With a final vote of 223-23 the motion to find Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolten in contempt for failing to honor congressional subpoena's over the politicization of the Justice Department - has passed.
Providing for the adoption of the resolution (H. Res. 979) recommending that the House of Representatives find Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolten, Chief of Staff, White House, in contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with subpoenas duly issued by the Committee on the Judiciary and for the adoption of the resolution (H. Res. 980) authorizing the Committee on the Judiciary to initiate or intervene in judicial proceedings to enforce certain subpoenas
And it's about damn time too.
Even though Congressional Republicans Staged a Walk-out to protest the vote and to yet again try to fear-monger Americans into supporting the Administration Illegal Domestic Spying operation - the measure passed.
Boehner:
We will not stand for this, and we will not stay for this. And I would ask my House Republican colleagues and those who believe we should be protecting the American people, to not vote on this bill. Let’s just get up and leave. (Applause)
If only they would stay gone -- but we all know they won't.
Repubs called the vote on Miers and Bolten a "Political stunt" but when a bill to temporarily extend the current version of the so-called "Protect America Act" came up - House Republicans voted against it.
Instead of "Protecting America" they would rather jump up and down and cry in support of the Senate bill which gives the telcom's immunity and shuts down all of the current lawsuits piling up against them for clear and obvious violations of FISA.
Let's also all remember that last years extension and expansion of FISA was pried out of Congress using a series of false threat warnings that Washington and Congress itself - were about to be attacked.
She says that on August 2nd, hours before lawmakers were to leave for a month long recess, word of specific intelligence led to increased security around the Capitol. Republican Congressman Zach Wamp of Tennessee said at the time, quote, the leaders of the committees of jurisdiction have been briefed on threats to the Capitol."
And in urging Congress to give Mr. Bush the extra spying powers he wanted, Senator Trent Lott said on that date that, quote, "the disaster could be on our doorstep." Congresswoman Harman said the unreliability of the so-called intelligence about the attack on the Capitol before the 9/11 anniversary was only made clear the very day lawmakers approved the temporary expansion of Bush‘s spy powers. "That specific intelligence claim, it turned out, was bogus," said Representative Harman. "The intelligence agencies knew that."
Talk about over-playing the fear card.
And we're supposed to trust these people when they say there was nothing improper or illegal going on when they fired a bunch of U.S. Attorneys for no good reason? Yeah, right.
Today's vote brings us one step closer to answering the question of why nine experienced and credible U.S. Attorney's - who happened to be positioned in critical "battle-ground" states - were fired and replaced by maliable political hacks such as Tim Griffin?
Although most of the major players in the tragic dramedy such as former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have already fled from the stage, exactly how much of these decisions and activities were directed by the White House and Karl Rove's office - which would have been a gross violation of the Hatch Act, and quite likely a conspiracy to violate the letter and intent of the Voting Rights Act by using the DOJ to suppress and harrass democratic voters with Caging and pre-emptive indictments - remains to be uncovered.
The sticky wicket here is this: The DOJ has already officially stated they will not enforce this contempt charge. They will convene no grand jury. They will not arrest and detain Miers or Bolten. This has been seconded and confirmed by Attorney General Mukasey.
The question remains in my mind as to whether this matter is settled. Although Rep Wexler claims:
I am pleased to inform you that today's legislation allows Congress to bypass the Attorney General
From my reading of the bill it does not appear to call for Inherent Contempt which would charge the House Sargeant-at-Arms to immediately take Bolten and Miers into custody as was done in 1927.
In McGrain v. Daugherty, a recusant witness (the AG's brother) refused to comply with issued subpoenas. The Senate issued a warrant authorizing its sergeant at arms to take custody of the witness and bring him before the bar of the Senate to answer questions. The deputy sergeant at arms went to Cincinnati, Ohio to pick up the uncooperative witness to place him in custody. The witness objected by filing habeas corpus, but the Supreme Court upheld Congressional legal authority to use its own process to compel persons to appear and testify on issues needed to enable Congress to exercise its Constitutional legislative function.
However the relevent resolution does come very close, as this vote appears to establish the Judiciary Committee itself as the court which will convene these proceedings, with Chairman Conyers as the Judge.
Resolved, That the Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to initiate or intervene in judicial proceedings in any Federal court of competent jurisdiction, on behalf of the Committee on the Judiciary, to seek declaratory judgments affirming the duty of any individual to comply with any subpoena that is a subject of House Resolution 979 issued to such individual by the Committee as part of its investigation into the firing of certain United States Attorneys and related matters, and to seek appropriate ancillary relief, including injunctive relief.
Sec. 2. The Committee on the Judiciary shall report as soon as practicable to the House with respect to any judicial proceedings which it initiates or in which it intervenes pursuant to this resolution.
Sec. 3. The Office of General Counsel of the House of Representatives shall, at the authorization of the Speaker, represent the Committee on the Judiciary in any litigation pursuant to this resolution. In giving that authorization, the Speaker shall consult with the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group established pursuant to clause 8 of Rule II.
It seems that this authorizes Conyers to request any Federal Judge to enforce the contempt charge and the subpeona, even if the DOJ does excersize it's authority (responsibility) to do so. The committee may now be able to act as a judge would and call for the House Sargent-at-Arms to take direction action without referal to the DOJ.
People, this is HUGE and we could see Mier and Bolten bunking in Judy Miller's penthouse cell any day now.
Either that, or they might finally admit what they were trying to do to our elections when they started playing three-card monty with our U.S. Attorney's.
A'int Democracy sweet?
Vyan