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The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is seeking to meet the White House half-way in its investigation into the handling of the friendly-fire death of former NFL star Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. In a letter to White House Counsel Fred Fielding Thursday, panel Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and ranking member Tom Davis (R-Va.) responded favorably to their Tuesday meeting with Fielding as they attempted to find common ground from which to move forward. The lawmakers wrote that they found Fielding’s offer to interview former White House communications director Dan Bartlett, former press secretary Scott McClellan and former presidential speechwriter Michael Gerson with White House Press Office counsel present and without a transcript to be “constructive” and that they would proceed accordingly. Waxman and Davis reiterated their call for transcribed interviews of two other former White House Press Office staffers: John Currin, former director of fact-checking, and Taylor Gross, a former spokesperson, saying they were more junior than higher-ups who had already testified before Congress. Finally, “in deference to [Fielding’s] concerns,” the committee dropped its request for drafts of President Bush’s May 2004 speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner that the president reviewed himself. They did, however, ask to see all other drafts to determine whether or not the drafts in dispute were essential to the investigation. The conciliatory and cordial tone of the letter is a rare departure from the vitriolic clashes Congress has had of late with the Bush administration concerning the removal of U.S. attorneys and the National Security Agency’s surveillance program. |
