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• Congress Probes DOJ Meddling in Tobacco Case  

As if President Bush and Alberto Gonzales didn't have enough trouble dealing with the continuing attorney firings controversy, a whole new front has opened up in the emerging battle between Congress and the Justice Department over executive branch authority.

Thursday evening Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who chairs the House Government Oversight committee, sent the Attorney General a letter asking for all kinds of records concerning the Bush Administration's handling of a recent federal case against the tobacco industry. . .

Whatever the outcome of Waxman's new attack on Gonzales and Bush, another scandal is exactly what the old Texas friends didn't need right now. Granted, the embattled Attorney General has bucked the beltway odds-makers, leveraging solid support from Bush to hang onto his job in the face of Democratic accusations about the firing of eight attorneys general late last year. Bush, in turn, has stood firm before the looming threat of Congressional subpoenas for his top advisor, Karl Rove, in a battle over presidential power. But Hill Republicans are getting tired of political trouble from Justice and the White House. "What the heck is going on over there?" asked one frustrated senior Republican aide. "It's something new every day." Bush can stand by Gonzales for a while, but the way things are going on Capitol Hill, he may soon be the AG's only friend in Washington.

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