Tony Snow, Having Already Sold His Soul, Opines on Constitutional Law

The piece talks about how Snow flip-flops (again) on the issue of executive privilege - i.e., what was bad for Clinton is good for Bush. However much Bush may protest Congress' attempt to have his aides testify under oath about the US Attorney firings, it's already settled law. Hopefully the current court won't anoint Bush king, but anything can happen.

From Think Progress...

The leading case on executive privilege is United States v. Nixon, where the Supreme Court found that executive privilege is sharply limited:

The President’s need for complete candor and objectivity from advisers calls for great deference from the courts. However, when the privilege depends solely on the broad, undifferentiated claim of public interest in the confidentiality of such conversations, a confrontation with other values arises. Absent a claim of need to protect military, diplomatic, or sensitive national security secrets, we find it difficult to accept the argument that even the very important interest in confidentiality of Presidential communications is significantly diminished by production of such material for in camera inspection with all the protection that a district court will be obliged to provide.