All In

The administration is down to its last two poker chips and has decided to go all in over this fight over executive privilege. It’s a good bet for the president.

With approval ratings stuck in the very low 30s, the president doesn’t have much to lose in betting it all against the congressional Democrats on this hand.

The facts surrounding this fight are on the side of the White House. The president has the power to fire any U.S. attorney that he wants to fire, for any reason he wants.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) are going on a fishing expedition, and everybody knows it.

If this case goes to the Supreme Court, it won’t have any reason to rule for Congress. This is hardly Watergate material.

The Democrats feel confident that they have the president on the run. They think they have a winning hand because the president has had so many losing ones.

But this Democratic confidence is rapidly becoming cockiness, and the fact is that congressional Democrats don’t have that many chips to play with either. Their approval rating is below the president’s.

With more important issues to fight over, like Iraq, I have been baffled by the Democrats’ insistence on raising the bid on this hand of poker. The White House has three kings, while the Democrats only have a queen, a jack and a joker. Look for the White House to win this small bet and double its chips before the big fight in the fall.