What did the administration buy with the resignations of Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales? Apparently, they bought a get out of jail free card. Whereas, previously, Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy had insisted he would not hold hearings for attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey until he got all his subpoenaed documents, now he appears ready to go forward. He wrote Mukasey a letter asking tough questions, but the bottom line?
Regrettably the White House has chosen not to clear the decks of past concerns and not to produce the information and material it should have and could have about the ongoing scandals that have shaken the Department of Justice and led to the exodus of its former leadership. Those matters now encumber your nomination and, if confirmed, your tenure…
…I had hoped that the White House would have taken advantage of the time since the resignations of Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Rove to work with us to fulfill longstanding requests for information so that we could all agree about what went so wrong at the Department of Justice and work together to restore it. Instead, they have left you to answer the unanswered questions and left longstanding disputes unresolved.
Now, there is one little tidbit in Leahy’s letter than we might cling to if we want to hold on to some hope.
In connection with these matters the Judiciary Committee has been seeking the historical legal analysis of the Department of Justice and this Administration. We have made numerous requests and have even had to subpoena the FISA documents. I want to know whether you will work with us and provide those materials so that we can examine the legal justifications that have been utilized by this Administration to excuse its conduct.
I’ve noticed in the comments at this blog a startling uptick in cynicism and even resignation. And that is not without reason. Based on the prevailing mood among progressives I expect the reaction to the above paragraph will be cynical and resigned. What will Leahy and the Dems do if Mukasey is non-committal about providing the FISA materials after he is confirmed? Will they confirm him anyway? That is the pattern of cowardice we progressives are learning to expect.
From the New York Times:
The decision to go forward with the hearings appeared to reflect a calculation by Mr. Leahy and other Democrats that they did not want to be seen as willing to leave the post unfilled after complaining so loudly of turmoil in the department under Mr. Gonzales.
Despite concerns among Democrats and some civil liberties groups about Mr. Mukasey’s past support for sweeping national security powers for the executive branch, his nomination has generally been well received on Capitol Hill, among Democrats and Republicans alike.
Based on what I learned in Jack L. Goldsmith’s The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration, a full disclosure of the Office of Legal Counsel’s historical legal reasoning on warrantless domestic surveillance and torture would probably lead directly to a slam-dunk case for impeachment…especially of Dick Cheney. It appears that the administration’s decision to jettison Rove and Gonzales has given them some wiggle room. This is true in the Senate and it is true in the House:
More than two months after the House Judiciary Committee passed contempt resolutions against White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers for ignoring committee subpoenas, it’s still unclear when, or if, Democrats will hold a vote on the full floor.
The leadership has indefinitely delayed taking up the issue. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) told The Politico last month, “I don’t think anything is going to happen on that for a while,” and couldn’t offer a range. Three weeks later, that hasn’t changed.
And apparently scheduling concerns are not all that’s at issue. A source familiar with the ongoing discussions told TPMmuckraker that getting the leadership to bring the contempt resolutions to the floor at all is an “uphill struggle.”
I don’t know what is going on behind the scenes, but I know this is still true:
After Miers didn’t even show up to claim executive privilege, Conyers asked, “Are Congressional subpoenas to be honored or are they optional?… If we do not enforce this subpoena, no one will ever have to come before the House Judiciary Committee again.”
Whether or not the Democrats have the stomach for an impeachment battle, they are at risk of creating some very bad precedents here.
Here is the Senate Judiciary phone number: (202) 224-7703
Here is the Speaker’s phone number: (202) 225-4965
Call them and tell them not to cave in. Tell them to protect their prerogatives. Tell them to fight for the rule of law.