The House voted Thursday to issue contempt citations against the White House chief of staff and a former White House counsel for refusing to cooperate in an investigation into the mass firings of federal prosecutors. The vote to hold Joshua B. Bolten, the chief of staff, and Harriet E. Miers, the former counsel, in contempt of Congress followed bitter partisan wrangling on the House floor, including a Republican walkout from the chamber, and moved House Democrats closer to a constitutional showdown with President Bush.
The 223-to-32 vote to issue the contempt citations, the first approved by Congress against the executive branch since the Reagan administration, is likely to move the dispute to a federal courtroom, with House lawyers calling on a judge to enforce subpoenas against Mr. Bolten and Ms. Miers. The Senate is weighing similar contempt charges against Karl Rove, President Bush’s former political adviser. Mr. Bolten and Ms. Miers were subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee for information about their part in the dismissal of several United States attorneys last year for what appear to have been political reasons. The uproar over the firings led to bipartisan calls in Congress for the resignation of former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, who abruptly stepped down last summer.
As House Republicans protested the vote with an angry walkout from the House floor, the White House joined in expressions of outrage over the contempt citations…
I’ve been kind of parayzed since the Senate voted on the F.I.S.A. bill and included telecom immunity. I couldn’t even get excited about the Potomac Primaries. Then they showed the Republican Congressmen walking out in protest over these Contempt of Congress citations, and I felt the life juices beginning to flow again. It’s about time. Actually it’s way past time. The idea that Miers and Bolten simply no-showed Congress is too ludicrous to comtemplate. They should have been cited the next day and gotten some quality time ln jail like Judith Miller when she tried to just say "no" to justice. She stood on firmer ground that Miers and Bolten. The U.S. Attorney Plan isn’t over yet, not by a long shot. This is part of keeping it alive.
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