Matt Stoller: The Pelosi and Rahm "Social Club" Neuters Conyers Investigation

[babylonsister]

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1280

The Pelosi and Rahm "Social Club" Neuters Conyers Investigation
by: Matt Stoller
Tue Sep 11, 2007 at 14:18:54 PM EDT

This is just disgusting behavior from Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel.

House Democratic leaders have decided to postpone a vote on a criminal contempt resolution against White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for several weeks, and possibly longer, according to top lawmakers and aides.

The decision delays any constitutional showdown, at least for the moment, between Congress and President Bush over the extent of executive privilege and the president's ability to fend off congressional investigations.

Rarely do fights between the Speaker and Chairman break into public, but this one is.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said he is uncomfortable with the delay and worries the House will be seen as toothless unless it moves quickly to hold top officials in contempt for failing to provide documents and testimony in congressional probes...

Conyers said it was critical for Congress to enforce its subpoenas against executive branch officials, including senior White House aides.

"Otherwise, we just become a (social) club," Conyers said, adding that he would be reviewing the issue with Pelosi soon.

Conyers is correct to note this, and he should be applauded for his willingness to stand up for Congress's duty to investigate and hold the executive branch accountable for its activities. Apparently, though Pelosi and Emanuel are so craven they seek to make Congress irrelevant.

Congress deserves its low regard. I am tired of being betrayed by people like Pelosi, Emanuel, and Hoyer, who treat Congress like a social club. They are at this point as responsible as partisan operatives like Petraeus for the sad situation of our government.

[redqueen]

1. They'd better listen to Conyers.

The natives are getting restless.

We've seen two stolen elections, and precious little done about it.

People might start getting the wrong idea...

[OzarkDem]

3. Maybe Conyers should investigate Rahm & Nancy

both seem to be working hard to avoid doing their job and pursuing investigations of criminal activities.

Given that this may involve national security issues, some might call their cowardice treason.

[cascadiance]

12. Hmm... I wonder if they could claim executive privilege if Conyers were to subpoena them!

[mod mom]

16. I agree. Let Conyers do his job. As Chairman, it should be up to him. Rahm is a BIG

obstacle just as he was with Howard Dean before the '06. I wish the good people of IL could find a better choice.

[snappyturtle]

2. I am not surprised. Anyone else?

Well, when would they do this anyway? They're out Thursday and Friday, aren't they? Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan? Then I think Reid said they're off for a week at Columbus Day,10-8 and the House is looking to wrap up the year the end of October and the Senate November 6th or so....I tried finding exact dates today....hard to find. Yep, Pelosi's right: there's not enough time to impeach BECAUSE they're always gone!

edit: I wish Conyers lots of luck....this isn't going to happen at all....it will be delayed forever.

[OzarkDem]

4. They have a lot of work to do

perhaps they need to stay in session through November.

[snappyturtle]

18. Wouldn't you think? Suppose they got to work on their coffers! nt

[Warren DeMontague]

5. How many weeks is "several"?

I usually stick up for Pelosi, but they need to MOVE on this.

[Ugnmoose]

6. Thee is one way to stop this crap

All those Dems who will fail to uphold their oath of office need to be challenged in their respective primaries. We need to demand accountability and we need to get it - or else.

[GeorgeGist]

7. Don't sweat it John ...

the House is already seen as toothless. What with all those flapping gums who could not have noticed?

[judaspriestess]

8. all they care about is themselves and their pathetic political

careers. Disgusting.

[bigtree]

9. they didn't neuter anything. they delayed it for a couple of weeks

Obviously Pelosi and the others *weren't able to get enough support to proceed. I don't care about the delay, I just want them to do it right and to avoid handing another opportunity to republicans.

We all know the ultimate obstacles to proceeding with the contempt charges, including the ultimate obstruction expected from the appointees overseeing the process at Justice. It makes perfect sense for Pelosi and others to be concerned that when this comes up for a vote, it has the maximum amount of support to propel it into action.

[babylonsister]

10. You might want to take that up with Conyers then. He seems none too

pleased. And at what point do we stop giving Pelosi a pass? There's always some excuse...

[SoCalDem]

11. Sorry Nancy.. I don't agree with this one..

Part of being a majority is to set the agenda.. Set up the hearing, invite the repubes..If they don't want to come,..oh well..

Did they EVER "consult" the dems when they ran the show?? I do recall them locking the doors to keep them out..and then calling the cops when dems complained.

[Amonester]

27. Yeah... "but we R not like THEM... we Kompromise..."

"That's why we R so .... busy working... for the Korporations that send us big bucks. Screw the progressive "fringe" who help us get elected... Without them, we'd have nobody... busy working... for us during elections. Now that we're in, screw them."

[Usrename]

13. Support?

What the hell are you babbling about?

Nancy is speaker, we have a majority.

What kind of support is it that you think is needed?

Support from the voters?

Where is the imaginary obsticle that needs more "support" to be overcome?

[Generator]

14. Ah yes a scocial club that never offends anybody

and pretends to be different (wink wink) from that other social club in town. Is that about right?

Damn Conyers! You are earning my bumbpersticker of you! Take them out! Take them on!

[madrchsod]

15. rahm will sell anyone out

he is the most destructive person in the democratic party. i know he so well connected that no one dare cross him..he`s another shining example of the level of corruption in the illinois democratic party

[Javaman]

17. ...

and so it goes. Running out the clock. wasn't democracy nice while it lasted?

[Hawkowl]

19. Nancy is WEAK

Pelosi is going to screw the pooch bigtime over bend over and take it stance. Appease, delay, not even much hand wringing. Cowards!

[rateyes]

20. "adding that he would be reviewing the issue with Pelosi soon."

HOW SOON? Maybe when they get back after the December holiday break?

[robinlynne]

21. what the hell, Speaker Pelosi? How dare you.

[riverdeep]

22. Yes, it would be 'awkward' in the hallways

You just don't do that to colleagues don't you know? The Republicans spent years and millions to get Clinton on a land deal that occurred before he took office, not caring one whit about appearances, and we can't get even obvious breaches of law to get the minimum enforcement.

This reminds of seeing John Dean on Olbermann last night. He said the pubs play hardball and do it much, much better than the dems. As much as it pains me, he's right. Our reps, with some exceptions, are wimps. In 1776 they'd be the ones saying, "now c'mon, is a revolution really necessary? Taxation isn't that high. Let's wait till next decade, that'll be a better time."

[nashville_brook]

23. Conyers "worries the House *will be* seen as toothless" -- too late!

that train left the station months ago.

[Richard Steele]

24. In 2006, the USA voted for the Conyers approach, not Rahms DINOism or Pelosi's "biz as usual".

Emanuel is a repub cancer within the democratic Party;
I honestly don't know what Nancy's deal is. Not with
any certainty.

This country doesn't want politeness applied here;
we want the Occupation ENDED,
we want the criminals TRIED.

[Drum]

25. Such a shame Mr. Conyers would even have to remind

the Speaker of the House these things. Ms. Pelosi doesn't really seem too worried about the ole separation-of-powers thing, does she?

Others have said it, and I too think that there should be no movement on confirming the new AG without these subpoenas being observed, and the US Attorneys' case moving forward unimpeded.

[OneBlueSky]

26. the sad fact is that most in Congress do not disagree with what BushCo is doing . . .

either in Iraq or domestically . . . their actions speak far louder than any words of protestation . . .

[PATRICK]

28. Let's call it the "centrist"

party leadership in DC, for want of a less polite but more accurate description.

A fat lot of good they were for Bill Clinton, their guy.

A fat lot of good they were for Gore and were somewhat unenthused and oblique about his fight to regain a stolen election.

A fat lot of good they did for Kerry and you can see how much they respond to his leadership now. And a fat lot of good Kerry did in joining them in the discipline of disdain cast upon the progressive 'upstarts' who were doing things about such peripheral matters as election fraud.

A fat lot of good they did for themselves, having obtained the power then running from it to successfully triangulate the GOP, the American public and party progressives against them. This stunning progress has an anti-brilliance, a stupid genius about it that is more numbing than one of Junior's soliloquies on democracy.

The uneasy relationship of everyone doing their part for the party, such as Rahm's search for the most electable fearful, accommodating DINO in fearful districts and competitive sneers at Dean's 50 state boldness, is something they never tire striving against daring a grass roots local "insurgence" to go after them at a time when the usually disinclined progressives see rightly as inappropriate and dangerous to party and nation. Like the old Soviet Union they lash out most in the twilight of their decline. Likely they will never be "purged" or even moved against as they move against what is wrongly termed the "far left". Would some real socialists care to clue them in what the term "left" even means? And that only the word "far" is accurate because it is so far from power and the mind of America as to be irrelevant even as a strawman. There is a sneaking suspicion among the elite money Dems that unions and blacks with incomes under 80 grand a year are the far left and that they should eschew the honed rhetoric that has embarrassingly never lost its relevance and timeliness, only its political representation and government protection.

As the GOP gears up for a savage attempt to win at all costs, the centrists are seeking ways to edit success and capitalize on defeat and not be beholden or empowered by anyone except those who sponsor the GOP as well(in other words corporate bi-partisanship is all, keep the people suckered into a 50-50 parity powerlessness).

dean offered many "commandments based on principle and proper, positive politics." In response the nation and party gets mooned by the @$$h0les in the retreating leadership. I am most reminded of the example of General Horatio Gates, one of the two or three arrogant wipes who would have replaced Washington at the behest of the nervous Continental Congress, ever the body impressed by the pompous and the rich. At saratoga with the greatest victory of the war at hand Horatio Gates alone and followed by none, led the charge to the rear and may not have stopped until he reached Philadelphia to there demand Washington's job by blaming him for the disaster. The competent, no vain, grimly enduring Nathanael Greene won that battle with the vets of past disasters. He won in the South until Cornwallis was trapped in Yorktown. He never once bucked for the top job or battlefield glory. Greene is the type of our grass roots people in every state. Lee and Cornwallis are the typecast worthies of Dem centrists and "blue" dogs today, with a sneer that delights in the defeat of rivals more than enemies to the nation, that praises the esteemed enemy that their army of rubes is unworthy to face on the field of battle.

Today the names of the pompous cowards are nearly, almost politely, forgotten. So too will be the failed leadership of toady's democratic party even as we must carry the whole ragged band, again, against the classic tyranny of this world.

In military terms the centrists protect their center rear and like Paul Revere in reverse raise the alarm of defeat- and despair- to which hopefully no one responds.

[tom_paine]

29. The Imperial Congress does indeed deserve it's rock-bottom ratings

German Social Democrats of 1933 is wht they are. Possibly worse and less oppositional even that that. No kidding.

[mmonk]

30. This Congress is a little better than the previous one, but it is

still what Eisenhower warned us about. It is still the military, industrial, congressional complex and will still run with the lies and protect those that have gone against the people and the constitution. It is something I will never forget nor something I can forgive as long as I live.

[femrap]

31. K & R

Everyone needs to get on the phone as well as get out their pens and paper. I'm calling and writing Pelosi and telling her to do her JOB which is to defend the Constitution and our Rule of Law.

Damn it. She'll end up giving women a bad name....like we need that anymore than we already have....given that the only war that W has going in his favor is the War Against Women. And Pelosi is being complicit.

Shit.

[Beelzebud]

32. So they are just going to roll over and make themselves irrelevant?

No wonder this group of wimps and losers has a lower approval rating than Dick Cheney.

[lonestarnot]

33. Pelosi's smile about says it for me.

[Senator]

34. This Is About Impeachophobia

Conyers should take this opportunity to rescue the party from the DC LieberDem "leadership."

He should announce an inquiry for possible impeachment hearings. Let them try to shut that down in the back room of their lavish social club.

Without impeachment, we've got Blue Flu coming big time in 2008.

Failure To Imeach Is Complicity... approval ... exoneration for the regime.

--

[Raster]

35. Yessiree, any minute now the Pelosi-is-doing-a-good-job flies will start buzzing.

Here's a prediction for ya: Pelosi will continue to show her allegiance to another power other than that of the American people. Pelosi is a corporatist tool and a sell-out. She needs to be replaced. How unfortunate the first Woman to become Speaker of the House is just as tainted as some of her male predecessors. And we had such high hopes. I call it the Sandra Day O'Connor syndrome. Could'a, should'a and SOLD OUT!

Wake up, America!:kick: