Year: 2007

Citations Could Be Voted on By Full House before Thanksgiving

Last summer, Bush flunkies Josh Bolten, the White House Chief of Staff, and Harriet Miers, Bush’s former lawyer, secretary and erstwhile Supreme Court nominee, failed to show up to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about Bush’s firing of eight U.S. attorneys for political reasons in 2006.

Finally, on Monday, the Judiciary Committee answered the affront:

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) filed a contempt citation against the White House with the House clerk Monday in a last-ditch effort to cajole testimony from chief of staff Josh Bolten and former legal counsel Harriet Miers relating to the firing of several U.S. attorneys last year. If Democrats decide to take up the measure and it passes — two actions that are anything but certain — a constitutional clash would ensue over separation-of-powers issues.

Sources in the capitol say Bush’s former brain Karl Rove is also in the committee’s crosshairs.

Contempt of Congress is a federal misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum $100,000 fine and a maximum one-year sentence in federal prison.

The problem, of course, is that if the House votes to issue the citations, it would fall to a loyal Republican, Jeffrey A. Taylor, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, to enforce them. Taylor was appointed by former Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales, and because he was appointed on an interim basis, confirmation by the Senate. (And, because of an amendment to the Patriot Act, which he helped draft as a Senate staffer, interim appointees have term limit. Nice trick, that one.)

The law compels Taylor to “bring the matter before a grand jury for its action,” but since this is unlikely, the Congress does have another option: Miers, Bolten and Rove could be thrown in long-unused jail cells in the basement of the capitol.

Conyers has said the vote by the full House on the contempt citations could be held before Thanksgiving.

Today, maniacal Jesus monkey Pat Robertson endorsed divorced, pro-gay, pro-abortion Rudy Giuliani in his bid to become the next Anti-Christ, er, I mean president of these Benighted States of America. Oh Lord, just call Pat home and send Rudy to that corner of hell he so roundly deserves.

Pat Robertson has removed all doubt on what he’s really about: Power, baby. Power.

Big news in the world of GOP politics today, with Rev. Pat Robertson endorsing former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani…

And of course, to hear another GOP presidential contender — former Arkansas Gov. (and Baptist minister) Mike Huckabee — tell it), this is further evidence that some of these conservative evangelical leaders “are more intoxicated with power than principle, … I hear some of the so-called Christian leaders say, ‘Well, we love Huckabee. He really agrees with us, and he’s one of us in terms of views. But, you know, we’re looking for somebody that we’re confident is going to win.’

Well, two things. First, a lot of these people if they would get behind me I’d be winning right now, and I think I will ultimately without them. But secondly, if they really are principled, it’s not about who might win, it’s about who stands with us. And, frankly, it’s a little disturbing, if not frightening, that some have forgotten the essence of what Jesus taught, and that is if you gain the whole world but lose your soul what does it profit you?”

Joke’s on you, Rev. Mike. It was never about souls to begin with.

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s House Resolution 333, which seeks to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney, has 21 co-sponsors in the House. Check the list and if your rep is on it, call his or her office or drop an e-mail to say thanks:

Rep Baldwin, Tammy [WI-2] – 8/1/2007
Rep Brady, Robert A. [PA-1] – 7/24/2007
Rep Clarke, Yvette D. [NY-11] – 6/6/2007
Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy [MO-1] – 5/1/2007
Rep Cohen, Steve [TN-9] – 8/4/2007
Rep Ellison, Keith [MN-5] – 6/28/2007
Rep Farr, Sam [CA-17] – 7/12/2007
Rep Filner, Bob [CA-51] – 7/12/2007
Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TX-18] – 8/4/2007
Rep Johnson, Henry C. “Hank,” Jr. [GA-4] – 6/28/2007
Rep Kilpatrick, Carolyn C. [MI-13] – 9/7/2007
Rep Lee, Barbara [CA-9] – 6/7/2007
Rep McDermott, Jim [WA-7] – 7/10/2007
Rep Moran, James P. [VA-8] – 7/10/2007
Rep Payne, Donald M. [NJ-10] – 8/1/2007
Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. [IL-9] – 5/1/2007
Rep Towns, Edolphus [NY-10] – 9/27/2007
Rep Waters, Maxine [CA-35] – 6/12/2007
Rep Watson, Diane E. [CA-33] – 10/16/2007
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [CA-6] – 6/7/2007
Rep Wynn, Albert Russell [MD-4] – 5/10/2007

The resolution was introduced April 24, and the dates that follow the names in the list are when each co-sponsor signed on.

Something momentous is about to happen, and it could mean the end of the Bush administration’s dominance over Congress. The Legislative branch is finally set to rear back on its hind legs and take a swipe at Bush by handing him his first veto override.

I’m betting that once it gets started, Congress will keep right on ripping.

The issue at hand is innocuous enough. On Friday, Bush exercised his fifth presidential veto to refuse legislation passed overwhelmingly to address one of this country’s worst domestic problems: water issues.

Bush brushed aside significant objections from Capitol Hill, even from Republicans, in vetoing legislation that provides $23 billion for projects like repairing hurricane damage, restoring wetlands and preventing flooding in communities across the nation…

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, pledged to work to override the veto. “We are facing a water infrastructure crisis and our national investment in water resources has not kept pace with our level of economic expansion,” Voinovich said.

You know Bush has blown it when even the Republicans are vowing to fight.

Bush never vetoed spending bills under the Republican Congress, despite budgetary increases then, too. Attempting to demonstrate fiscal toughness in the seventh year of his presidency, Bush risked being criticized for doing too little, too late and of waging a transparently partisan attack against the Democrats who now run Capitol Hill.

The president took the gamble, though without any public fanfare, as part of a broader effort to take on Democratic leaders frequently and more pointedly.

This is one bet Bush is going to lose. There are just too many good reasons to support the bill, and almost none to oppose it. The evidence of that is the bill’s easy passage — in the House the vote was 381-40, and in the Senate, 81-12.

One story labeled his strategy, “government by minority.”

But I think Bush miscalculated. He’s teasing the dog that’s always been tied to the tree one too many times. When the rope breaks and Congress gets a taste of blood — remembering what it feels like to be an equal participant in the governing process — who knows where it will stop?

Tomorrow:

House Resolution 333, the impeachment of Dick Cheney for High Crimes and Misdemeanors will be brought to the House floor by Congressman Dennis Kucinich as a privilege vote on Tuesday, Nov. 6th. American Research Group Poll says 54 percent of Americans favor the impeachment of Cheney and the National Lawyer’s Guild passed a Resolution for Impeachment on Friday, Nov. 2nd, giving further support for the impeachment proceedings.