The Democrats’ case is simple. Former and current White House officials have “absolute immunity” from Congressional subpoenas, according to this administration. And not only can they ignore a subpoena, but if Congress were to try and enforce that subpoena through a citation of criminal contempt, the administration would prohibit the District of Columbia’s U.S. attorney from moving forward. That’s a contemptible display of executive power, Democrats argue.
But the threat you fear may be worse than the threat you know. Or at least that’s what Republicans argued during this morning’s debate on whether the House Judiciary Committee ought to cite Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten with contempt. You can see our highlight reel of the back and forth here (Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) lays out the Dems’ case towards the end):
Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) laid it all out. There is “no evidence” of wrongdoing by the White House in the U.S. attorney firings, he says. And since there’s no wrongdoing, it’s likely that Congress will lose its battle with the White House in court. And if they lost, he says, future claims of executive privilege by the White House would be much stronger, since they’d be resting on the Supreme Court’s decision. And that would “make the presidency in America, a much stronger, imperial office.” Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) agreed, saying that Congress was in danger of handing the White House “a blank check.”
A bemused John Conyers (D-MI) responded that he was glad that both sides of the aisle agreed on opposing an imperial presidency. “It’s a concern that we share,” he said, citing Cannon’s concern of creating an imperial presidency. “Please, that’s the last thing I want to do.”
The citation, of course, passed along party lines.