The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

(Page 2 of 2)

In the end, any reference to China was stricken from the document, though other totalitarian regimes are mentioned, including Iran, Cuba and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.

Another House leadership aide, who was in and out of the meeting with his boss, said that the discussion between the two men was "civil and frank." Neither Dreier's nor McCotter's staff would confirm the discussion took place, though several leadership aides with knowledge of what took place during the meeting confirmed the incident. A number of House members have also heard about the debate. "These kinds of rumors are what make this meeting off the record and confidential," said another leadership staffer. "You can't expect an honest discussion if every little disagreement gets aired in public."

"When the party of Reagan can't agree on whether or not China is communist, we've got a problem in my view," says the House member. "We're all about nuance and language. Words have meaning, and we shouldn't be afraid to stand up for what we believe in. That argument and the outcome is something I'd expect from a Barack Obama policy meeting, not the House Republican leadership. I'm disappointed, but not surprised. This is the kind of wordplay that has contributed to our current minority status."

p> CREW MEMBER br> Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and his House Judiciary Committee majority staff sent a subpoena to Attorney General Michael Mukasey for materials involving the Joseph Wilson scandal, using as the basis for the subpoena a laundry list of materials the left-wing extremist group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) provided the committee. /p>

Included in the list of demanded materials are transcripts and notes from FBI interview notes of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former White House chief of staff Andrew Card, and senior Bush advisers Karl Rove and Dan Bartlett. The committee is also seeking confidential legal documents, analysis and memoranda going back to the fall of 2001 and post 9/11, and any and all documents the Department of Justice might possess related to other linger cases -- in the minds of Conyers and CREW. Included in the subpoena were demands for documents related to a host of unrelated cases, including the investigation of former Alabama Gov. Donald Seligman, the firing of a U.S. Attorney, and several other prosecutions of Democrats.

"CREW has its hands in almost every one of these cases, and basically, Conyers is doing its discovery work for them," says a House Republican Judiciary Committee staffer. "This has been an ongoing problem, and no one is calling them on it."

Conyers is using the appearance and testimony of former White House press secretary Scott McClellan as the impetus for the new request.

topics:
Iran, Oil