Apparently Tony Snow declared this morning that Congress "does not have oversight ability" and therefore cannot compel employees of the executive branch to testify.
The time to challenge this is now. I have seen some commentators (sorry I can't find who it was or I'd link to it) suggest over the last few days that it would be risky to bring this to the current Supreme Court, which might well rule in favor of the administration no matter how silly their arguments are. However, it's worth the risk. Letting their claim to unlimited power go unchallenged, or wimping out and agreeing to some sort of deal short of public, no-holds-barred, on-the-record testimony by Rove and others would essentially hand them the same victory. The idea that the administration as a whole is beyond the reach of the law is just too damaging to let stand. The Republican Court may be hesitant to ratify this "unitary executive" malarkey for a number of reasons anyway, including that the next occupant of the White House is likely to not be one of theirs.
Plus the whole ensuing public debate will be about whether to make a highly unpopular, bumbling fool the king, rather than about the obscurities of the rules and customs for firing US Attorneys. We may want to have that debate now, when the authoritarians in the Republican Party are weak, than at some future point when they will undoubtedly seek to take advantage of some incident as their Reichstag fire.
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