Panel Rebuffs White House Privilege Claim
WASHINGTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee inched forward Thursday in its struggle with the White House over subpoenas demanding information from current and former Bush administration officials about the firing of several United States attorneys last year.
The committee’s chairman, Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, said he was formally rejecting White House claims that the subpoenaed officials, including President Bush’s chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten, were protected by executive privilege from being compelled to cooperate with an investigation into whether the prosecutors were fired for political reasons.
By rejecting the administration’s claims, Mr. Leahy took the next procedural step toward seeking to enforce the subpoenas in court, a step that could require the intervention of the new attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey, who has suggested that he wants a better relationship with Congress than was built by his predecessor, Alberto R. Gonzales.
Judiciary Committee aides said the panel would soon vote on contempt citations for the administration officials. But even if the citations are ultimately approved by the committee and then the full Senate, it remains unclear what happens next, since the administration has suggested that it will not allow the Justice Department to go to court to enforce the subpoenas. Customarily, Congressional subpoenas are enforced by the department on behalf of the House or the Senate.
“I have given the White House’s claims of executive privilege and immunity careful consideration,” Mr. Leahy said in his declaration Thursday. “I hereby rule that those claims are not legally valid to excuse current and former White House officials from appearing.”
Dana M. Perino, the president’s chief spokeswoman, said White House aides were perplexed by Mr. Leahy’s action.
“I don’t understand why he continues to have this rope-a-dope that’s not going to go anywhere,” Ms. Perino said.
© 2007 The New York Times
Even I know that the president cannot tell the justice department what to do. Didn’t Nixon try that trick?
“I don’t understand why he continues to have this rope-a-dope that’s not going to go anywhere,” Ms. Perino said.
Quote of Dana Perino, President Bush’s Chief Spokeswoman
That SHOULD be the quote of the day in today’s NYT, but I doubt that it is.
“Rope-a-dope”? Huh??
Well he is admitting that a Dope is what is being roped.
I never thought I would agree with Dana Perino but I have to say that I do. It is a Rope-a-dope and a cosmic waste of time. This is treatment of the symptom. Congress has already subpoenaed several “officials” who either failed to show up or offered no valid testimony. It is useless to subpoena a liar.
Even if there is a conviction bush will simply pardon whoever it is.
You can’t stop a weed unless you get to it’s roots. These guys need to fulfill their Constitutional obligations, stop wasting time on stupid Rope-a-dopes, and get on with impeachment proceedings.
Thank you for contacting me about Vice President Cheney. I appreciate hearing from you.
I am troubled by many of the actions of the Vice President and his staff. When our country was debating whether to invade Iraq in 2003, the Vice President and his staff presented arguments that were not based on the best intelligence available and that sought to deflect or discredit any criticism of their policies.
Our involvement in Iraq is now in its fifth year, and it is clear that the Bush Administration lacks a coherent strategy to stabilize Iraq and achieve victory. The invasion of Iraq was possibly the greatest policy failure of any Administration in our generation.
When Ambassador Joseph Wilson spoke out in 2003 against the invasion, Administration officials leaked to the media that Wilson’s wife was an undercover CIA agent. During the investigation of the leak, the Vice President’s chief of staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby took actions that were later found to constitute obstruction of justice and lying to federal prosecutors. He was convicted and sentenced to 30 months in prison, but his sentence was later commuted by President Bush.
Scooter Libby’s actions are characteristic of the secrecy that pervades the Vice President’s office. The office has been reluctant to divulge information on who advised Mr. Cheney’s energy task force; it has prohibited information about the Vice President’s travel from being made public; and it has kept private the Secret Service logs showing who has visited the Vice President’s office or official residence.
This strong emphasis on secrecy is not in the best interest of our nation. Since 2003, Mr. Cheney has refused to follow Executive Order 12958, which governs the handling of classified information. When the agency officials responsible for ensuring compliance with the executive order tried to inspect Mr. Cheney’s office, they were blocked from doing so by his staff. The Vice President later proposed completely eliminating the oversight agency. When a Congressional committee inquired into the Vice President’s refusal to comply with the executive order, it was initially told that Mr. Cheney’s office was not part of the Executive Branch.
As Chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee responsible for funding the Office of the Vice President, I attempted to include language in an appropriations bill that would have suspended funding for Mr. Cheney’s office until the office had complied with the executive order. That effort fell one vote short in the Appropriations Committee. I remain concerned by the Vice President’s failure to ensure that classified documents are treated in accordance with the law.
In January 2007, Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio introduced a resolution calling for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney for his role in disseminating questionable intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq. This resolution has been referred to the House Armed Services Committee for consideration. Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin has introduced two resolutions to censure the President, the Vice President, and then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. I believe Senator Feingold’s censure resolutions raise important issues that are worthy of debate.
I will continue to support Congressional oversight over the Office of the Vice President to ensure the Vice President does not disregard his Constitutional and legal obligations. Thank you again for your message. Please feel free to keep in touch.
Sincerely,
Richard J. Durbin
RJD/tf United States Senator
Bush and Cheney are out of control. Congress can’t assert its control because it doesn’t exist. And apparently they’re afraid that will become evident. Oil is at $100/barrel. So . . . the oil people (Bush, Cheney, Rice) are making a lot of money in a very short time. Which is what this administration is all about. Pelosi and Reid are cowards and fools. They misread the American people and the situation. We need a leader or two. Most of all, we need the American people to simply say no. And then yes to health care, habeus corpus, impeachment, 1st amendment, etc. In 56 years, I have never been so disgusted, so hopeful.
Congress has control, they just won’t use it.
For instance, they could either kill the funding of any depts that do this in year’s budget, or they could pass another bill to freeze money being spent by an dept.
This is why the founding fathers deliberately put the ‘power of the purse’ with Congress. It is effectively a very complete and thorough control over any federal agency. If you don’t do what Congress says, your budget gets cut or goes away completely.
This is why committee chairs USED to be very powerful. And why it used to be that the people who ran any federal dept used to bend over backwards to respond to any request from a congressional committee. Its why it used to be unheard of for a committee to call a hearing and to have the federal agency do anything but jump to make sure it had the people at the hearing that the committee wanted. If a committee wanted a dept head in their hearing room at 10 am on Thursday, then the dept head would either be there or be very nice about working out any schedule conflicts.
So, it used to be that if the Attorney General refused to follow through on a Congressional contemp citation, then the AG’s office would probably find his budget for personal staff and office funds being cut or frozen.
So, this is a power that Congress has ceded or let slip away. If Congress seems weak, its because it steadfastly refuses to use the power it has.
Abbywood–I agree with your evaluation of Ms. Dana Perino’s pronouncement. Just to answer her and anybody else who might wonder–this is all so necessary not only for the current toads occupying the presidency and vice-presidency but for whoever replaces them after the 08 election.
I hope Leahy and company keep on this one till the last day of the Bush adminstration and into the next adminstration because it is critical that those charged with the responsibility of checking and balancing irresponsible executive power not be seen as “roll over and play dead” lap dogs.
Why should Perino have the last word? And what’s with this dope a rope? She’s a spokesperson, not a Congressman, legislator, or anything that circumscribes privilege. She’s nothing but a parrot that covers the Administration’s ass with a quick lie and stupid remarks. She can’t stand a candle to Senator Leahy but then this Administration is full of fools and liars.
Big deal! This will go nowhere, just like the congress. Bush is enjoying these laughable antics knowing they will come to nothing, as usual.
COMarc November 30th, 2007 1:52 pm
Congress has control, they just won’t use it.
“….the founding fathers deliberately put the ‘power of the purse’ with Congress. It is effectively a very complete and thorough control over any federal agency. If you don’t do what Congress says, your budget gets cut or goes away completely.”
Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 says: “ONLY CONGRESS CAN APPROPRIATE FUNDS”! It’s the only weapon they have left to represent the people of this country.
Do they have the cajones to tell Bush to back off or they’ll use this POWER? I truly doubt it!
Does anybody realize how long this back and forth between congress and the executive branch will take? By the time this gets to the Supreme court the Dem’s will be in the White House and the court will rule that Congress can subpoena these people to testify. Except they will have already been given a general pardon by Bush.
Ali won that fight!
Perhaps Dana Perino is too young to be familiar with “The Rumble In The Jungle” . If she thinks Pat Leahy’s Rope-a-Dope is going nowhere -she is making George Foreman’s mistake . The White House is getting very squirmy about having these people testify under oath . Not a one of them will stand up . They will be leveraged into blabbing about far more than the Valerie Plame case .
Barn Burner: Don’t you just hate it when your Senator writes this crap? Well, join the crowd. I get the same crap from mine. By the way, does yours send their response by snail mail about a month after you e-mail them? What a waste of trees and tax payors dollars on the stamps! Jeez….
I like Leahy a lot, but if I hear of one more strongly worded statement or letter out of any of these guys without a quick follow-up and whitnesses singing, I’m going to have to conclude that they are all worthless whimps.
I love you, Senator Patrick Leahy!
Live Free or Die!
While there are a few people in power who care to see the rule of law return they are quite happy to see that power retained by whomever has it to wield. The next administration and its power brokers do not want to dismantle what the cowboy created they are too close themselves to be able to wield it as well.
It is time for a new congress and a new government and a third party in the USA. This country and its so called democracy is out of control and is really a one party system with two factions of the same group. Those who don’t know the rules when they are elected are taught them pretty quickly.
This is why we have the environmental and financial systems out of control and the public conditioned to this state of affairs by a media that is told what to say, what to do and how they will do it to keep the status quo as it is and don’t be fooled by Lou Dobbs, he is part of the show.
This fool who is spokesperson for this administration is to young to really know what she is doing. She is drunk with power and has a good teacher of that condition of madness.
dreamertoo:
i’m afraid that you might be trying to link patrick leahy with the new hampshire state motto. leahy, being a vermont senator, is better deserving of the phrase “freedom and unity” as it is the vermont state motto and vermont is an entirely different state than new hampshire.
Anybody else wondering why it has taken these many months for Leahy to issue this latest “warning?” I mean I know the wheels of “justice” grind exceedingly slow, but come on!!!! Did Chairman Leahy or anyone else think the Administration was gonna actually allow this testimony when they witnesses refused to show up? The contempt was immediate—so why did it take these ensuing months to once again “threaten” to call it what it was and continues to be.
I’m sick and tired of this mock theater that is supposed to convince us that we have any real checks and balances, or any accountability. This isn’t lack of courage.It just doesn’t fit into the script. Wake up folks. The system is rotten to the core, and we ignore that at our own peril.
Thank you, dbalsock!
I think and hope what happens next may surprise you, starofthesea.
Before parties completely ruined congress they used to sent out the SGT. AT ARMs with sufficient support to arrest people who screwed with congress. They had their own jail and were not afraid to use it.
I dream of the day when a congress that arranges to pay the bills gets the action that paying the bills is due on behalf of the taxpayers who are extorted for the cash.
The exceedingly minor officials that lie and defy congress now would have had their back to the wall in an instant 100 years ago.
dreamertoo—–I welcome surprises, truly I do, and there is nothing wrong with hope. I have simply run out of faith in these so-called leaders.
Too many disappointments have contributed to my disgust and cynicism….all the same, I do hope I am proven wrong. And if I am I will publicly acknowledge my mistake. At least public in the sense that CD is public.
I haven’t run out of faith in “leaders” like Leahy and Durbin. I don’t see how they can take it, as Edwards is obviously right about “the system” in Washington, even if whatever audience is too pumped up to contemplate it. But the leaders who espouse the opinions of the majority of citizens do not endorse “the system” as it is. Therefore, I can’t judge all the “leaders” (public servants).
It’s a matter of the opinion of the majority (we will have to stop reapportionment of electoral votes only in CA). It’s a matter of we accept Lesson Four, and have to convince the special interests/subsets who don’t that their picture of the planet and its inhabitants is superficial. It’s a matter of the polls honing in even more–what did I read in Harpers Index last night about views of CEOs re ________(?) as opposed to the views of most Americans re same? It’s a matter of the triage problems. Immigration is not one, eg, but does stem from broken economies. And on and on.
Sorry she said it…Rope the Dope !!!