Condoleeza Rice has agreed to testify under oath before congress and the American people to give more details about the 9/11 affair. I think that this is a good thing.

It’s interesting how the White House is so concerned about her testimony setting a “precedent” for other White House officials to offer public testimony before Congress. The White House cited concerns that having Rice testify might violate executive privilege, and Rice herself said she didn’t want to testify as a “matter of principle”.

What principle is that, I wonder? That White House staffers are free to act without being held accountable to Congress? That the legislative branch of our government, the people’s direct representatives, don’t generally have a right to question the actions of the Executive branch? That the President and his appointees have the right to operate unchecked under the banner of “executive privilege?”

I’m not naïve; I understand that Dr. Rice, due to her position of as National Security Advisor, must necessarily keep some of her activities from the public eye. What concerns me is that the White House seems, in general, unwilling to have its staffers held accountable to the American people. It’s as if the White House is saying “we operate under executive privilege, on the direct orders of the President himself, and no one – not even the Congress – should be allowed to question that.”

Congress has the right and the responsibility to check the power of the executive branch. I think Dr. Rice’s testimony *should* set a precedent – the very precedent of transparency and accountability that the White House doesn’t want to be set.