2007年VOA标准英语-Bush, Congress Locked in Legal Battles

By Dan Robinson
Capitol Hill
10 July 2007

As he faces renewed pressure from Congress over the war in Iraq, President Bush and majority Democrats¹ are also locked in legal battles involving other issues. VOA's Dan Robinson reports from Capitol Hill, where the standoff between the president and key House and Senate Democrats continues in advance of important hearings this week and later this month.

On two issues, the firing of nine federal prosecutors², and the president's commuting³ of the prison sentence of former White House aide Lewis Libby, the war of words continues with no end in sight.

On the attorneys matter, the president refuses to allow key former aides testify to congressional panels, and is resisting congressional subpoenas⁴ for documents lawmakers believe are relevant to their efforts to determine if the Bush administration employed improper⁵ political considerations in dismissing U.S. prosecutors.

Through the White House counsel, the president asserts Executive Privilege, an authority that has been the subject of controversy⁶ over the decades, in which presidents have declined to produce documents or allow testimony⁷ of key officials.

Senator Patrick Leahy

All of this pushes the two sides closer to a potential constitutional showdown, with the Democratic chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees accusing the president of stonewalling and rejecting White House offers of testimony without transcripts⁸. "This is more stonewalling from a White House that believes it can unilaterally control the co-equal branches of government," said Senator Patrick Leahy.

He convenes⁹ his panel Wednesday, and a House judiciary panel under Congressman¹⁰ John Conyers will do the same on Thursday.

Former White House counsel Harriet Miers and former political aide Sara Taylor may appear, and if they do are likely to cite the Executive Privilege claim in refusing to answer questions.

White House spokesman Tony Snow reiterated¹¹ (on Monday) the president's reasoning in refusing congressional requests. "There does have to be, for politicians who have very difficult jobs, the ability to get honest counsel from people who are working for them. That is all this is about. This is not about trying to throw a big smoke cloud over how the government works," he said.

Answering questions this week, Snow maintained that the White House tried to accommodate Congress, by earlier providing thousands of documents and offering testimony, although behind closed doors and without transcripts.

Senator Leahy and Congressman Conyers call White House explanations overly broad, and as both make clear, they could cite the White House with contempt of Congress.

"It is apparent that this White House is contemptuous of the Congress [and] it feels it doesn't have to explain itself to anyone, not to the people's representatives in Congress but worse yet not to the American people," the senator said.

Congressman Conyers, meanwhile, holds a hearing Wednesday on President Bush's commutation of the jail sentence of former White House aide Lewis Libby, who received two years in prison for obstructing¹² justice in a federal probe involving the leak of a CIA officer's identity.

Conyers wants President Bush to waive¹³ any Executive Privilege claim regarding testimony by aides or documents in that matter, with the lawmaker seeking to find out among other things whether Libby's former boss, Vice¹⁴ President Dick Cheney, had a role in the commutation.

Against the backdrop of these political dramas, another controversy returned to the headlines, in a Washington Post report Tuesday concerning President Bush's once secret warrantless domestic surveillance program.

The newspaper said Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez failed to give the Senate Judiciary Committee accurate information about when he first learned of abuses by the FBI of guidelines for National Security Letters, used by the government to obtain information.

Senator Leahy calls the report, in his words, another example of the Administration's troubling pattern of misleading or stonewalling Congress and the public.

Leahy says he intends to pursue the matter further with Gonzalez who has been called back to Capitol Hill for more testimony later this month.

1 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

3 commuting   

交换（的）

参考例句：

• I used the commuting time to read and answer my mail. 我利用上下班在汽车中的时间来阅读和答复给我的函电。
• Noncommuting objects are as real to the mathematicians as commuting objects. 对于数学家来说，不可交换的对象与可交换的对象是一样真实的。

4 subpoenas   

n.（传唤出庭的）传票( subpoena的名词复数 )v.（用传票）传唤（某人）( subpoena的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• My company has complied with committee subpoenas by supplying documents confirming all that I have said. 本公司按照委员会的要求，提供了能够证实我刚才发言的文件。 来自辞典例句
• Congressional Investigations: Subpoenas and Contempt Power. Report for Congress April 2, 2003. 金灿荣：《美国国会的监督功能》，载《教学与研究》2003年第2期。 来自互联网

5 improper   

adj.不适当的，不合适的，不正确的，不合礼仪的

参考例句：

• Short trousers are improper at a dance.舞会上穿短裤不成体统。
• Laughing and joking are improper at a funeral.葬礼时大笑和开玩笑是不合适的。

6 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

7 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

8 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句

9 convenes   

召开( convene的第三人称单数 )； 召集； （为正式会议而）聚集； 集合

参考例句：

• The Premier convenes and presides over the executive meetings and plenary meetings of the State Council. 总理召集和主持国务院常务会议和国务院全体会议。 来自汉英非文学 - 中国宪法
• Chinese woman tenth the National People Congress convenes grandly today in Beijing. 中国妇女第十次全国代表大会今天在北京隆重召开。

10 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

11 reiterated   

反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• "Well, I want to know about it,'she reiterated. “嗯，我一定要知道你的休假日期，"她重复说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Some twenty-two years later President Polk reiterated and elaborated upon these principles. 大约二十二年之后，波尔克总统重申这些原则并且刻意阐释一番。

12 obstructing   

阻塞( obstruct的现在分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止

参考例句：

• You can't park here, you're obstructing my driveway. 你不能在这里停车，你挡住了我家的车道。
• He was charged for obstructing the highway. 他因阻碍交通而受控告。

13 waive   

vt.放弃，不坚持(规定、要求、权力等)

参考例句：

• I'll record to our habitat office waive our claim immediately.我立即写信给咱们的总公司提出放弃索赔。
• In view of the unusual circumstances,they agree to waive their requirement.鉴于特殊情况，他们同意放弃他们的要求。

14 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。