Congress damn well better dust off Inherent Contempt and send the Capitol Police to drag Gonzalez and Miers into custody first thing in the morning. If not sooner.
Bush has a razor at Rule Of Law's throat, and he's about to slice the jugular. Time to stop this.
Rep. Conyers, you know what you need to do. Do it right away.
Posted by Stranger at July 19, 2007 10:08 PMIf only the founders in their wisdom had given Congress the power to impeach the president in situations like this!
Then Nancy Pelosi and the gang wouldn't be such impotent wussies and the Constitutional order could be restored!
... I'm off to pound my head against the wall ...
Posted by Callimaco at July 19, 2007 10:19 PM"that the Bush Administration has expanded its executive privilege claim to bar the Justice Department from acting upon any congressional contempt of Congress referral." -(Steve Soto)
-Ominous, only in what it portends in the ensuing months.
You've got to hand it to the fascists.
Testing the waters, they find it much to their liking.
Waiting for the other foot to drop...
Posted by Jill Bains at July 19, 2007 11:01 PM"...dust off Inherent Contempt and send the Capitol Police to drag Gonzalez and Miers into custody first thing in the morning. If not sooner." -(Stranger)
Now that's a little 'water testing' from the left.
Yes. But the innocents will be lead to slaughter, screaming about the Constituion, before such sanity will prevail.
While fools debate the merits of the 'candidates' for 2008, a little visionary exercise is just what the doctor ordered.
Posted by Jill Bains at July 19, 2007 11:11 PMIt shouldn't surprise anyone that the Bush/Cheney Junta is forcing a constitutional showdown. They were, after all, placed in power by a supreme court that completely disregarded the letter and spirit of the constitution.
They are forcing this because they are certain that:
1) the corporate press/media will continue to serve as propagandists for them,
2) the Democrats will meekly submit, and
3) if those two fail them, the courts, now packed with right-wingers and personal retainers, will back them up.
Hasn't it worked that way for years?
What do Bush/Cheney have to worry about?
It isn't like the people of the United States are willing to do anything to save their democratic republic. Or, at least, they haven't done anything in a very, very long time.
Posted by James E. Powell at July 19, 2007 11:13 PMThe Dems shouldn't bother to take it to court because they'll likely lose on appeal, if it gets that far. It's highly unlikely that any court would even bother to force the justice department into enforcing what Congress wants, due to what would be judicial conservatives misusing separation of powers plus a general acceptance of Bush's "unitary executive" actions, if not the actual legal "theory" behind it. (I put theory in quotes because I don't see much theory behind it, it smells like a fascistic power grab to me, not an actual, thought-out legal theory.)
If any court in the land deigned to hear such a case -- it's unclear to me that any would in the first place -- it'd be tossed into the US Court of Appeals for DC. If it was in regards to a verdict against Bush, they'd reverse it. If it was in regards to a verdict against Congress, they'd toss it, not bothering to hear it, all for the aforementioned reasons.
The conservatives have been packing the federal bench for years and years. We are reaping what the Reaganites and their successors have sewn, including Clinton.
So, that leaves Congress to enforce its own actions. Anybody who thinks the Capitol police will successfully arrest a member of the executive branch is deluding themselves. All that leaves Congress is impeachment, but we don't have the Senate votes.
Face facts, were screwed folks.
Posted by Brian Bell at July 19, 2007 11:40 PMJames E. Powell is as usual -spot on.
Those who believe that the junta has no intentions of surrendering power have been dismissed as conspiratorial alarmists.
Succinctly, in his inimitable style, Powell lines up a few pins that are already in place, letting the reader see the whole for himself.
Let it all fall down.
"As they lowered her down, an iguana jumped out of it and went running over the rocks." -(James M. Cain, "Seranade.")
Cassandra complex.
This action evokes two responses - dispair and outrage. I think I'll pass on either for the moment, and meditate on Lord Acton's mantra:
Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely
Posted by Mickey at July 20, 2007 03:24 AMOne minor quibble with your argument, I'm thinking the Supremacist will make it a one administration at a time decision....kind of like the Bush v Gore non precedent setting decision...that leaves the door open for them to change their decision in the "rare" or unusual event that a Democrat may hold the power and the office and attempt the same claim. Watch for it. Scalia et al is primed for this.
And yes, great post James E. Powell
Posted by emal at July 20, 2007 05:08 AMOne minor quibble with your argument, I'm thinking the Supremacist will make it a one administration at a time decision....kind of like the Bush v Gore non precedent setting decision...that leaves the door open for them to change their decision in the "rare" or unusual event that a Democrat may hold the power and the office and attempt the same claim. Watch for it. Scalia et al is primed for this.
And yes, great post James E. Powell
Posted by emal at July 20, 2007 05:08 AMThis Court, which has played 'standing' like a harmonica, will simply use 'political controversy' as a fig leaf, and ignore the whole thing. They won't get within a country mile of the merits....
Posted by Davis X. Machina at July 20, 2007 05:15 AMOh great Lord Cheney, Omnipotent puppeteer of Bush and all of the judges in the land, please do not smite the little gnome Harry and his ineffective band of gutless shadow dems with your laser eyes or supersonic breath of hellfire, for they know not what they do.
Boy, do they know not what they do.
Posted by TIKI AL at July 20, 2007 05:27 AMIsn't freedom great? Isn't it wonderful that we export "freedom and democracy"?
Explain to me again: why is the United States in 2007 better than Nazi Germany?
Posted by JB at July 20, 2007 05:43 AMWhat in the hell are we going to do now? We have a dictator for real!
Of course, state TV isn't covering it at all.
Posted by Mal Feasance at July 20, 2007 05:45 AMfrom Brian Beutler
Actually, this doesn't have to be all that infuriating. If the Democrats want to, they can hold inherent (as opposed to statutory) contempt trials within whichever chamber is being so held by the executive. It's the image that's been on everybody's mind: Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers dragged to jail by the House Sergeant at Arms and placed on trial before Pelosi et al as opposed to before a grand jury convened by Bush's D.C. Circuit. It's a practice that has been avoided for decades, but, aside from timidity, there's literally nothing stopping this from going forward.
Posted by soccerdad at July 20, 2007 07:14 AMExplain to me again: why is the United States in 2007 better than Nazi Germany?
Our record keeping isn't as good? FAUX tells us there is no propaganda? We don't invade countries on false charges with no merit? We don't spirit people away for torture? We don't speak German?
What in the hell are we going to do now? We have a dictator for real!
One would think that you start by bringing contempt charges against the executive branch and start running it through the courts. Maybe 2 years to get a decision?
Then you bring inherent contempt charges against these fucks and Frog March them during the perp walk. Do it on a daily basis. Try them in whatever house of Congress and don't adjourn as they spend their time in some shithole Federal Supermax prison in a cell next to those who like to skin and eat people alive. You know, the kind that yell and scream all night. Make sure the cell is always at 55 degrees. The prison must be at enough distance so that they have to leave for the drive to Congress at 1:00 a.m. and they never get back to their cell until 7:00 p.m. Make sure they ride in the back of a lovely deuce and a half on really bad roads.
But this is how it really goes down:
Ring, ring! "Hare? Nance! Z'up, gurlfren? Hey, you going to the meat packers thing? Uhh, yeah! I'll be there in my hoe stilettos. Your boys cumin? Uh, huh....uh, huh...tell them to put the cash in a Ferragamo bag. A black one...uh, huh...unK...see ya there, gurlfren!"
They should avoid the courts at all cost! Inherent Contempt, coupled with Impeachment Inquiry. Right now. Today.
Posted by via at July 20, 2007 08:13 AMThat would require balls, and congress doesn't have any.
Posted by Michael at July 20, 2007 05:22 PM"Waiting for the other foot to drop..." -(Jill Bains)
Substituting the active voice of the verb drop, this should read:
"And waiting to drop the other foot."
The Cheney regime has no intentions of waiting around for what it indends to do itself.
Posted by Jill Bains at July 20, 2007 07:06 PMyou want the democrats you expect them to DO something?
pelosi herself is the biggest block to impeachment. she herself ought to be removed from office. right now. just for starters. and then get the ball rolling. worse than watergate. and there's no one in the House running the show with any balls or gumption.
congress is totally useless, like the appendix in the intestines. "quaint". a debating club....
Posted by michael72 at July 20, 2007 08:25 PMI wish Clinton weren't so learned and not so willing to bow to the precepts of the Constitution and stare decisis. He should have just refused to testify in front of "Judge" Starr about oral sex in the White House that somehow tangentially related to a 15 year old land deal in Arkansas.
Posted by Republicancer at July 23, 2007 05:06 AM