 p.m. and within the hour he had delivered his ultimatum. There would be no more bending to the will of Democrats in Congress. He said he was willing to allow Karl Rove, Harriet Miers and other key aides to be privately interviewed about the controversy over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. Such private interviews do not need to be done under oath. “We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants,” Bush said. “I proposed a reasonable way to avoid an impasse.” He insisted that “there’s no indication… that anybody did anything improper.” The response from Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy was swift and uncompromising, “Testimony should be on the record and under oath.”

As the Democrats threaten subpeona, the White House subtly trots out the possibility of executive privilege:

The new White House counsel, Fred F. Fielding, offered a compromise yesterday. He said the White House would make several aides — including Karl Rove, the president’s chief political strategist, and Harriet E. Miers, Mr. Fielding’s predecessor as counsel — available to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees for informal private interviews. But the interviews would not be public or under oath, and no transcripts would be prepared.

As they continued with their public and private negotiations, both sides were mindful that Mr. Fielding possesses a powerful but dangerous weapon, the invocation of executive privilege, which is the constitutional equivalent of a declaration of war. In a letter to the two committees, he only alluded to it, in a reference to “the constitutional prerogatives of the presidency.”

One thing’s for sure: the game is well and truly on…