You've got to be kidding me:

Maura Reynolds writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Congress called a timeout Thursday in its confrontation with the Bush administration after a Senate committee voted to authorize subpoenas to compel White House officials -- including political advisor Karl Rove -- to testify about why eight U.S. attorneys were fired last year. . . .

"[M]embers of Congress said they would not issue any subpoenas for at least a week, a move that allows time for negotiations in what had become a rapidly escalating constitutional showdown. . . .

"The cooling of rhetoric on both sides seemed to reflect a political calculation that each could be damaged if the confrontation were to proceed further and land in court. Courts have rarely intervened in such disputes between the legislative and executive branches of governments, and Democrats acknowledge that a legal battle could outlast the 22 months left in President Bush's term."

This is bullshit ... plain and simple.

Congresspersons must surely read polls. Don't they get that the American public, by a whopping two-thirds majority, want a smackdown of Bush? Don't they even look at the poll consensus? Don't they notice that their ratings fall when they go easy on Bush, and they're approval rises when they actively confront him?

If a constitutional confrontation drags on for the next 668 days, so what? Keeping Bush's feet to the fire, keeping his secretive stubborness in the headlines, causing Republicans to whine like stuck pigs all over the media is not only good policy, but good politics. We've got plenty of fainting couches for the moderate Dems and I'll personally donate pearls to clutch.

Rove lies.

Everyone knows it.

Without the threat of jail time, any interview is pointless. Arlen "the enabler" Specter says that they should take the White House deal and then issue subpoenas if necessary. That's fine, except if that were to happen, a case can be made that Congress is badgering the White House. In other words, to accept a deal while holding the ace card of a subpoena merely lends credence to the absolutely ludricious White House offer of a "chat", then making Congress look foolish and weak later.

If Congress blinks on this one, be prepared for an uproar and a major P.R. setback of the gains made since 2004.