House Files Civil Contempt Lawsuit Against Bush Admin Reps

[lawrocket 3]

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-files-contempt-lawsuit-against-miers-bolten-2008-03-10.html

White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former White House Counsel and joke of SCOTUS nominee Harriet Miers are now defendants in a civil contempt action. The House subpoenaed them to appear and testify about the firings of several US Attorneys. They said to go pound sand. It's executive privilege.

Normally, this would go through the Justice Department. But the Justice Department is controlled by Bush. the US Attorneys were members of the Justice Department. So, the Justice Department is (naturally) agreeing with the POTUS.

This is a truly groovy thing for guys like me who like the academic issues involved. Certainly, "Checks and Balances" are at work here. And there are issues with "executive privilege."

The history for Bush ain't in his favor. Nixon tried executive privilege and lost. Clinton claimed executive privilege and lost.

Here's a link to Pelosi's press release. http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20080310/pl_usnw/pelosi_statement_on_house_filing_civil_lawsuit_against_bush_administration_to_enforce_contempt_subpoenas

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[Amazon 7]

Its about time.

I dont care who is in the Oval office or who their minions are... I want a government and an administration that adheres to oversight.. or we might as well give up on this experiment and go back to having a king... Pontif......Immam or whatever else the conservatives want to return us to.. like they had in the OLD Days.

[tkhayes 348]

yaaaaaaay - maybe some of the American people will have renewed faith in the system.

Since it is a civil action, can they collect damages for wastng the people's time and money with this bullshit too?

[lawrocket 3]

Collect damages against the US government? HA!

You know, Congress can easily pass a law funding the litigation.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[lawrocket 3]

Quote

I dont care who is in the Oval office or who their minions are... I want a government and an administration that adheres to oversight..

YAY! Amazon is coming around.

Quote

or we might as well give up on this experiment and go back to having a king... Pontif......Immam or whatever else the conservatives want to return us to.. like they had in the OLD Days.

Translation - just kidding about the first sentence.

Edited to add: "Course we all took it in the shorts from Ken Starr and his Ultra Right Wing witch hunt....how many millions????? " http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2157362#2157362


Jeanne - what's this about "oversight?" Would you characterize the Bush deal as an "Ultra Left Wing Witch Hunt?" Is it only "oversight" when it is the left overseeing the right?

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[idrankwhat 0]

The Whitewater investigation had nothing to do with the Presidency, I wouldn't call that "oversight". Equally, I don't think that Congress needs to investigate George's Texas Ranger deal or Laura's dead boyfriend either.

[ryoder 1,590]

Are you saying that since Justice wouldn't pursue a criminal case, they are able to pursue it as a civil case?

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[kelpdiver 2]

Quote

The history for Bush ain't in his favor. Nixon tried executive privilege and lost. Clinton claimed executive privilege and lost.

But how long did it take? Neither of those were in the final (and election) year of their presidencies.

[lawrocket 3]

Quote

The Whitewater investigation had nothing to do with the Presidency, I wouldn't call that "oversight".

What about "Filegate" and "Travelgate?" Starr exonerated Clinton and Lewinsky with relation to "Filegate." Travelgate was pretty similar to the Bush issue - relating to firings of employees, and Starr exonerated Bill (though didn't really exonerate Hillary.)

It seems that these are forgotten by most people. Removing these angles makes a point, but the maintenance of these angles also leads to fuller understanding.

I agree that the "Whitewater" investigation wasn't really "oversight." Clinton's use of "executive privilege" was intended to prevent Sid Blumenthal and Bruce Lindsay from testifying to the Grand Jury about such things as conversations they had with the First Lady.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[lawrocket 3]

Quote

Are you saying that since Justice wouldn't pursue a criminal case, they are able to pursue it as a civil case?

Yes. There is "civil contempt" and "criminal contempt."

The only people who can bring "criminal" is the government - in this case the Department of Justice.

Note that in the Clinton and Nixon contexts, the executive disobeyed subpoenas from the Office of Independent counsel. This one is somewhat differen t- it's congress itself.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[idrankwhat 0]

Quote

What about "Filegate" and "Travelgate?"

Sure, that's an example of oversight. The problem is that the Congress issued 1054 subpoenas to the Clinton administration. When you behave like that it looks like a witch hunt and detracts from any valid issues that may need to be addressed.