Let the subpoenas fly!

Now, this is what I'm talkin' about, right here.

By 21-10, the House oversight committee voted to issue a subpoena to [Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice to compel her story on the Bush administration's claim, now discredited, that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa.

Moments earlier in the committee chamber next door, the House Judiciary Committee voted 32-6 to grant immunity to Monica Goodling, [U.S. Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales' White House liaison, for her testimony on why the administration fired eight federal prosecutors. The panel also unanimously approved — but did not issue — a subpoena to compel her to appear.

Simultaneously across Capitol Hill, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved — but did not issue — a subpoena on the prosecutors' matter to Sara Taylor, deputy to presidential adviser Karl Rove.

Sure, Rice and Rove's minion will probably ignore the subpoenas, preferring instead to take the matter to court. But there's a downside to doing so.

Now, the Secretary of State is under subpoena. Rove's deputy is under subpoena. And they'll probably both try to get out of having to appear.

The downside is that this will be 'out there,' and the average American citizen knows what would happen if they tried to blow off a subpoena. That will loom large as time goes by and rice continues to defy Congress.