Following the pattern established during the 9/11 commission's investigation, officials within the White House are attempting to block the probe of the Department of Education's dealings with
Armstrong Williams:
The Bush administration is impeding an investigation into the Education Department's hiring of commentator Armstrong Williams by refusing to allow key White House officials to be interviewed, a Democratic lawmaker briefed on the review said Thursday.
In addition, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is considering invoking a privilege that he said would require information to be deleted when the final version is publicly released, which is expected within days.
Continuing the proud Bush tradition of secrecy to cover up it's underhanded activities....
According to Miller, some of the unnamed White House officials who have been ''put off-limits to interviewers'' now work at the Education Department. In a letter to White House counsel Harriet Miers, Miller asked that she order full cooperation with the investigation.
Ha. Expecting cooperation from these guys is like expecting the revealer of Valerie Plame's identity to step forward. This is starting to smell like a Rove orchestrated cover up.
Update [2005-4-14 16:47:5 by lapin]:Bush, today, at the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Convention in Austin, TX:
Q Thank you, Mr. President. We're all aware of the press issues with Armstrong Williams and the video news releases and using government funds to promote true media in journalism -- positions that you feel you need to get out. Is that consistent with your values and your First Amendment beliefs? And do you think that's deceptive to the American people?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, it's deceptive to the American people if it's not disclosed. And I -- first of all, in reviewing this issue have been told this has gone on for quite a while. It makes -- that doesn't excuse the behavior here, but nevertheless it has been, in that it's a legal -- it's legal for -- to use these video news clips. But it's incumbent upon people who use them to say, this news clip was produced by the federal government.
Armstrong Williams -- it was wrong what happened there in the Education Department. But, no, I think there needs to be full disclosure about the sourcing of the video news clip in order to make sure that people don't think their taxpayer's money is being used to -- in wrong fashion.
Notice he didn't say anything about getting to the bottom of the Armstrong Williams issue.