June 13 (Bloomberg) -- Two congressional committees subpoenaed President George W. Bush's former White House counsel, Harriet Miers, and his ex-political director, Sara Taylor, to testify about their roles in the firings of U.S. attorneys.

The House and Senate Judiciary Committees also demanded the White House turn over documents that may shed light on whether as many as nine prosecutors were dismissed last year for improper political motivations, such as to spur investigations of Democrats or stall those of Republicans.

The subpoenas set up a constitutional confrontation between the Democratic-controlled Congress and Bush, who has spurned requests for internal White House documents or testimony by his aides about the firings. He offered to let Congress question his aides privately without a transcript.

``This subpoena is not a request, it is a demand on behalf of the American people for the White House to make available the documents and individuals we are requesting to help us answer the questions that remain,'' House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers of Michigan said in a joint statement with the Senate panel.

The subpoenas were issued two days after Senate Democrats failed to pass a resolution expressing ``no confidence'' in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. It was blocked by Republicans on a procedural vote.

White House Response

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Taylor's actions were appropriate. ``Just because a political director is weighing in on something doesn't mean politics are involved,'' Snow told reporters.

Tony Fratto, another White House spokesman, said in a statement that ``the committees can easily obtain the facts they want without a confrontation by simply accepting our offer.''

Fratto charged that Conyers and Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, ``are more interested in drama than facts.'' Bush has also offered to turn over e-mails by presidential aides about the firings to people outside the White House.

``It's just politics,'' said Texas Senator John Cornyn, one of Bush's staunchest Republican defenders in Congress.

Still, the top Republican on the Senate panel, Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, said the subpoena for Taylor was ``appropriate'' because ``she is not being responsive.'' Asked about the Miers subpoena, Specter said: ``We've really had no response from the White House.''

Firing All 93

Documents the Justice Department turned over to Congress show that Miers once discussed firing all 93 U.S. attorneys, a proposal resisted by the Justice Department. She consulted closely with Gonzales's chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, about the plans to replace eight prosecutors.

Congressional investigators are trying to determine whether Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, orchestrated the firings to replace prosecutors who weren't aggressive in pursuing voter fraud. U.S. attorneys in Seattle and Albuquerque were fired after Republican activists complained they weren't going after such cases.

Testimony by White House aides is crucial because ``no one in the Justice Department claimed any responsibility'' for picking prosecutors to be fired, said New York Democrat Charles E. Schumer, who is leading the Senate's inquiry.

``That points the arrow at the White House,'' he said. ``We still haven't found out who actually concocted this scheme.''

Federal Court

If the subpoena fight ends up in federal court, ``the legal precedents show the law is on our side,'' Schumer told reporters. Bush has an ``extremely weak'' claim for protecting the confidentiality of his advisers' discussions, Schumer said.

``It's not clear to me it's terribly weak,'' Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, said. There aren't many cases because ``the courts don't like to wade into this thing at all,'' he said.

Schumer said he hoped Taylor ``would come in voluntarily and tell us everything that she knows.'' If the White House invokes executive privilege to bar her testimony, ``she will have to make a decision'' on whether to honor the claim, he said.

The subpoena directs her to testify July 11. Miers was ordered to appear the next day in the House.

Taylor's lawyer, W. Neil Eggleston, signaled in an interview that she was willing to testify, barring White House objections.

Taylor ``is hopeful the White House and the Congress are quickly able to work out an appropriate agreement on her cooperation with the Senate's proceeding,'' he said.

E-mails turned over to Congress yesterday show Miers resisted suggestions that the administration explain the firings to Congress in January after lawmakers first began raising questions.

Private Briefing

In a Jan. 16 e-mail to her deputy, William Kelley, Miers opposed his proposal to brief senators privately about the reasons for the firings.

``I am quite surprised that we would engage on whether a personnel action on a presidential appointment is justified,'' Miers said. ``I would really like to hear one precedent where we have been willing to discuss negatives about a person that is comparable to this situation,'' she wrote in a follow-up message.

Two days later, Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he wouldn't fire anyone for political reasons. He declined to discuss the details of the ousters, saying he didn't want to air personnel matters publicly.

A month later, Taylor criticized Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty's Senate testimony because he didn't criticize the performance of H.E. ``Bud'' Cummins. Cummins was fired as U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Arkansas, and was replaced by a former aide to Rove, Timothy Griffin.

``McNulty refuses to say Bud is lazy --which is why we got rid of him in the first place,'' Taylor wrote in one of the e- mails turned over yesterday.

In a Dec. 19 e-mail, Sampson wrote that appointing Griffin to replace Cummins was ``important to Harriet, Karl, etc.''

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 13, 2007 18:01 EDT