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Tony Snow's press briefing from Thursday.
Once again discussing the Karl rove and company testimony.
Q So then, your concern is about a public spectacle.
MR. SNOW: Yes.
Q So if there's no oath, what's the problem?
MR. SNOW: What do you mean? There's -- you still have the public spectacle.
Q If it's behind closed doors, what's the problem?
MR. SNOW: The thing that we have said all along is, we think that you ought to have the ability for members of Congress to get information in a way that also does not create precedence, and is going to have a chilling effect for presidential advisors to be able to give their full and fair advice to the President of the United States. We think that the compromise we shaped enables us to fulfill that obligation to the President, and to the public in terms of first-rate advice from the White House and the people working in the White House, and at the same time, allows Congress to do what it has to do, which is conduct oversight. There is nothing that says Congress has to have television; it says that Congress does have oversight responsibilities and needs to get at the facts.
Furthermore, the people who are first and foremost in the decision loop here, the folks at the Department of Justice, they aren't going to be out. I mean, they're going to be out, they're going to be testifying, they're offering all their documentation, as well.
Q They get to be in public, but you want your guys behind closed doors.
MR. SNOW: There are -- in this particular case, the Department of Justice -- the Congress does have legitimate oversight responsibility for the Department of Justice. It created the Department of Justice. It does not have constitutional oversight responsibility over the White House, which is why by our reaching out, we're doing something that we're not compelled to do by the Constitution, but we think common sense suggests that we ought to get the whole story out, which is what we're doing.
Q Why haven't you moved on the transcript issue, though, then? This morning you were saying off-camera that you don't need an oath because if someone says something that's not true, they still could be prosecuted if they lie to Congress, essentially.
MR. SNOW: Right. Well, again --
Q If there's no transcript, what U.S. attorney can actually go through and see what they said, if there's no record?
MR. SNOW: I will let you -- you're asking a legal question that I would refer you either to the Department of Justice or to prosecutors, because they know the law. As you know, Ed, anybody who testifies before Congress, anybody that talks before Congress, is under an obligation to tell the truth, and if they don't, they're liable to legal punishment.
Q If they don't have a record of it, how would a U.S. attorney know how to prosecute it --
MR. SNOW: U.S. attorneys have been able --
Q -- you trust people's word.
MR. SNOW: I'm not a prosecutor, but I think you'll find that plenty of prosecutors out there will tell you how to get a conviction without a transcript.
Q Tony, will this President --
Q -- dodging the oath because of the legal consequences?
MR. SNOW: We're dodging the oath because -- well, I'm not going to say we're dodging the oath, because that -- (laughter.) Yes, I know, kaboom, steel trap closes. No, it's -- this is not a notion of dodging. It's simply, we don't think it's appropriate.
Q Appropriate doesn't set the scene.
MR. SNOW: The scene?
Q People are seeking the truth.
MR. SNOW: That's right, and we're making the truth available. And that's why we're kind of confused, because it seems that people are more interested in sort of seeing White House officials with their hands up being hectored, and I don't think members of Congress --
Q So Tony, this President for years has used the Constitution as his backdrop. He said, look, this is my right under the Constitution.
MR. SNOW: Right.
Q This government was founded on a series of checks and balances. Why not, if you're going to say you're using the Constitution, just apply what she's using there to what this government was founded upon: checks and balances --
MR. SNOW: What actually --
Q -- and one legislative body checking another legislative body, and having a top White House official testify under oath.
MR. SNOW: Well, we are an executive body, not a legislative body. And secondly, we have, in fact, said, what we're going to do is bend the rules in favor of Congress on this part, because we are going to give the --
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