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House Passes Contempt Resolution against White House Officials
Well, after all that -- after seven months, it's done. The House passed the contempt resolution against White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers, 223-32. Most Republicans, having staged their walk out, did not vote.
So now the ball's in Attorney General Michael Mukasey's court. He's expected to decline to enforce the citation of contempt, since both Bolten and Miers declined to testify as a result of an assertion of executive privilege.
The resolution included both a criminal contempt citation and the authorization for the House Judiciary Committee to sue the White House if Mukasey refuses to enforce the citation. You can read those here.
Update: Here's the final tally.
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Comments (18)
Finally-
Now... let's all go home for the weekend and leave FISA on the vine to ripen and then rot. Can't wait to see Bush's brow-n-lip routine.
We better not F this up.
The Senate will remain on my shit list.
February 14, 2008 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
More like this please.
February 14, 2008 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. Seriously, let's pass some other bills while the Republicans freak out on the steps. Let's get that waterboarding bill passed -- maybe strip the FISA bill of retroactive immunitiy? Let's repeal DOMA while we in there. This could be fun.
February 14, 2008 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank God.
The arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
February 14, 2008 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hells yes! Finally a little accountability! That Dem majority in the House gives them a little more room to bring the hammer down than that wispy little balance on the Sentate.
February 14, 2008 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
FINALLY! SOMETHING! YAY!
The Wheels Of Justice move slowly - far too slowly - and a corrupt but powerful US politician can be assured of getting through at least one term in office before they catch up with him or her.
It shouldn't be that way. The US Constitution includes safeguards to ensure this sort of wholesale corruption should never happen. International observers (like myself) can only blame a lazy and ignorant US public for letting it get this far.
Seriously, America, you need to put your house in order! This is just the tip of a very big iceberg! Your greedy, corrupt politicians and businessmen are sowing war, poverty and pollution around the planet!
I know TPM readers are part of the solution, not part of the problem. And for their efforts, people like Josh Marshall, Juan Cole, and Glenn Greenwald deserve the Medal of Honour one day. But please do everything you can to keep the pressure on and educate your fellow citizens.
The rest of the world is watching (nervously).
February 14, 2008 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can someone please lock the House doors?
February 14, 2008 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is all just a stalling tactic, so they can stop hearing about impeachment. Trust me, this won't go anywhere. But the Dems can point and say "look we are trying".
Gosh, since the Dems took over in 2006, I have become so cynical. I thought they were going to make us more optomestic?
February 14, 2008 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ghandi,
The wheels of justice are turning faster for us every day. We have more people involved in this election cycle than ever. You just wait. We're going to take this country back!
~'Yam
February 14, 2008 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Impeachment was, is, and will continue to be a non-starter.
I'm not speaking either for or against it, simply recognizing the reality of the numbers in the Senate. There is simply no way that there will be 67 votes to convict either Cheney (who, if it happened, would need impeachment first, for obvious reasons) or Bush. Not without 67 Dems, and I mean real ones, leaving Holy Joe out of this.
Since that is the reality, again without comment, passing a bill of impeachment in the House would amount to little more than empty political theatrics.
There are better things to do with our time.
Now that that's over, what I want to hear President Obama say on 1/20/09, shortly after taking the oath of office, while pointing at Bush and Cheney is: "Arrest those men!" And then, I want to see them bound over for war crimes trials in The Hague.
February 14, 2008 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was thinking the other day that impeachment has pretty much been completely taken out as a legitimate political remedy for executive overreach and has been reduced to nothing more significant than political "gotcha".
It was used by a Republican Congress on political steriods to persecute (and that's exactly the word I mean) a Democratic president through trumped up charges over private pecadillos that had nothing to do with any abuse of power or performance in office.
But a Republican administration engaging in multiple gross abuses of executive privilege and executive power, violating the law and the Constitution, turning the purposes of federal agencies on their heads, ignoring the clear intent of Congress, etc., etc., etc., is allowed to skate free because the Democratic majority is too weak to assert itself, and Congressional Republicans are more loyal to party than to institution, the exact opposite of what the Founders had assumed would be the case.
So impeachment, or threat of impeachment, is no longer a way for The People to demand accountability from those they put in office, but only one more tool for a bully powerful enough to use it. Maybe, except for the Watergate years, it was never really anything more than that.
February 14, 2008 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll not hold my breath for more to happen than this resolution. And then, what? Do we suppose that Harriet Myers and Joe Bolton really care?
Tomorrow they will both go to work unconcerned.
And in time to come, the same Democrats who have supported immunity for the telecom industry will again show their stripes and not support these contempt charges.
In addition to betraying Americans by their support of immunity for the telecom industry and illegal spying on Americans, even prior to 9/11, the Democrats have shown that there is NO difference between the two partys other than the name.
In fact, the contempt charges are probably nothing more than a way to save face for that, if anything.
You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
February 14, 2008 5:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wrote to my representative to thank him, and to ask him to tell the leaders not to bring telecom immunity to the floor.
February 14, 2008 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
But without impeachment, this country is just a fascist state. It doesn't matter if there are not 67 votes in the Senate, it doesn't matter how many votes there are.
If impeachment is not started the USA is dead! Bushco has committed WAR CRIMES!! This is not about a blowjob or sex, this is about the Constitution of the United States! This is about us as a free and just people! This is about the RULE of LAW!!
February 14, 2008 6:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
The AG is not expected to permit enforcement of these, in contravention to his oath . . .What's the plan of Congress to start the ball rolling on "inherent contempt":
- How long will the COngress "give" the AG to formally say, "I will not enforce these contempt citations"?
There doesn't appear to be any reason to delay starting with the next legislation that would approve "inherent contempt".
- Where is that legislation?
- What is the plan of the House to discuss this?
- What is the plan of the House to put "inherent contempt" on the calendar?
- Where is Madame Speaker in commenting on these "inherent contempt" plans?
February 14, 2008 6:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's how Reuters reported this:
"It is unclear how far Democrats would get in any court case. In fact, they may likely fail to get a ruling before Bush's term ends in January 2009."
The GOP is saying this is just a pre-election stunt. Sadly, I fear there may be some truth in that. Impeachment should have been on the table a long time ago, and Bush and Cheney should no longer be in office.
February 14, 2008 8:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
This may go no farther, but for me I got what I always wanted. Now, forever more, Harriet Miers will be, as seen by Congress - and thusly the United States, contemptible. I've often thought of her with that word, but now it's different: she is OFFICIALLY 'contemptible', as voted on today by the U.S. House. It all started in those heady days of yester year when Bush scandals were as ripe as fruit. A Supreme Court vacancy was there and Bush asked her, then White House Counsel, to fill that vacancy to that 3rd branch of government for a lifetime appointment. He felt better picking a friend, someone he felt good about. And, aghast, she accepted. She arrogantly accepted. Yet she had to know, nay she did know, that she WASN'T the most qualified candidate for this position, yet she still said yes. To the dimwit, her boss, she could never say no. She 'believed' him in that he 'felt' she was the best candidate. Ha and quadruple Ha. She wasn't and the ensuing 'conservative' uproar over Bush's gaffe was correct. So, you see, I have no trouble holding this 'man-woman' in contempt when, ever since those days, I've always held her in contempt. Now it's official, forever. Harriet Miers: a 'contemptible' human being and American. Has a nice ring to it.
February 14, 2008 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Most of the rest of America holds the Bush administration in contempt. It's good to see the Democrats in Congress doing so as well.
February 14, 2008 10:19 PM | Reply | Permalink