The tension between the Bush administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress may soon reach its boiling point.

When the Justice Department kept Congress in the dark before hastily firing eight U.S. attorneys last year, many legislators became infuriated, as reported in a March 21 New York Times article.

Lawmakers demanded information about the dismissals and threatened to subpoena White House officials, including Karl Rove, Bush’s senior adviser, unless they publicly explained the details of the firings while under oath.

But a stubborn Bush will not allow anyone on his staff to be subpoenaed. He said he would permit lawmakers to conduct private interviews with his advisers, but none of them would have to speak under oath or on the record.

Congress members have wisely rejected the president’s offer. If leaders aren’t required to speak under oath, then nothing they say can be trusted. Refusing to talk under oath makes it seem like officials have something to hide.

Perhaps they do. According to the Times, leaders rushed to assemble a list of reasons explaining why the lawyers were fired only after the administration faced Congressional backlash. And seven of the eight vacated positions had no planned replacements.

Now, Bush has provided Congress with emails between members of the Justice Department discussing the attorneys’ dismissals. But he won’t allow any lawmaker access to transcripts between the president and his top aides.

Bush also said he won’t permit his staff to be subpoenaed because he doesn’t want this controversy to turn into a series of “show trials,” the Times reported. He seems intent to keep many of the administration’s actions behind closed doors. The chief executive is supposed to be the leader of the public and should not be hiding so much from them, let alone from another governing branch.

An overwhelming majority of the Senate feels the same way. In a 94-2 decision, the body justifiably voted to repeal the portion of the USA Patriot Act that allows the president to fire any federal prosecutor without appealing to the Senate.

Congress needs to enact its power over the president. Just as he did when calling for 22,000 additional troops in Iraq, Bush’s statements demonstrate he is more than willing to act with complete disregard for what the legislative body thinks. When he faces uproar, the president seems to go on the defensive, refusing to admit he may have made a mistake. The Times reported Bush called the dismissals “natural and appropriate,” with his only regret being that they became such a big controversy.

If Bush continues to not take accountability for his decisions and further cloud his administration’s transparency, Congress must keep pushing him until he realizes the United States is a democracy and not a dictatorship.