House Democrats filed a federal lawsuit today against White House Chief of Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers for refusing to comply with subpoenas issued by the Judiciary Committee. President Bush refused to allow the two aides to testify to Congress over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, citing executive privilege.
"We will not allow the Administration to steamroll Congress," House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) said in a statement. "Under our system of checks and balances, Congress provides oversight of the Executive Branch to make sure that government power is not abused. The Administration’s extreme claims to be immune from the oversight process are at odds with our constitutional principles on which this country was founded, and I am confident the federal courts will agree."
The Justice Department has refused to bring criminal contempt charges against Bolten and Miers, citing previous decisions by the department not to bring such cases.
Conyers wants a federal court to require Miers to appear before the Judiciary Committee, and both Miers and Bolten should provide the panel with a "detailed privilege log" identifying any documents that the White House wants to withhold on privilege grounds. Bolten has been subpoenaed, and now sued, in his role as custodian of White House records…
While we marvel at the twists and turns of the Democratic Primary race and are aghast at the indescretions of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, the real story keeps moving at a snail’s pace. Presidents Bush and Cheney have brought our legal system to a halt. After the 2006 elections, the scandal now known as the "U.S. Attorney Plan" came to light. In a concerted effort, the Administration attempted to purge the U.S. Department of Justice of any Attorneys dangerous to Republicans, or who wouldn’t go along with what they called "voter fraud" – an obvious attempt to disenfranchise minority voters. The scandal brought down much of the the Justice Department, the Attorney General, and even Karl Rove, Presidential political hit-man – but then the investigation stalled. It stalled because the Presidents said the key witnesses couldn’t testify, I forget why. I’m not sure they ever said why, just Executive Privilege, a term that has become synonymous with the Right of Kings in my mind.
Throughout this Administration’s reign, Congress has been ignored with Signing Statements reinterpreting Congressional Laws, but it wasn’t so apparent until 2006 when the Rupublican Majority was finally broken. For the last 15 months, our Presidents have been at war with Congress on a daily basis. Now, Congress is reduced to filing a Civil Suit. It’s such a bigger story than Eliot Spitzer, or even the Primary fight, but it smolders low down on the news programs. What is the torpor that throws this veil over the likes of Bush and Cheney? Why don’t we have this pathetic story on the front burner? The horrible war in Iraq drags on, the Presidents ignore Congress, and we just keep on keeping on – as if our rising gas prices, our rising temeratures, our volatile economy, our sinking place in the world are just givens – rather than the result of the systematic destruction of our government and its institutions by two very misguided and incompentent leaders. This chapter of our history will be called The Big Sleep…
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