Miers No Show! ARRRGH!

[orleans]

http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/live/

PURGE OF THE PROSECUTORS:
MIERS A NO SHOW!
A House panel began clearing the way today for contempt proceedings against former White House counsel Harriet Miers after she obeyed President Bush and skipped a hearing on the firings of federal prosecutors. Miers not appearing could subject her to contempt proceedings, including but not limited to INHERENT CONTEMPT authority of the House of Representatives.

WHAT IS INHERENT CONTEMPT?
Under the inherent contempt power, the individual is brought before the House or Senate by the Sergeant-at-Arms, tried at the bar of the body, and can be imprisoned. The purpose of the imprisonment or other sanction may be either punitive or coercive. Thus, the witness can be imprisoned for a specified period of time as punishment, or for an indefinite period (but not, at least in the case of the House, beyond the adjournment of a session of the Congress) until he agrees to comply. The inherent contempt power has been recognized by the Supreme Court as inextricably related to Congress’s constitutionally-based power to investigate.

If Congress doesn’t use Inherent Contempt and goes to the Justice Department for subpoena enforcement it would fall to the US Attorney, a BUSH APPOINTEE, who may have to recuse himself for conflict of interest (as we suspected yesterday.) THAT would lead to the appointment of a SPECIAL PROSECUTOR which might be the BEST thing.

White House Counsel Fred Fielding wrote a letter to Miers’ lawyer George Manning that said, “Ms. Miers has absolute immunity from compelled congressional testimony as to matters occurring while she was a senior adviser to the president.” Here is the entire letter.

http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/live/

the letter from fielding to conyers and sanchez
http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/071007-letter-from-harriet-miers-attorney-re-hearing.pdf

[DS1]

1. Throw her ass in jail

[live love laugh]

5. For what? A pardon?

I guess the act of doing so would be significant, even if she was pardoned though.

[bdamomma]

8. call the reps

from the Judiciary Committee

tell them you support Inherent Contempt and to get Miers.


http://judiciary.house.gov/fullcommittee.aspx

[Az]

2. Start the five day clock

She has five days to appear before the senate or contempt charges should be filed. If charges are not filed then the Dems have problems with us. If they are filed then Miers has a problem with the law.

[MonkeyFunk]

7. She was subpoenaed by a House committee

not a Senate committee.

[Az]

12. Doh

I knew that. Stupid brain.

[frogcycle]

3. hell of a note that

we are talking about jailing sycophantic simpletons rather than the real guilty parties. Like the "terrists", they surround themselves with women and children - only in this case not "innocent" ones.

Well, so be it. Lock her up! So much for her brief brush with becoming a Supreme.

[blondeatlast]

4. This might be the best thing to happen.

I read in a thread yesterday--and sourced--that the WH counsel "ordered" her not to appear (that was precisely the word used in the source).

I may not have gotten the quote very accurately, but the intent seems pretty clear:

COVER-UP. and further: CONSPIRACY--right to the Oval Office.

[orleans]

6. there is a thread here from the talking points memo (i think)

that says whoever is telling her not to show up is breaking the law!

(hey georgie!!!)

[ljm2002]

9. Exactly...

...and just because we already know she'll not spend a day in jail for it (as Bush has the power to commute any sentence or pardon her), doesn't mean we should not continue down this road and make the attempt.

Because it will illustrate for the public just how far the white house is willing to go to cover up. And where there is a cover up, there is something to hide.

The big pitfall is, as usual, framing. If we allow the Republics to frame it as, "Oh they're just being mean", or, "They turned down the president's legitimate offers" etc., then we'll lose in the court of public opinion. We need to make it about the rule of law, we need to make sure there are comparisons of the president's offer with what has gone before -- these crises have happened before, and they have usually been worked out, so the obvious question to ask is, has Congress ever accepted a "deal" like the president offered: you can interview them behind closed doors, not under oath, and no transcript? Somehow I doubt it. BUT we need to get that out there, and NOW.

We're already being undermined because they continue to repeat the canard about Clinton firing "all of them 100%, so what's the problem when Bush fires a mere 10%?". Believe me, you and I know it's BS, but it plays with the majority of the populace who do not ever look at the fine points when these things are going on.

We have to play to the peanut gallery, not just the politically knowledgeable folk.

[asjr]

10. Could the committee have sent

a U.S> Marshal forthwith to arrest her? As we all know this pResident has gotten by with murder on a day by day basis. I'm tired of it. Someone, somewhere somehow has to take charge and do something. The longer this goes on the longer we will have a dictator in our midst. And our press corps needs to disband. They are worthless. And I wish they would quit laughing at the Chimps' stupid jokes. Don't they realize he is laughing at them?

[wryter2000]

11. As frustrating as this is

There's one bright side. If she could have BSed and "do not recall"ed her way through it, she would have. This means, she really CAN'T testify without the excrement hitting the cooling aparatus. If the courts do the right thing and enforce the subpena, they may be in deeper doo-doo than they already are.

[orleans]

13. you don't need "the courts" if they charge her with inherent contempt n/t

[wryter2000]

24. I sure hope they do n/t

n/t

[alphafemale]

14. Does she remind anyone else of that lovestruck widow hen from the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons?

http://imgred.com/

[youthere]

18. ...

:spray:

[blondeatlast]

23. Miss Prissy! Oh, that's perfect! nt

[drm604]

15. Can she be pardoned if she's jailed for coercive reasons?

...The purpose of the imprisonment or other sanction may be either punitive or coercive. Thus, the witness can be imprisoned for a specified period of time as punishment, or for an indefinite period (but not, at least in the case of the House, beyond the adjournment of a session of the Congress) until he agrees to comply...

If they imprison her for coercive (rather than punitive) reasons, can she be pardoned? Can you pardon someone who's not being held for a crime?

[BuyingThyme]

17. That's what I want to know:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1316017&mesg_id=1316017

[trashcanistanista]

19. Well technically the President can't pardon or commute

if he is linked in a criminal way to the person committing the criminal act or it is grounds for impeachment. However, he did with libby, got away with it, so I suspect he would do it with her. And not showing up for a subpoena IS a crime. The average person would be picked up and put in jail for that.

[orleans]

16. randi's talking about this now.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL30240.pdf

and check out the congressional oversight manual (link above)

do a search of inherent
it starts on page 32 and goes through page 53

[leftynyc]

20. Throw her ass in jail

How long did Susan McDougal rot for not testifying (although that was a grand jury)?

[Disturbed]

21. Will the House Committee have the spine to dispatch

the Fed Marshal to arrest her?

[phildo]

22. She is not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree

when it comes to lawyering.

I kicked her butt as a pro se when she sued me in a SLAPP suit here in Dallas, after I turned some of their folks here to the FBI.

Her claim was that I defamed them by listing and documenting their criminal activities.

They would be comical if it were not so pathetic.