DOA is an acronym which stands for Dead on Arrival. And apparently that is the current status of the Congressional contempt citations for which we’ve been waiting against former White House counsel, Harriet Miers, and White House Chief of Staff, Josh Bolten, officials who ignored lawfully issued subpoenas in the US Attorney’s scandal, thanks apparently to our Democratic leaders in the House (courtesy TPMmuckracker):
“The scandal at the Department of Justice has gone on long enough,” said Rep. Rahm Emmanuel (D-IL) back in March. “Careers have been destroyed and legitimate public corruption cases have been derailed. It is time for accountability — it is time for the truth.”
Six months and several Department senior resignations later, it’s a different time. The urgency is gone.
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.” […]
The issue, Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has argued, goes right to the heart of Congress’ oversight prerogatives. 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.”
Oh, they can hold a vote condemning Moveon’s exercise of it’s free speech rights (and get it to the floor in record time). That’s easy. But actually schedule a vote on contempt of Congress by Bush administration officials whose actions have deliberately obstructed a congressional investigation into the improper and potentially unlawful firing of US Attorneys by the Bush administration, the suborning of the Department of Justice into just another arm of the Republican Party’s voter suppression efforts by forcing US Attorneys’ to bring phony charges of voter fraud against Democrats, and allegations of potential White House meddling in prosecutions of corruption by Republican lobbyists and lawmakers in an election year? That’s an “uphill struggle.” Then again, getting the Democrats to use their political capital to actually oppose Congressional Republicans and/or the White House on anything seems like an uphill struggle most days.
Explain to me why I voted for these clowns in 2006. Better yet, tell me again why I should vote for these clowns in 2008? One thing for certain, it can’t be because they intend to do the people’s business and hold the Bush administration accountable for its execrable record of gross mismanagement, deliberate malfeasance and potentially criminal misdeeds. They’ve already gone missing in action when it comes to that fulfilling that responsibility.
Steve Steven? i guess we are there! The only way we get the dems to wake up is- NOT A RED CENT! That is all they understand. These bastards are worse than the goopers. Yup- Worse!
is getting a workout today. sigh! 🙁
Well that tears it doesn’t it…the dems are all Manchurian Candidates. So now subponeas like the Constitution are basically gd pieces of paper. You can’t very well hold hearings if no one shows up now can you..or they refuse to testify under oath. Hearings, we don’t appear at any stinkin hearings.
I was expecting this because if they didn’t do anything right away about people refusing to testify I figured they never would hold anyone accountable. But just because I was expecting this doesn’t make me any less sick to my stomach about the chickenshit dems doing nothing once again. Just how many times are they going to sell us and the American public out do you think?
It doesn’t even make any difference to me if they happen to do something right once in awhile because that won’t begin to make up for their caving in on just about everything.
and this:
and nobody can figure out why this is happening:
looking back on that time, the 60’s and 70’s, it looks like democracy in action…today, they’ve got us all by the short hairs…and they know it. taking a cue from chimpy, et al, the approach is: whatta ya gonna do about it?….vote?! that worked out really well….BWAHAHAHAHAHHA!
fact: a fucking lot of good it’ll do…contempt citations, subpoenas, oversight, accountability….all meaningless blather. just another goddamned piece of paper to wipe their corpulent asses with and then rub in our noses.
bend over, grab your ankles, and kiss your ass and what’s left of your freedom goodbye…we are well and truly fucked.
lTMF’sA!!!
I read(knew I should have saved that article) where someone in NY I believe was arrested at some rally ..for………he was simply reading the First Amendment about freedom of speech but officers who arrested him basically said his words were disruptive. How do I even comment on the massive irony and scariness of that?
“Crowds at antiwar rallies in Washington have dwindled even as U.S. opinion has turned against the war in Iraq”
For pretty much the same reason the rallies in Myanmar have dwindled.
When the emperor no longer feels any need to obey the law of the land, and Congress feels no need to assert its legal authority, we are well and truly repeating the arc of the Wiemar Republic. If the White House need not obey this law, what law must it obey? Nader was right, but it’s too late now.
I care more about the rule of law and due process of law as embodied in the United States Constitution than just about anything. It is the foundation for everything this country is supposed to stand for. I don’t know what to do in the face of the ambivalence of our elected leaders to not only investigate the crimes that have been committed; but, more importantly, even standing up to protect the separation of powers and sanctity of the congressional prerogative.
I would not have the base from which to do it, nor the know how, But I wonder if some type of massive netroots/grassroots petition/action of some kind could be undertaken jointly by the leaders here at Booman, Open Left, Kos, FiredogLake, Atrios, TPM etc. to let them know how important, critical, we consider the enforcement of the subpoenas, real investigation of the BushCo offenses, and the need to do something meaningful about getting us out of Iraq. All those concepts are intertwined to some extent and could go naturally in the same simple petition, letter, whatever; without making it long, overwinded or complex. I.E. a nice, tight powerful statement.
Maybe we need a blogswarm directed at Hoyer and Emanual.
Why “potentially”?
As John Dean has observed, Bush is the only president who has publically admitted committing a felony. Also, everybody knows that Bush started the Iraq war and that this war was unprovoked. That is a war crime by definition, according to the UN Charter, which has the status of US law under the Constitution because it is a treaty.
as i’ve been saying, they’ll win big in 2008, but the victory will be for the party alone. America will continue to get the shit end of the stick.