Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “A Constitutional Crisis - Which We'll Get to Sometime Next Fall...”

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July 25, 2007

A Constitutional Crisis - Which We'll Get to Sometime Next Fall...

Hatched by Dafydd

The House Judiciary Committee hath spake: The refusal by the White House to allow aides and former aides (current Chief of Staff Joshua Bolton and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers) to testify under oath before the committee about every piece of confidential advice, legal opinion, and memo ever given the president -- so that the committee can go fishing and try to find something legally or politically damaging that they can use in 2008 -- is a constitutional crisis of such monumental proportions that the only recourse Congress has is to try to put Bolton and Miers in prison.

It's a crushing blow to constitutional government, government of the people, by the people, and for the people. There is no other remedy available; the national conscience requires a showdown, the destruction of the careers of two former high officials, and the loss of their liberty.

The nation is in urgent peril... Congress must have that information. And they'll get around to doing something about it just as soon as they get back from their August recess, or maybe a month or so later:

The House Judiciary Committee, in a straight party-line vote, approved a contempt resolution against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, setting up a constitutional battle between the Bush administration and Congress over executive privilege.

After several hours of skirmishing over whether to send a contempt resolution to the House floor, the committee voted by a 22-17 margin to approve the measure.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders will now have to decide if and when to hold a vote by the full House on the resolution.

Update - Pelosi's office just released a statement on the issue. Pelosi signaled that the House will not take up the resolution until September.

After all, going home and campaigning is an important constitutional duty, too, you know....

I think the White House has properly characterized this effort:

"This is something that the drafters of this particular referral know has very little chance of going anywhere," White House spokesman Tony Snow said just after Wednesday's vote.

He likened the Democrat-driven investigation into the firings to "throwing mud against the wall and hoping something's going to stick."

But hey: Democrats... throwing mud... some marriages are simply made in hog heaven.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, July 25, 2007, at the time of 3:03 PM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: cdquarles

Dafydd,

Sigh.

Why do I get the feeling that I'm reliving my high school days, that is, the early to mid 1970's? Do these dhimmicrats, er, Democrats think that they can control events the way they did back then?

Oh, well, at least my children will be spared from having the pretentious blowhards' bloviations beamed into their civics/government classes for months on end.

The above hissed in response by: cdquarles at July 25, 2007 6:44 PM

The following hissed in response by: snochasr

I assume that if the full House approves the measure, it will instantly end up in court, and remain there for who knows now long. However, if there is any justice in the world-- or justices as the case may be-- the eventual ruling would be that a contempt of Congress is not punishable if Congress is so clearly contempible as it is in this instance.

The above hissed in response by: snochasr at July 25, 2007 8:16 PM

The following hissed in response by: Steve J.

committee about every piece of confidential advice, legal opinion, and memo ever given the president

No, they just want to know WHY all the LIES about the firings.

The above hissed in response by: Steve J. at July 25, 2007 11:00 PM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

Steve J.:

No, they just want to know WHY all the LIES about the firings.

And what "LIES" would those be?

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh at July 25, 2007 11:49 PM

The following hissed in response by: Terrye

Lies my behind. The only lies here are the ones this Congress was throwing around when they promised to actually do the people's business rather than just harass the political opposition.

There has been no crime, it seems to me that the Congress knows it and they hope that they can use the socalled testimony of some flunkie like Comey to gin up a perjury charge in place of a real charge for a real crime. After all, it worked with Libby, and besides if there have been lies...where are the perjury charges?

No... this is the Senate in general and the Democrats in particular wasting the resources of the American taxpayer on yet more posturing, preening and grandstanding.

In fact if this goes to the Supreme Court the Democrats had better have something other than a fishing expedition to justify their little quest.

The above hissed in response by: Terrye at July 26, 2007 3:56 AM

The following hissed in response by: hunter

This is where Bush's commitment to niceness fails. He should have pushed back hard against this and the poultroonery over the war immediately and for as long as it took to squelch.

The above hissed in response by: hunter at July 26, 2007 9:14 AM

The following hissed in response by: Terrye

hunter:

This has nothing to do with Bush being nice. If these guys want to act stupid there is really nothing he can do about it.

The idea that he could just "squelch" people like Pelosi and Schumer might be something we would all like to see, but this is America and they have every right to run their mouths. Like it or not.

The above hissed in response by: Terrye at July 26, 2007 2:18 PM

The following hissed in response by: JenLArt

Actually, it's a feature not a bug!
I think these antics of the Congressional Dems is turning off the American people more and more (Congress's popularity ratings go down with every move they make these days--too bad they're taking a month off!).
I think the GOP will sweep all 3 branches of government if they keep this up.
(BTW, I met Rudy Guiliani today and I am psyched!)

The above hissed in response by: JenLArt at July 27, 2007 8:53 PM