The U.S. attorney firings: the Senate takes action and Bush tapdances

Two interesting developments yesterday in the U.S. attorney scandal:

First, the U.S. Senate voted 94-2 in favor of S.214, The Preserving United States Independence Act of 2007. This legislation would revoke the provision of the 2006 Reauthorization of the Patriot Act that allows the Attorney General appoint interim U.S. attorneys for indefinite terms and without Senate confirmation. This bill still needs to go through the House. But, in any case, the 94-2 Senate vote clearly indicates that the recent U.S. attorney firings is not a partisan issue, but one that Senators in both parties chose to address by clipping Gonzales's wings via this legislation.

Then George W. Bush made a speech in which he tried to turn it into a partisan issue.

Said George:

"We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants."

Hey, George: If it's a partisan thing, how do you explain the 94-2 vote? (I'm guessing that nobody had told him about S.214. Or, more likely, maybe he's hoping that the American public hadn't heard about S.214.)

And then George tried to sell us on his "solution": He offered us interviews with Karl Rove and Harriet Miers - but in private and not under oath.

Why in private, George? And why don't you want them to testify under oath?

What is there to hide?

It seems to boil down to this: The Senate finally took some bipartisan action and Bush did a partisan tapdance around it. Bush had better get used to dealing with a Congress that will actually challenge him. And Congress had better keep up the pressure.