Democrats step up oversight investigations

Congressional Democrats authorized five subpoenas Wednesday in their drive to step up oversight of the Bush administration, a move likely to heighten tensions between the majority party on Capitol Hill and the White House.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved a subpoena to compel Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to testify about the administration’s false prewar claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium.

And the panel authorized subpoenas directing the Republican National Committee to turn over information in an investigation of whether administration officials used the political committee’s e-mail to conduct government business.

A House committee also moved to force the testimony of Monica M. Goodling, a former Justice Department liaison to the White House. A pivotal figure in an investigation into the U.S. attorneys firings, she has so far refused to appear.

The action came as a top Democrat offered a biting critique of the Bush administration, saying it has politicized the executive branch.

“Not since the days of Watergate, when our judicial system and intelligence community were deployed by the White House in the service of partisan politics, have we seen such, in my view, abuses,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois said in a speech at the Brookings Institution.

A White House spokeswoman shrugged off the attack as an effort to divert attention from the House Democrats’ failure to get any of the bills from their much-ballyhooed first 100-hours agenda enacted into law.

The subpoenas drew sharp criticism from Republicans.

“This is just politics,” said Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, top Republican on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

He accused committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) of using subpoenas to get high-profile administration figures under oath “for the sake of political theatrics.”

Waxman said that he repeatedly had tried to learn from Rice what she knew about the since-discredited assertion Bush made in his 2003 State of the Union speech that Iraq had tried to obtain uranium from Niger.

“My goal is to conduct investigations without subpoenas. But if we are stonewalled, we can’t hesitate to use the power we have,” he said.

Davis also said questions about faulty prewar intelligence had been repeatedly “asked and answered,” holding up several thick reports. “So what’s left to investigate?” Davis asked.

Waxman said Republicans on the committee never had a hearing on the issue when they were in power and noted that Rice had never testified about what she may know about how the intelligence was used “or misused by the White House.”

“The American public was misled about the threat posed by Iraq,” he said, “and this committee is going to do its part to find out why.”

The subpoena to the RNC directed the committee to produce information about the use of its e-mail accounts by White House officials. A separate subpoena was authorized to call RNC Chairman Robert M. “Mike” Duncan to appear before the committee May 8.

Waxman is investigating whether administration officials -- including the president’s chief political strategist, Karl Rove -- attempted to circumvent the Presidential Records Act, a post-Watergate law designed to preserve White House records, by using RNC e-mail accounts to conduct government business.

The RNC accused Democrats of trying to get ahold of the party’s political playbook. “You don’t see the New York Yankees giving the Boston Red Sox their signs before a crucial series -- and I won’t be giving our equivalent to Howard Dean,” Duncan said in a statement. Dean is chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

An RNC lawyer wrote Waxman that the party “has gone to great lengths to cooperate” and asked again that the panel limit search terms that might be used in digging through e-mail records.

Waxman said that “the RNC has not been responsive. We have been slow-walked and stonewalled, and that is not acceptable.”

The House Judiciary Committee, meanwhile, agreed to seek immunity from prosecution for Goodling, a former top aide to Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, and authorized Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) to subpoena her testimony.

Goodling has vowed to assert her 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination if called to testify before congressional committees. House lawyers must still obtain a court order granting her immunity from prosecution, a process that could take several weeks.

The controversy over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, which Democrats believe was politically motivated, showed little signs of abating despite a pledge of support for Gonzales from Bush on Monday.

Gonzales was asked Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee to supplement his testimony of last week, in which he was unable to answer dozens of questions about the dismissals. The Senate Judiciary Committee also authorized a subpoena for Sara Taylor, an aide to Rove.

Also Wednesday, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) raised concerns about reports that the chief of staff to Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) had called the U.S. attorney’s office in Phoenix in October, inquiring about media reports of an investigation arising out of a 2005 land deal involving Renzi.

In a letter to Gonzales, Schumer said the contacts “could potentially be construed as designed to inappropriately affect the timing of charging decisions in a politically sensitive investigation around the time of the November election.”

The U.S. attorney at the time, Paul Charlton, was among the top prosecutors who were dismissed last year. Charlton declined to comment.

In a statement, the Renzi aide, Brian Murray, acknowledged he had contacted Charlton’s press secretary about pre-election day news accounts alleging a pending indictment. “I left him a message asking for information about these allegations, but I was called back and told they would not comment,” Murray said.

The admission means that at least two of the fired prosecutors were contacted about pending corruption investigations.

David C. Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney in Albuquerque, has alleged two Republican members of that state’s congressional delegation, Sen. Pete V. Domenici and Rep. Heather A. Wilson, tried to pressure him in October to bring charges against state Democrats. Iglesias said he rebuffed the overtures; he was also fired in December.

richard.simon@latimes.com

rick.schmitt@latimes.com

Times staff writer Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.