Actually that should read “Cheney More Powerful than a Donkey Congress!” How do I know this? Because Cheney’s lawyer told me so, and she told the donkeys in Congress, too, in a letter written in response to the House Judiciary Committee’s request that Cheney’s Chief of Staff, David Addington, voluntarily agree to appear before the Committee and testify about his role in promoting the use of torture at Gitmo:
(cont.)
The letter of April 11, 2008 from the Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives (“Committee request”) informed the Office of the Vice President that the Committee plans to hold a hearing on May 6 to explore: (1) “issues regarding the nature and scope of Presidential power in a time of war,” (2) “the Administration’s approach to these questions under US and international law;” and (3) “United States policies regarding interrogation of persons in the custody of the nation’s intelligence services and armed forces.” The letter invited the Chief of Staff to the Vice President to appear at the hearing. […]
As the U.S. Supreme Court made clear in Barenblatt V. United States, 460 U.S. 109 (1959), the power of Congress under the Constitution to inquire (which Members of Congress and congressional employees often refer to by the term “oversight”) is coextensive with its power to legislate. The power of Congress to legislate is not limitless and therefore is neither the power to inquire. For example, Congress lacks the constitutional power to regulate by a law what a Vice President communicates in the performance of the Vice President’s official duties, or what a Vice President recommends that a President communicate in the President’s performance of official duties, and therefore those matters are not within the Committee’s power of inquiry. In addition to a constitutional basis for a House inquiry, a particularly committee of the House also needs jurisdiction assigned by the House for the inquiry. It would be helpful to know from the Committee the scope of the Committee’s inquiry and the legal basis for it.
That’s the great thing about lawyers. They know so many different ways to say “F*** you!” without actually coming out and saying it so directly. Certainly more ways than the Vice President himself apparently knows. So I suppose the Honorable John Conyers should count his lucky stars Cheney delegated this response to his legal staff. He could have delivered it personally.
And please, no jokes about torturing Cheney’s staff. This is a family values blog after all.
Just curious. How can the Congress be given the powers of Impeachment but not oversight regarding Cheney & Bush?
Send the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms to Addington’s house as he leaves for work to arrest him. The Senate has that power.
Send the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms to Addington’s house as he leaves for work to arrest him. The Senate has that power.
See, that’s the thing about our old pal, Dick. He actually resides in some strange, nether-dimension, not tangible to we mere mortals. (I think the portal is in his man-size safe!) He’s not executive branch… but he’s not legislative, either… you just can’t touch him! You think you’ve got him dead to rights, and he slips out of your grasp, back into the shadows.
Not in my wildest dreams do I still entertain the fantasy that he’ll ever actually get what he deserves… but it would restore my hope in… something.
who even fucking cares at this point?
I mean it.
does anyone here think doddering old conyers is going to have the sergeant at arms haul cheney away, or anyone else that ignores their subpoenas?
does anyone here think anyone from bushco is ever going to be held to account? By who, a corrupt dick like Harry Reid? Di-Fi, who makes money off the war? Pelosi, who makes money off the war? HAH.
The scam is already over and done, and just like with bush 1, they were allowed to get away with it. neither clintoon nor oblahma is inclined to press the issue. and the majority of the american public is either ignorant or apathetic: it is a very small minority in blogistan that cares.
I don’t know what the bush family has on everyone in congress, but if there’s one thing I learned during the first bush administration is that no one will be held accountable ever for anything. Examples like Neil Bush’s S&L scam and the grandaddy Iran-Contra.
I’m serious: stop whining. there’s literally no fucking point. I’ve known since Bush was appointed by the SCOTUS that everything has been a sham, and that no one will ever pay (except for the little people). It’s just the way it works when it comes to the Bush Family.
I mean yeah it makes me mad too, but nothing’s gonna change. nothing. sorry to be a pessimist, but that’s just a fucking fact. you wanna make a point, go follow lucy parsons’ advice. it’s all anyone listens to, other than money.
hey oh
nothings gonna change
we’re all gonna party
on the firing range
hey oh
your mother is a whore
go ahead and shoot me
i’ve been there before.
I get the worn-down frustration, I do, but I do care. I care because I want to see the Cheneys and Addington and Wolfowitz and Perle and Feith and Podhoretz and Rice and Armitage and Negroponte and Bushes I and II and Baker III and Kagan and Hughes and Meyers and Bolton and Rove and Libby and Petraeus and Franks and Powell all swinging from nooses at 30 feet.
That’s why I care.
Justice only comes for the poor in this country, and THAT HAS TO CHANGE.
I live in the midst of a beaten, bludgeoned African American community here in New York City. The Sean Bell verdict of last week was yet another blow to the head and heart of yet another downtrodden community of people who just don’t happen to be one of the 2,000 elite of the global community, like Cheney and Perle.
Justice must be served. We can do it ourselves.
As for codgers like Conyers, they’re all old, part of the Old Age, the dying dispensation of patsies and whimps. You tell me Conyers hasn’t had his life threatened. Tell me no. That’s why he’s ineffectual, same goes for Waxman.