Gingrich, Bush Official to Congress: Don’t Be Rude on Oversight

About that separation of powers thing…

From The Hill:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and a top Bush administration official urged Republican investigators on Capitol Hill to change how they conduct probes of the executive branch in a private meeting earlier this spring.

The unusual request infuriated some of the GOP aides, who countered that the administration has repeatedly failed to cooperate with their requests for information. The staffers expressed outrage that the meeting was even taking place, calling it inappropriate for a White House policymaker to tell investigators how to scrutinize the Bush administration.

“The meeting did not go well,” a GOP source said.

Others thought the forum was somewhat productive, but acknowledged it was bizarre.

While Republican aides expressed different reactions, the pleas by Gingrich and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) representative Clay Johnson have raised new separation-of-powers questions as lawmakers and White House officials iron out their differences over the FBI raid of Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) office last month….

Johnson and Gingrich spoke at length about Congress’s important oversight role but stressed that the focus should be on solving problems, not issuing press releases.

A few Capitol Hill officials say it is inconsistent for Gingrich to recommend that investigators move away from a “gotcha” mentality when he, as Speaker, ordered Republican lawmakers to hold rigorous oversight of the Clinton administration, adding that those probes were designed to embarrass the Democratic president….

Some came away from the meeting believing there was an implied, unstated message: Ease up on oversight this election year.

In an interview yesterday, Johnson said, “It never occurred to me that it would be interpreted that way. We want more oversight, not less. We are for transparency.”….

Johnson also took issue with how lawmakers pose questions to administration officials during congressional hearings, saying that some the questions “are not constructive in their wordings.”

James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University, called Johnson’s advice strange and comical.

“I find it interesting to have an administration official lecturing people that are overseeing what they are doing,” Thurber said.