As Congress considers contempt charges against White House officials past and present who've refused to comply with subpoenas, President Bush cowers behind a wall of creative lawyers who cast taller shadows than the Tampa Bay Bucs' offensive line -- sticking out his tongue while waving his erect middle finger. Today's Washington Post has some details:
"Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.
"The position presents serious legal and political obstacles for congressional Democrats, who have begun laying the groundwork for contempt proceedings against current and former White House officials in order to pry loose information about the dismissals."
Gun Toting Liberal summed up the situation quite neatly: "With this most recent news out of the Washington Post we can now say, without any hint of hyperbole, that President Bush thinks he’s a dictator."
Constitutional law is not my field, but it does seem that our president is trying to do to our system of checks and balances what that amusing bird did to Bush's sleeve from above the White House lawn a few weeks ago.
The Next Hurrah pointed out details the WaPo article missed:
"there's a reason why Bush is so confident this scheme is going to work. He has effectively reassembled the same team that ran this shell game the last time. And to add to the fun, the US Attorney for DC--Jeff Taylor--is one of the remaining PATRIOT provision USAs--plucked from among the Gonzales clique at DOJ and installed in DC just in time to prevent Democrats from exercising any real oversight."
Current White House Counsel Fred Fielding tried out the "shell game" back in the early 1980s, when Fielding was shielding the Reagan Administration against subpoenas relating to an EPA dispute. WaPo does state that the case never was ruled on in court, which leaves the Bush Administration in a nothing-to-lose-by-trying position.
Next Hurrah also points out that current Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was part of the shell-game team in the '80s. Thus, if Congress ends up battling the White House in court this time around, the White House has a good chance of preventing America's taxpayers from learning what really happened with the U.S. Attorney firings.
While certain Administration officials may dodge embarrassment or criminal convictions, the political price will likely be steep for the Republican Party, as voters increasingly perceive the party's officials as secretive and guilty to a Nixon degree. Even people who barely glance at newspapers grasp that the White House is struggling to keep a lid on its secrets while saying it has nothing to hide. That sort of logic doesn't wash with even the least wonky among us.
Here in Florida, after eight years of Jeb Bush's reign, we have problems of laughing-stock proportions, but our state mostly gets it right re: public-records laws. We don't just talk about Government in the Sunshine: our state Attorney General actually helps us mere citizens fight state entities that are reluctant to hand over info deemed as public records.
In the long run, I suspect that Republicans will be scarred in the court of public opinion if President Bush continues to block the sun from shining down on Washington.
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