White House Will FORCE Impeachment Inquiry - (Scott Horton)

[kpete]

Congress Cites Bolten and Miers for Contempt–But Is the Issue Really Impeachment?

BY Scott Horton
PUBLISHED February 15, 2008


It’s possible to view all of this as a sort of tempest in a teapot. And in the end it may turn out to be just that. But all the Sturm und Drang that surrounded today’s motion points to very hardball politics. I believe that Judiciary Committee Chair Conyers decided to plow ahead on this front for a specific reason.

..............................

I am betting that Conyers is pretty well informed about all of this and is awaiting the release of the internal Justice Department study, just as the White House and its political cronies in Justice are busily attempting to throw sticks in the spokes of the investigation to slow it down and delay the issuance of a final report with recommendations.

..................

But they are clearly within the jurisdictional remit of the Judiciary Committee. Moreover, if the Justice Department’s report implicates not just Rove, Miers and Bolten, but also Bush in the decision to fire for improper reasons—a conclusion which is now looking extremely likely—then it will be up to Conyers’s committee to press the investigation forward. In so doing, he is entitled to conduct hearings on the footing of impeachment. If he does, the executive privilege objection interposed by the White House and backed in another Constitution-defying opinion of the Attorney General, would not apply.

My guess is that the chess players are thinking several steps ahead of the game. It may or may not come to the sort of inquiry I am envisioning—that will depend in the first instance on the Justice Department’s own internal conclusions, and the pressure for the Justice Department to simply whitewash the matter may prove irresistible. But if it does come to a pointed inquiry into criminal conduct in the Oval Office relating to the dismissals, Conyers and his Committee want to be in a position of demonstrating that they have exhausted the other remedies—subpoenas and contempt citations—and have been stymied by the White House. In a sense, the White House will be forcing the opening of an impeachment inquiry by its own intransigence.

more at:
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002409

[tekisui]

1. The WH has been burning th candle at both ends for some time now.

It makes sense. Conyers wants to Impeach, but isn't allowed to based on the grassroots campaigns. I am still holding out hope that something is cooking.

[lisainmilo]

15. me too!

Let's hope.......:patriot:

[spanone]

2. k&r

[deminks]

3. k&r #5 nt

[annabanana]

4. I think that by pushing forward the trials of the Guantanamo inmates

they are forcing a trip to the Supreme Court of a ruling on the "wartime powers" of a President, knowing that the Court is tipped in their favor. The timing might overlap. . .

[babylonsister]

5. K & R-thanks, kpete! My optimism knows no bounds. So I have hope

Scott Horton is on to something! :thumbsup:

[radfringe]

6. what next when/if Justice Department refuses to proceed?

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_080215.htm

The Politico notes that "at the White House, press secretary Dana Perino called the contempt motions 'unprecedented,' 'outrageous,' an 'incredible waste of time' and 'a blatant sop to the far left.'"

The Washington Post notes that Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey "has told Congress that current and former White House officials who have refused to testify in a congressional inquiry probably did so based on the Justice Department's ruling that Bush's assertion of executive privilege was proper. That means that the Justice Department cannot now criminally charge someone for defying Congress based on its own previous legal advice, he said."

[hootinholler]

7. Then Mukasey should be held in inherent contempt.

That would allow him to be jailed until he complied.

-Hoot

[Supersedeas]

8. if pushed, Mukasey has shown that he will most probably white wash

[Jeffersons Ghost]

9. K&R! I hope you're right! n/t

[ThomWV]

10. One can only hope.

[Senator]

11. Eh, Perhaps ... But Then Why Delay 3 Times...

...until you get a public promise from Judge Torture NOT to act on any charge?

Seems more likely the DC-Dems are continuing to follow the Ziskey Doctrine of confrontation.

"Never hit anyone in anger unless you're absolutely sure you can get away with it." -- Russell Ziskey

Keep hammering them to impeach for torture. That's where truth must be acknowledged.

And where their moral, patriotic duty lies.

---

[RuleOfNah]

12. That's all very insidery but...

what about results? Publicly known crimes of the most serious nature have gone uninvestigated and unprosectuted for years. A few more paragraphs of brave wishes will no longer suffice.

Lead or get out of the way.

[L. Coyote]

13. kick

[bean fidhleir]

14. Horton's dreaming. Like so many people, he can't bear the truth.

Namely that Conyers isn't going to do anything. He's already got a nice, safe seat that pays a lot of money and perqs, so what does he have to gain?