There is no consensus in the punditry circles of how today's testimony in front of Rep. John Conyer's Judiciary committee is going to go.
According to The Hill, Dems excited, GOP wary of McClellan's testimony
House Democrats are eagerly preparing for Friday’s testimony by former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, but Republicans seem unsure of how to handle the president’s unlikely critic.
But over at Time there is a more cynical tone, today will probably turn out to be simply summertime Congressional theatrics, Will McClellan's Testimony Hurt Bush?
Nothing says summer in the nation's capital like tell-all testimony in front of a bunch of members of Congress with time on their hands and the fall election on their minds.
In the hopeful premise that some intern reads dKos, does anybody have an Bush-shattering question they wish asked of Scott McClellan?
9:30 am Friday on C-Span 3
The two reports on upcoming events seem to be in bizarro conflict. According to Jared Allen in The Hill, Democratic committee members are eagerly prepared for today's hearing.
Again, from: Dems excited, GOP wary of McClellan's testimony
"The fundamental question that many Americans are asking is, Was there intentional deception in the run-up to the war?" Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said. "The Judiciary Committee already has a referral on articles of impeachment that have, at their foundation, that the president and the vice president intentionally deceived the American people."
Senior Judiciary Committee Democrat Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) said Thursday that he had already directed his staff to dig into McClellan’s book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception, and prepare questions for the former press secretary, who readily accepted an invitation from Judiciary panel Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) to testify before the full committee.
"I think people are just very curious," said Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), another committee member. He said he has been reading McClellan’s book in preparation for Friday’s hearing.
"At least I’m going into it with a ‘lessons learned’ perspective to see how we can improve upon the process," he said.
But the tone of Massimo Calabresi's Time article Will McClellan's Testimony Hurt Bush?seems to promise the only REAL drama would be if BushCo pulls a last minute "executive privilege" stunt.
Still, Democrats seem most interested in raking over the Plame story in search of any remaining political sparks with which to light an election-year fire. It appears they are hoping that the White House will do something stupid, like try to stop McClellan from testifying. Democrats tried to spook the White House by inflating the potential value of McClellan's testimony. McClellan himself hired the high-profile husband-and-wife legal team of Michael and Jane Tigar to defend him in case the Administration does try to play hardball. The Tigars specialize in defending unpopular clients — from accused Nazi camp guard John Demjanjuk to Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols and terrorist lawyer Lynne Stewart.
From all the publicity hype of the first insider "tell all", I would love to have a bombshell emerge from today's hearing. And I would like to have it fit hand in glove with Rep. Kucinich's 35 Articles of Impeachment.
If I were on the Judiciary Committee, my first question would be:
In your experience, do you see ANY difference between the crimes of Scooter Libby and the actions of Karl Rove? Or did the leaking seem more or less coordinated, with Libby being the designated scapegoat?
Based on what we've heard about McClellan's account, is there a line of questions you'd like to hear pursued today?
For reference, here is the Judiciary Committee makeup...
Majority Members
* John Conyers, Chairman, Michigan
* Howard L. Berman, California
* Rick Boucher, Virginia
* Jerrold Nadler, New York
* Robert C. Scott, Virginia
* Mel Watt, North Carolina
* Zoe Lofgren, California
* Sheila Jackson-Lee, Texas
* Maxine Waters, California
* Bill Delahunt, Massachusetts
* Robert Wexler, Florida
* Linda T. Sánchez, California
* Steve Cohen, Tennessee
* Hank Johnson, Georgia
* Betty Sutton, Ohio
* Luis Gutierrez, Illinois
* Brad Sherman, California
* Anthony D. Weiner, New York
* Adam B. Schiff, California
* Artur Davis, Alabama
* Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida
* Keith Ellison, Minnesota
* Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin[1]
Minority Members
* Lamar S. Smith, Ranking Member, Texas
* Jim Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin
* Howard Coble, North Carolina
* Elton Gallegly, California
* Bob Goodlatte, Virginia
* Steve Chabot, Ohio
* Dan Lungren, California
* Chris Cannon, Utah
* Ric Keller, Florida
* Darrell Issa, California
* Mike Pence, Indiana
* Randy Forbes, Virginia
* Steve King, Iowa
* Tom Feeney, Florida
* Trent Franks, Arizona
* Louie Gohmert, Texas
* Jim Jordan, Ohio
UPDATE: Wexler looks READY!!
From his website wexlerforcongress (I guess a couple of weeks ago upon release of the book)
Dear Friends,
Last night, significant news broke that directly impacts our push for Impeachment Hearings and a possible Inherent Contempt charge for Bush Administration officials such as Karl Rove:
Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has revealed in his upcoming book that:
• Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and Vice President Cheney lied about their role in revealing the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson – actions easily amounting to obstruction of Justice.
McClellan also admitted that:
• There was a coordinated effort within the Bush Administration to use propaganda to pump up the case for the Iraq war and hide the projected costs of the war from the public.