Dems to White House: C’mon, Let’s Talk

In a letter (pdf) to White House counsel Fred Fielding today, the chairmen from the House and Senate judiciary committees sought to renew negotiations over the testimony of Karl Rove and other White House officials.

“[W]e have not heard from you” since last week, the two write. They then lay out the terms for proceeding.

The White House’s offer of testimony behind closed doors, with no transcript or oath is still a non-starter, they say. But there is something else “worth pursuing” in the meantime: the White House could hand over records of communications between White House officials and members of Congress, as Fielding has already offered. The White House has said that it willl not hand over “internal” emails, a stand to which Democrats object. But that shouldn’t totally stop the flow of material, they say: “Recognizing we have a dispute over those documents should not delay the Committees receiving the other documents that you indicate you are willing to provide.” So let’s see those third party emails.

The chairmen close by telling Fielding that they want to see more than just correspondence from White House email addresses — since people in the White House seem to frequently use RNC-provided email addresses instead:

“we trust that you will be collecting and producing emails and documents from all email accounts, addresses and domains and that you are not artificially limiting your production to the official White House email and document retention system.”