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House Republicans File Brief Siding with White House in Subpoena Battle
Throughout the House Judiciary Committee's struggle to obtain White House documents and have Harriet Miers testify about the U.S. Attorney firings, House Republicans adopted a contrary stance.
They're firm believers in Congressional oversight, they said, but citing Miers and White House chief of staff Josh Bolten with contempt of Congress was the wrong way to go. If they lost the battle in court, then the executive would come out much stronger. It would "make the presidency in America, a much stronger, imperial office," as Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) put it. Democrats, of course, think we're already there.
Well, now House Republicans have brought their opposition to court. In a filing yesterday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Rep. Cannon asked the court to allow them to file a brief in the case arguing against the House's suit and with the administration. They are just trying to save the House from itself, they write:
High among amici's reasons for opposing the actions of the House and the Committee were their deeply held concerns that a decision by the courts in a suit inviting them to enforce the subpoenas could fall against the Committee, severely undermining the House's ability to exercise its oversight authority over the Executive Branch in the future. It is their continuing interest in the preservation of the House's oversight prerogatives, and in sparing the courts a premature need to enter into this dispute, that prompts them to offer their views to the Court as amici.
All sides will argue before the court in a hearing set for June 23rd.
Comments (13)
The Sergeant At Arms could take this matter out of the Courts by apprehending and arresting Bolten and Meirs.
Lock them up and throw away the key!
If they don't want to testify, they don't have to.
I'm sure there's something in those clever memos that Yoo & co. wrote that would approve of such treatment for their intransigence.
May 13, 2008 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Let's go to court. The people demand a resolution to exective dodge.
May 13, 2008 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I too want the Sergeant at Arms to perp walk the wicked bastids. Screw the courts,they are loaded to the teeth with loyal Bushies.
May 13, 2008 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is much ado about nothing.
Amici briefs...are...irrelevent to courts.
Most appellate court judges...don't read the briefs...their staff does.
When the Republicans are telling the court that "...they are worried about losing oversite, so it's better not to do oversite with subpoenas"...you realize that THE GOP IS ARGUING THAT OVERSITE IS BETTER WITHOUT ANY POWER TO COMPEL TESTIMONY?
This is typical....twisted mad cap logic of those in The White House who scurry for a plausible reason to advocate the mantra that LOVE IS WAR...PEACE IS HYSTERIA....SECURITY IS AN ORWELLIAN THOUGHT POLICE STATE...etc.
May 13, 2008 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cleary the GOP does not wish to lose power to the Executive branch 6 months before they're about to lose the Executive branch.
The power of Obama compels thee to issue such ridiculous briefs
May 13, 2008 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
There was a day when the word "congressional subpeona" got you shitting yellow in your didies. This move is out of the Clinton playbook: throw sand in the air, maybe we'll sneak through.
The next DoJ has work enough for several administrations. If a President Obama discovers illegal activity in the previous administration, will his DoJ act on it? Will we see pardons? More likely, we will see nothing, nothing at all. Congress is still broken, and its leaders shall persist.
Obama will preside over a dysfunctional govt that has been purposely disassembled. I wish him well, and expect nothing.
Pax,
M,
May 13, 2008 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Once more, the public suffers a sneak-assault from the Republican blunt boehner.
May 13, 2008 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
What needs to happen is that the court rules that the Executive Branch can not enforce any subpoena from the Congress and that the Congress can setup its own office to Enforce any and all subpoenas issued by the congress. The only problem I see is weather the agencies charged with protecting members of the Executive Branch would be able to prevent the officers of Congress from arresting them.
May 13, 2008 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I want to see Boehner cry - stomp his feet - wine - scream - cry....He is nothing but a sad idiopathic subject...and not a real person!
May 13, 2008 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's perfectly understandable to block investigations that could send you to prison for the rest of your life.
May 13, 2008 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
So their reasoning is don't use oversight now because it might be needed in the future. Government's broken.
May 13, 2008 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. I'm trying to figure out how "losing the battle" could possibly be worse than proving oneself unwilling to fight in the first place.
May 14, 2008 8:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Watch the Democrat cave-in on this one, too.
You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
June 23, 2008 10:05 PM | Reply | Permalink