Bush Aides Held In Contempt

"The House voted Thursday to hold two of President Bush's confidants in contempt for failing to cooperate with an inquiry into whether a purge of federal prosecutors was politically motivated," AP reports.

Angry Republicans boycotted the vote and staged a walkout.

The vote was 223-32 to hold White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in contempt. The citations charge Miers with failing to testify and accuse her and Bolten of refusing Congress' demands for documents related to the 2006-2007 firings.

Republicans said Democrats should instead be working on extending a law _ set to expire Saturday _ allowing the government to eavesdrop on phone calls and e-mails in the United States in cases of suspected terrorist activity.

"We have space on the calendar today for a politically charged fishing expedition, but no space for a bill that would protect the American people from terrorists who want to kill us," said Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio.

"Let's just get up and leave," he told his colleagues, before storming out of the House chamber with scores of Republicans in tow.

The vote, which Democrats had been threatening for months, was the latest wrinkle in a more than yearlong constitutional clash between Congress and the White House. The administration says the information being sought is off-limits under executive privilege, and argues that Bolten and Miers are immune from prosecution.

Democrats said they were acting to protect Congress' constitutional prerogatives.

If Congress didn't enforce the subpoenas, said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat, it would "be giving its tacit consent to the dangerous idea of an imperial presidency, above the law and beyond the reach of checks and balances."

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The White House said the Justice Department would not ask the U.S. attorney to pursue the House contempt charges. However, the measure would allow the House to bring its own lawsuit on the matter.

It is the first time in 25 years that a full chamber of Congress has voted on a contempt of Congress citation, and the White House quickly pointed out that it was the first time that such action had been taken against top White House officials who had been instructed by the president to remain silent to preserve executive privilege.

White House responds with scathing letter: From Politico:

Perino's statement is too long to reprint, but I have pulled out some highlights. Remember, this whole dispute started last year when President Bush, citing executive privilege, refused to make Bolten and Miers to appear before the Judiciary Committee as it investigated the 2006 firing of nine U.S. attorneys. Now the issue will head to federal court, and it could resolve some longstanding questions about the extent of admissable executive privilege claims.

Here are some Perino quotes:

"Today, the United States House of Representatives did something that had never been done in the entire 150-year history of the contempt of Congress statute: it voted to hold in contempt two top White House officials who had been directed by the President not to comply with House Judiciary Committee subpoenas on the basis of the President's assertion of Executive Privilege. The officials in question are the Chief of Staff to the President and the former Counsel to the President, two of the very closest advisers upon whom a President must rely. This action is unprecedented, and it is outrageous. It is also an incredible waste of time - time the House should spend doing the American people's legislative business."

Read much more here.

Video of contempt vote: Nancy Pelosi, who rarely casts votes in her position as Speaker, voted in favor of the contempt resolution and spoke out about it on the House floor. Watch it:

Much more video here.

Comments

[Earl]

Maybe this will drag out until Bush can no longer grant pardons.

[hkochii]

Miers and Bolten need to be waterboarded until they tell congress what they know, after all, it's not really torture.

[Janus]

NEOCON43 Seems to be missing and unavailable for elaboration on his/her post.

*************************


Neocon43 regales us with this:

"The reason republicans got up was because democrats are letting the bill run out to listen in on terrorists.If something happens the blood will be on their hands."

So your position is that the Patriot Act with its provisions on surveillance is no longer in effect so that no surveillance activity will be conducted until Congress is back in session to provide for it?
***************
"What losers they are.Mccain will take care of them very shortly."

How?

[Janus]

ROLLING DIVISION ALERT------

Has anyone seen a rolling division post in reply to the question below?:

*********************

Now comes rollingdivision with this:

"It is amazing how their supporters have completely forgotten the Democrats promises to cut off Iraq war funding and end the war, to close GITMO, to end wiretapping, to end earmarks, etc"

How would legislation on these topics have gotten to the Senate floor for a vote?

[nancytheragingliberal]

How dare these two not show up for their hearing with Congress? I had to call every Friday, for 8 weeks, to make sure that I was not needed for jury duty. Americans are disgusted with this vile W. admin., snubbing their noses at the world, and the American people, their laws, and their lives. The dem's came out of their stupor for the first time in years, or should I say shells? Congrats., to all of you dems. Just keep fighting, as I love it when you come roaring out to fight the bottom-feeding repubs.
This Dana Perino is a joke, nasty and mean to boot. How dare she disrespect Helen Thomas? Helen's history is a national treasure, something Dana has no idea of, nor does she care. Leave it to W. to hire this light-weight for such an important job. The face she shows the world is the face of the entire W. admin. Amoral, unintelligent, disrespectful, petulant,lacking in any humanistric traits. If your resume' reflects any of the above, then you are guaranteed a job with W. Being a grad. of the nutty, right-wing, Liberty U. is a plus too. Please God, get these people out of my WH NOW.

[aznurse]

Did any Dems vote against filing contempt charges?

[larry278]

It is just about f#cking time for the Democraps to develop a spine. What took you so long, Speaker Pelosi?

[clumberfeet]

Yip, Yip, Yip, Yahoo

Just two problems,

The Legislative Branch of the US Government is only ceremonial and,

The Judaical Branch is only a Rubber Stamp.

[cruisepuppy7452a]

Good, now let's get the others too and force them to testify. You lie, you break the law, hide evidence, cover up for others, you do the damn time. They should not get immunity for this, they chose to collude with Bush and cheney, knew the consequences. Cry me a river.

[Marnie1]

Well - better late than never, and I am glad something has gotten underway to stop Bush.

However, impeaching Judge Scalia for announcing the outcome of a legal procedure before the evidence had even been heard by the court should have been begun, immediately after he announced Bush as President in 2000.

However proper are Conyers' intentions, way too much damage has been done for Attorneygate to really amount to much, except as the tiny beginning of a decades long pursuit of the Nazicon's crimes and criminals.

[representativepress]

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UI4KVJCC8
Condoleezza Rice: Liar, Secretary of State, War Criminal Part 1

Wexler asks Rice, isn't it true that you had intelligence that cast doubt on your repeated claims that Iraq did have WMD. It is worse than even how Wexler characterizes it. SEE PROOF, that the Bush Administration was committing fraud in order to fool the public into thinking Iraq had WMD. Spread the word. Send this link to others:
http://representativepress.googlepages.com/RiceLies.html

[Earl]

Thanks for the link!

[Janus]

Neocon43 regales us with this:

"The reason republicans got up was because democrats are letting the bill run out to listen in on terrorists.If something happens the blood will be on their hands."

So your position is that the Patriot Act with its provisions on surveillance is no longer in effect so that no surveillance activity will be conducted until Congress is back in sesion to provide for it?
***************
"What losers they are.Mccain will take care of them very shortly."

How?

[woodchips]

When will it end? (actually, in 11 months, 6 days, 17 hours, give or take...)

Let's hope these contempt charges amount to something. I may be a little foggy on the details, but it's my understanding that the concept of executive privilege is not inherent to the US Constitution. In 1974, the US Supreme Court ruled that "executive privilege would most effectively apply when the oversight of the executive would impair that branch's national security concerns". Please explain how the firing of federal prosecutors (and a number of other cases where BushCo has claimed this privilege) has anything to do with "national security".

Despite the repubs ranting, we don't EVER need to extend the ill-conceived and hastily passed law that allows spying on US citizens without oversight. The FISA always allowed for the type of monitoring that the fear-mongering crowd says they need from the extension of the current law. It's just that it requires judicial oversight.

"But, but, but...we can't be delayed by having to get warrants", they shout. I call bullshit. As I understand it, FISA allows for monitoring to be initiated up to 72 hours BEFORE getting the warrants. Seems pretty workable to me.

Everything this administration has done reinforces the need for oversight. Remember checks and balances? Whatever happened to that quaint little concept?

[queeraz]

I'm sure there's a signing statement that protects every last crook in this administration from any prosecution. Let's waterboard the bunch of them and see if becomes to be defined as torture.

[rkrenke]

Thanks to each House member who finally stood for the rule of law. Hopefully, John Conyers and Nancy Pelosi have remembered who they are and how much we need their leadership.

The tantrum thrown by John Boehner and his band of corrupt cronies is indicative of just how out-of-touch the GOP leadership is with what the majority of Americans are really thinking. I hope that their constituencies do this country a favor by voting them out of office in November.

And, in spite of Dana Perino’s comments, this is far from a waste of time. The lawlessness of the Bush Administration should be at the top of Congress’ legislative agenda.

Wow! Contempt charges and a repudiation of Bush’s mantra of fear all in one day! This is a great first step – but it is only that as we still have the looming FISA fight. The House needs to hold the line against telecom immunity – the Senate failed the People and this is the House’s opportunity to shine!

As for fears regarding how Wall Street will react to corporations actually being held accountable for breaking the law – the People can always stop shopping, withdraw their money from the multinationals and invest in businesses that have a social conscience.

[gcallaghan]

Qwest was the only major telecom that didn't comply with the government's illegal warrantless wiretapping program. They don't offer service in my area or I'd switch to them in a heartbeat. Being a selective shopper is a great first step.

[realpolitic]

It is almost surreal that Republican members would walk out of the Congress when legislators are simply trying to hold the White House accountable, which is the job of the Congress. It is like Republicans are saying: "You are wasting my time by asking me to do my job." Besides under the former Republican congress, they only worked a three day work week anyway.

And someone should tell Dana Perino that she is wasting the public's time and not the other way around. At least, Tony Snow made spin an art form. Perino often sounds like a spoiled second grader asked to stay after school. In this approach, she and Bush have much in common.