You want a good sense of just how bad things have become between this administration and Congress? Take a look at what happened Monday:
While calls mount for his resignation, Fredo Gonzales had the chutzpa to hold a press conference to tout all the good things his department has done to stem "identity theft." (He does however, state that he finds the theft of government computers loaded with taxpayer data "troubling" and "problematic" - and no doubt takes full responsibility for it.) Meanwhile, Fredo's boss, and even his press secretary are being very emphatic in a series of statements post-Fredo testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, that they believe he is doing a great job with everything from stemming terrorism to child predators to getting Sanjaya dumped from American Idol.
But these clear FUs to Congress about Fredo are just a small part of a very clear pattern of administration contempt and loathing for the other branches of government, except as tools to do their bidding:
Look at the evidence:
The whole rigamarole with the midnight rewriting of the Patriot Act to allow DOJ to make interim appointments of USAs without the mess of having home-state Senators retain their role of advise and consent, was completed in such a way that virtually nobody in the Senate even knew what had happened. It was clearly engineered by the White House and the DOJ and took away an important Congressional right without any hearings. (It is still a mystery as to why Sen. Specter allowed his office to be used to make the changes in the legislation at the last minute and without consulting his colleagues.)
DOJ subsequently told Senators that they would be able to get full-time USAs appointed with advise and consent, but it is now clear that in reality, DOJ shared with the white house a total and utter contempt for Congress as an institution. As DOJ planners communicated to each other in the run-up to the mass firings, if there was going to be any objections by any Senators, the drill would be to "gum things to death," stall and obfuscate until "things ran out," meaning the end of the current administration's term in office. In essence...FU
You get a full sense of just how little DOJ and the White House care about the Congress when you realize that in numerous cases, they were screwing GOP Senators by dumping their appointees, including John Ensign of Nevada and now Senators Stevens and Murkowski of Alaska - folks you would think the White House would want as allies in the battles which were clearly looming as the Democrats came into power, armed with subponas and anger.
But that's just one area in which the White House and the administration have continually been telling Congress FU! Via TPM Muckraker today:
General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan shocked the world last month when she gave a performance at a House hearing that was enough to make even Gonzales cringe.
In January, Karl Rove's deputy, Scott Jennings, arrived at the GSA to give a briefing on Republican political prospects. After the presentation, Doan reportedly asked aloud what the GSA could do with its considerable taxpayer-funded assets "to help our candidates." When asked about the briefing at the hearing, Doan pleaded a fuzzy memory (my note - and in a manner which was almost laughable in its bald-faced lies about the inability to remember seeing the presentation that made up the heart of the meeting...a detailed PowerPoint based on 2008 key race data put together by Karl Rove's office. The only thing she seemed able of remembering was that cookies were served.)
Ever since the briefing was revealed, Democrats have been vainly trying to get answers from the White House about this and other presentations. So today, 25 senators wrote the White House, demanding answers. ... "The Executive Branch is not an extension of the Republican National Committee," it reads, "nor of any political party. Those who treat it as such must be held accountable."
Senators Wyden and Dorgan today put together a listing of Ms. Doan's actions which they deemed grounds for her dismissal:
Other alleged ethics or legal violations include:
-- Doan’s overruling and removal of several career GSA contract negotiators who questioned the GSA’s awarding of a contract to Sun Microsystems. Another contract negotiator was brought in, approved the contract and received a location transfer, which previously had been denied. Critics charge that Sun gives private customers lower prices than taxpayers and they that estimate the awarding of the contract cost taxpayers more than $5 million in wasteful spending.
-- Doan’s attacks on the GSA’s Office of the Inspector General, which has included drastic budget cuts and her referring to the IG’s investigators as terrorizing her. Individual Offices of the Inspector General independently investigate waste, abuse and fraud in federal agencies.
-- Doan’s participation in a January 26, 2007, political briefing for GSA employees on how the GSA could promote Republican congressional candidates in 2008. Speakers allegedly included Doan and J. Scott Jennings, the White House deputy political affairs director. The federal Hatch Act of 1939 prevents federal government and agency employees from using their jobs for political purposes.
-- A $20,000 no-bid contract Doan awarded to a close personal friend for a 24-page report on diversity even though the GSA has its own communications and public relations staff. By law, the contract should have been competitively bid.
And of course, to date, calls for Ms. Doan to resign or even respond to requests for more details on her actions have been totally ignored both by her office and by the administration.
Meanwhile, Congressman Henry Waxman is well into week three and counting after asking Secretary of State Condi Rice to testify before his committee on how bogus claims about Iraqi purchases of uranium oxite from Niger made their way into administration justifications for the Iraq war. Via Raw Story, another example of the administration's general attitudes towards virtually any requests from Congress for information, testimony or even recognition:
A House Committee is still seeking testimony from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice... in spite of a 17-page letter sent by the State Department suggesting that a series of inquiries had already been answered in full. The head of the House Oversight Committee called the response "insufficient."
"After receiving an insufficient response from the State Department's Legislative Affairs office, Chairman Waxman reiterates his request for Secretary Rice to testify on April 18 regarding President Bush's claims that Iraq attempted to procure uranium from Niger and other subjects," states a note posted at the website of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
In a letter to the Secretary from Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), he states that "Mr. Bergner's letter does not answer many of the Committee's questions, nor does it provide most of the information and documents the Committee requested."
Waxman was particularly concerned with the way that the State Department's response dodged his specific questions on the faulty intelligence on possible Iraqi-Nigerien trade in uranium, which helped the Bush administration build the case for the current Iraq War.
Waxman in his letter argued that Bergner "forwarded copies of two old State Department letters that have no bearing whatsoever on your knowledge of, your role in, or your statements about the Niger claim."
The message from Waxman's office came with the public release of a letter sent by Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs Jeffrey Bergner. The 17-page document includes several pages explaining how the State Department believes it has responded to most of the the letters sent by Rep. Waxman.
In essence....State Dept. and Condi to Congress.....FU
On another front, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, soon after taking office, continually pressed Secretary Rice to state that the administration would not initiate a military conflict with Iran without a new approval from Congress. Rice stalled and twisted and finally said she would get back to Webb in writing with a response. I may have missed it, but to my knowledge, there never was any such response. Condi to Webb...FU
Remember Sam Fox? He's the guy who gave $50,000 to the Swiftboat efforts which severely damaged John Kerry's presidential bid. Bush wanted to name him Ambassador to Belgium but after Fox appeared before a Senate review committee and refused to apologize for his actions in funding a smear campaign, it was clear he would not win Senate confirmation. The administration then withdrew Fox's name but soon thereafter, used the ploy of a recess appointment (during a recess which lasted less than a week) to give Fox the post. Bush to Congress....FU
And the beat goes on. Karl Rove is instructed that because some of his e-mail correspondence sent outside normal White House channels might be germane to ongoing investigations, he is not allowed to delete past messages. Rove does it anyway. In addition, it is suddenly learned that as many as five million pieces of e-mail have gone missing. While there is no way to know for sure as yet, the timing of this "disappearance" when warnings had clearly been issued, and in light of the patterns of clear contempt for any efforts by outside authorities to manage, control or question their actions, gives rise to strong possibilities that the data was simply erased on direct orders from the white house, and very likely rove himself.
The white house has clearly acted with contempt for a long time now when it comes to dealings with Congress. Many long-time political observers have noted that white house operatives have rarely sent emissaries to Capitol Hill to forge strong ties with members of Congress. Instead, when they do visit, it is to mandate the actions Congress must take to support administration policies.
Getting back to Mr. Gonzalez, allow me to repeat part of a recent post detailing why he is not going to go gently into the night...why he and bush are clearly trying to tough it out:
bush's support for Fredo is not some token gesture. It is clear and it is strong. He and Abu clearly plan to try and tough this out, despite all the calls for the AG's departure by both Democrats and Republicans and claims that Abu "will be gone within days."
And the reasons why are clear:
1- bush never gives in to outside pressure (at least not at the time it happens).
2- His loyalty to Fredo, however misplaced, goes back to early Texas days
3- Fredo has been bush's passport for the legal justifications for anything he wants to do. It is clear that Fredo never bothered to spend much time himself worrying about small details as witness everything from habeas corpus to torture, wiretapping, and USAs. It has always been...tell me what you want and I'll find the way to justify it.
4- With about 18 months left to go and legal problems mounting, bush needs Fredo more than ever to cover his ass.
5- Who the hell would bush find to replace Fredo? Who would want a job of such short tenure with such large negative possibilities and the clear liklihood that whoever took the job would emerge with their own career and reputation in tatters?
6-the bush administration doesn't care a rat's ass what Congress thinks as witness their handling of USA appointments. Alaska...Alaska of all places, has now become a mounting problem for them because they overrode both Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski to appoint a USA up there without consulting the state's Senators.
Watch for the signs, for there will clearly be additional examples. Feel free to post your own examples for surely I have only touched the surface.
The bottom line is that bush and his senior team clearly view the office of the presidency as unfettered and not subject to any kind of effective control. They have continually rewritten laws and regulations on their own and recrafted the Constitution to suit their needs for everything from habeas corpus to torture to wiretapping, violations of the Hatch Act barring the use of government resources to advocate for a political cause.
At the same time, despite mounting calls, it also seems clear to me that while there are clear and compelling reasons why impeachment proceedings are in order, there just is not the stomach for such action before the end of this term. Unless Congress forces compliance and can get the courts to act in their role as a third and independent controlling influence, I fear for the future of our country, for we are truly being ruled by despots and dictators, aided and abetted by a complacent electorate, Congress and the courts....and worst of all...a toothless press.