Washington — Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday that he would not give congressional investigators records from the administration's energy policy development, welcoming what legal experts say would be the highest profile court fight between Congress and an administration since Watergate.
Cheney framed his forceful rejection of the demand for information in broad constitutional terms, professing a desire to restore presidential power to a level not seen in decades. "I have repeatedly seen an erosion of the powers and the ability of the president of the United States to do his job," he said. The vice president said it was "wrong" for past administrations to acquiesce to congressional demands.
"We are weaker today as an institution because of the unwise compromises that have been made over the last 30 to 35 years," Cheney said on the ABC News program "This Week."
The showdown between the Bush administration and the investigative arm of Congress, the General Accounting Office, follows a nine-month effort by Congress to see whether campaign contributors disproportionately influenced the White House energy proposals. The matter has gained new prominence because of the collapse and numerous investigations of energy trader Enron Corp., which has ties to the administration.
U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, who leads the GAO, had said he would begin legal proceedings this week if the administration did not provide the information. Unless the administration reverses course, he said would notify congressional leaders as soon as Wednesday of plans to file suit. Walker said he was "surprised" and "discouraged" by Cheney's vehemence.
Cheney attributed the threatened lawsuit to efforts to exploit the Enron collapse by Democrats, particularly Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee. Cheney said the GAO "backed off" last August.
"Now what's happened is we've come back around, as a result of the Enron corporate collapse, some of the Democrats on the Hill are trying to re-energize this and try to turn it into some kind of political debate with respect to Enron," Cheney said on "Fox News Sunday." "But what's really at stake here is the ability of the president and the vice president to ... get good, solid, unvarnished advice without having to make it available to a member of Congress."
Walker, who had been a delegate to a Republican National Convention and an official in the Reagan administration, said it was not a partisan inquiry, noting that Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., and other GOP lawmakers want the White House to release the information.
Walker said that the GAO delayed its action because "it was not prudent to divert the administration's attention" after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Sixty-seven percent of Americans believe the administration is either hiding something or lying about its relationship with Enron, up from 53 percent the week before, according to a CBS-New York Times poll released on Saturday.
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