Posted by D. Cupples | Yesterday, the House voted to hold White House Chief of Staff Josh
Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in contempt of
Congress after they failed to comply with subpoenas issued by congressional committees investigating the possibly politically motivated firing of U.S. Attorneys.
Claiming executive privilege, President Bush ordered Bolten and Miers to not comply with the subpoenas. The White House repeatedly offered to allow staffers testify IF the staffers could do so without being under oath and IF Congress agreed to not record the testimony. Some onlookers wondered if the Bush Adminsitration had something to hide re: the fired U.S. Attorney scandal. (See overview.)
Former-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned a few months after his "I don't recall" filled testimony about the scandal. He is still under investigation for perjury and other misconduct.
Ten (or so) high ranking Justice Department staffers also resigned amid the scandal, including Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty.
The Hill reported odd reactions to yesterday's contempt vote from some members of Congress:
"Ahead of the vote, Republicans had walked out in an effort to show that they want to work on a permanent update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) rather than be part of a 'partisan fishing expedition,' as House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) put it."
Mr. Boehner seems to overlook the fact that if the Bush Administration had simply been straight about why the U.S. Attorneys were fired (and complied with the subpoenas), the contempt issue would not have arisen at all.
From the start, the White House was not forthcoming about the reasons for firing the U.S. Attorneys at the end of 2006. At one point, White House Spokesperson Tony Snow told the press that the prosecutors were fired based on their (poor) performance. This, naturally, upset those fired prosecutors who had positive performance reviews. Oddly, a couple of months later, Mr. Snow claimed that the White House had never said that the firings had been performance based.
Here's a Jon Stewart video showing clips of Mr. Snow contradicting himself:
Yesterday's contempt vote included 223 in favor (mostly Democrats) to 31 against (mostly Republicans), to 173 simply not voting (mostly Republicans). Roll call vote is here. Memeorandum has other bloggers' reactions: The Swamp, The Politico, The Crypt's Blogs, The New Republic, Macsmind, The Gun Toting Liberalâ„¢ and Seeing the Forest.
Other BN-Politics Posts
* Leahy Challenges Bush's Executive Privilege Claim re: Subpoenas
* More Evidence of DoJ's Politically Motivated Decisions
* DoJ's Schlozman Alters Testimony & Looks for Loopholes
* Karl Rove Tied to Dem Governor's Prosecution?
* CBS Postpones Siegelman Story due to White House Pressure?
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