Rove Skips Senate Testimony; Aide Grilled Instead« Thread Started on Aug 3, 2007, 9:14pm » --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rove Skips Senate Testimony; Aide Grilled Insteadby Ari Shapiro read at source> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... d=12453856 All Things Considered, August 2, 2007 · The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday heard its first public testimony from a current White House aide in the investigation of U.S. attorney firings. Scott Jennings, President Bush's deputy political director, was not the committee's first choice to headline the hearing. The panel had issued subpoenas for Jennings and his boss, Karl Rove, to testify and bring documents about the dismissal of U.S. attorneys. But Wednesday evening, in a letter to the committee, the White House claimed executive privilege and said that Rove, the president's top political adviser, would not show up. Jennings, the White House said, would testify with instructions not to answer questions about the firing of U.S. attorneys. The witness, who pointed out that he's only 29, compared himself to a Greek hero, trapped between two mythological sea monsters. "I hope that you can appreciate the difficulty of my situation," Jennings told the panel. "It makes Odysseus' voyage between Scylla and Charybdis seem like a pleasure cruise."The witness pleaded for the committee's sympathy as he refused again and again to answer senators' questions."Senator, I'm doing the best I can," Jennings said. "And believe me, this is likely as frustrating for me as it is for you, but I'm doing the best I can."A very unsympathetic committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) replied, "No, trust me, it is not." He added: "I believe you and others at the White House who have refused to answer questions could answer questions if you wanted to."Whether Jennings could or not, he often didn't.