The White House has just thrown Miracle-Gro on to the tenacious Constitutional confrontation between Bush and Congress over the latter's investigation into the firing of U.S. prosecutors.
Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.
Go ahead and file contempt charges, the administration is saying. Under federal law, those charges can only be pursued by a U.S. attorney. And because the administration won't let the Justice Department approve such a pursuit, the charges will die from neglect.
The power-grab here is pretty astonishing. The president isn't just asserting that his invocation of executive privilege trumps Congress' power of oversight, a claim that is at least plausible; he's asserting that such invocation of executive privilege in the face of a contempt citation can never be challenged in court, because the Justice Department will simply refuse to bring the charges.
Now, this claim is currently limited to the narrow question of Congress filing contempt charges. But within that narrow scope it effectively puts the President above the law. And since contempt charges are Congress' main weapon against executive privilege claims it removes most limits on such claims.
True, Congress could still file a civil lawsuit to force a judicial decision on a specific claim. But such a decision would lack teeth. Say Congress wins its civil lawsuit, and the president still refuses to turn over documents. What recourse does Congress have? Nothing short of impeachment, with contempt charges off the table.
But beyond that, why can't the same logic be applied to any violation of federal laws that rely on the Justice Department for enforcement? Commit the crime, then forbid Justice to investigate; it's a get-out-of-jail-free card, with (once again) impeachment the only remedy.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - gonzo marx
i've gotta cast my vote for "delaying tactic"
but this whole "executive privilege" thing is just ludicrous
please point it out in the Constitution?
if Memory serves, it was Eisenhower that first used the broad and currently proposed definition of the term "executive privilege" as part of a "unitary executive" concept
but it's a sticky one, and some Administrations push further than others
it would appear, however, that there needs to be the proper checks and balances to said privilege...usually an "in camera" kind of closed hearing , where Oversight can be done properly without the possibility of secure information (national security, NOT political) can be protected and yet oversight duties can be achieved...
overall, another good read, Sean...
/golfclap
Excelsior?
2 - moonraven
Way too much shitting around between the executive and the congress.
Cosidering that the executive has broken a number of laws, including the FISA--there's really no need to do the frustrated tapdance that the congress is doing.
The criminal has ADMITTED he broke the law. Arest his ass and throw him in jail.
Stop all the butt-patting and pork-barrel protecting and just do it--that's this poster's take on the whole mess.
3 - bliffle
Apparently, GWB can declare whatever interesting new laws he likes, just by fiat. For example, apparently he can seize your property if he thinks you're interfering in the government operations in Iraq. Huh? Howzat?
citation
As usual, it was entirely missed by the Wimpy Cabal Of Inferior Bloggers at BC. Or was it purposely ignored? Like the NIE?
Here's a teaser:
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 17, 2007
Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq
...
I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that, ...it is in the interests of the United States to take additional steps .... I hereby order:
...
all property and interests in property of the following persons, ... are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt...
(i) to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of:
(A) threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq; or
(B) undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq ...
...
Any transaction by a United States person or within the United States that evades or avoids, has the purpose of evading or avoiding, or attempts to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.
...
there need be no prior notice ...
...
The Secretary of the Treasury may redelegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies ...
This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right, benefit, or privilege, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, instrumentalities, or entities, its officers or employees, or any other person.
Welcome to neo-soviet America.
4 - Sean Aqui
Bliffle: You forgot the hat-tip to Gun-Toting Liberal.
This isn't as big a deal as GTL makes it sound. It simply extends existing practice regarding anti-U.S. terrorist activities to cover activities aimed at the government of Iraq.
If you read the referenced laws, you'll find that he's merely exercising authority granted him by Congress, specifically section (b)(2)(A).
One can disagree with the underlying assertions -- that the identified groups are actually terrorist supporters, that donations of humanitarian aid "seriously impair" Bush's ability to deal with terror -- but his legal authority is clear.
5 - Clavos
"The criminal has ADMITTED he broke the law. Arest his ass and throw him in jail."
Can't.
It's an illegal confession.
He wasn't Mirandized first.
Heh.
6 - moonraven
Clavos,
With the death of Roberto El Negro Fontanarrosa (snif snif for the Black Humorist of My Dreams), I think it's only fair to alert you that there are a number of his series Boogie el aceitoso and Inodoro Pereya available on different sites for downloading.
I am really surprised that you haven't told us that Boogie is your hero.
Just for a teaser, or what your minion chris would call a "heads up"--I am sure you will have really hot pants for the strip called El niño vietnamita....
7 - moonraven
Los últimos románticos will aurely tickle your recognition laugh, too....
8 - bliffle
The legal authority is not clear at all. They claim an authority but it is tenuous at best. As is the underlying law. This would make a suitable test of our new Originalist SCOTUS. Any Strict Constructionist would agree, I would think.
I have no idea who GTL is.
9 - Clavos
MR,
¿Conoces este sitio?
10 - Nancy
For once I agree wholeheartedly w/MR: some of those spinless wimps in congress should simply march over to the White House & make a citizens arrest of/on Dubya & Dickie, both. What surprises me - altho I suppose it shouldn't - is that no Republicans seem to be at all outraged by this sort of cavalier &/or lawless behavior. Is it because it's a GOP president? Are they not mindful that if Dubya gets away with it, so can anybody else? After all, he's thumbing his nose at ALL congressmaggots, not just the Dems.
Personally, I think he may be setting himself up for a coup in 2008: he & Dick (or more accurately, Cheney & Dubya) will simply refuse to step down. Whaddaya gonna do about it? Because congress will surely just sit & wring their hands & gas more hot air & in the end ... do nothing. Cripes, what a cynosure job being a congressmaggot is: perks, overpaid, overprivileged, arrogant - you don't have to do anything whatsoever to earn it - & the same stupid jerks who voted you in will continue to vote for you next time, in all probability. Look at all the fools who voted for Dubya, after all. Twice.
11 - moonraven
Nancy,
they do not do anything, and they will not do anything because:
1. Half of them are too cowardly
2. The other half think whatever Bush and Co. have done is just fine--and are waiting for a chance to do the same thing.
12 - gonzo marx
not handing Power over as outlined in our Law when the time comes as properly delineated is indeed cause to exercise the Jeffersonian Option
ooops..looks like there are exceptions to moonraven's simplistic dualist dichotomy
some thoughts on simplistic viewpoints
Excelsior?
13 - moonraven
clavos,
por supuesto que sí.
14 - moonraven
gonzo,
the situation is shocking simple.
You cowards choose to make it LOOK complicated so that you don't have to do anything.
15 - gonzo marx
moonraven - you continue to attempt to goad and insult me with this whole "coward" bit
fortunately, i'm secure enough to know it's pure bullshit, but i also find it amusing that a night bird who has fled the very country she is talking about fighting for has the cojones to call another a coward amidst her own hypocrisy...
that's ironic, kiddies
and things tend to not be as simple as the simple minded view them to be
Excelsior?
16 - moonraven
Keep kidding yourself.
I have offered to flush the US several times.
Couldn't care less what happens to you folks.
17 - moonraven
To be sane in a mad time
is bad for the brain, worse
for the heart. The world
is a holy vision, had we clarity
to see it " a clarity that men
depend on men to make.
-Wendell Berry, The Mad Farmer Manifesto: The First Amendment
18 - gonzo marx
a hollow offer with no semblance to Reality attached to it
and we know you could care less, a nice cover for your personal cowardice in fleeing...but sociopaths justify themselves however is possible so they can hide
you just keep deceiving yourself as to self importance
i'll keep pointing out hypocrisy
and standing up for my Thinking as well as doing what i can via legal means until and unless the time comes when drastic measures are required in my opinion
Excelsior?
19 - moonraven
Have a goof funeral, sucker gonzo.
Meanwhile:
“We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
20 - moonraven
1967....
21 - Nancy
Gonzo, yer talkin' to a brick wall, there. Clavvie & I already said that, repeatedly. Undeterred, MR rants on anyways....
22 - gonzo marx
so now you are stating it's about timing?
a decent enough Argument on it's face...the Trick here is ...according to who?
merely because some perceive things more urgently than others is no reason for some to toss aside their own Ethical considerations without good Reason to do so...and those reasons must satisfy the Individual making the decision...
NOT because of the cawings from a migrating carrion eater
your mileage may vary
Excelsior?
23 - moonraven
WHICH ethical considerations, precisely?
You sure keep those close to your chest, I guess.
Getting off one's ass and going to someplace that one perceives to be much better is hardly cowardice. Nor is it "fleeing".
Staying and doing nothing is cowardice. And it is FLEEING from one's ETHICAL responsibilities.
I would like just ONE person on this site to tell me what HE or SHE has done to put a stop to the destruction that your government is doing around the planet we live on--and to YOU.
Just ONE.
24 - gonzo marx
what you would like is immaterial
remember those considerations you mentioned about not wanting to put too much info online?
all i'll share is that it could possibly be much more than someone who flees the field before the Battle even begins
as for the Ethical considerations, let's start by working within the Law and Constitution which i personally consider important to uphold and defend
Excelsior?
25 - moonraven
Published on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 by Huffington Post
Now It’s On to Iran and Let’s Win There!
by Steven Weber
We are rapidly approaching a karmic bitch slap, kiddies.
Don’t think ’cause we have iPhones and drive Navigators and run our air conditioners ’round the clock that we’re immune from history’s all-powerful undertow. We are not. We will join the parade of nations who succumbed to the intoxicating effects of their own poetry, who allowed their loins to trump their minds, who permitted hubris and greed to relentlessly infect its population, and their collective egos to swell until the outer skin blistered and popped and oozed life itself, puddling onto the sooty ground that was once home.
We are like them, make no mistake. And if we don’t address what is happening right now in a specific oval shaped office in a specific nation’s capitol, then it will be over and we will be standing around like idiots after a storm and we will look at all the other victims and they at us and we will still be unable to comprehend what has happened anymore than a steer does before it is stunned with a short swift blow to the head. And if you think this is just another liberal blog shouting anti-authoritarian bullshit, you’d be wrong. Because good things go bad all the time. Sweet, pure babies are born and grow into monsters. Republics are hewn by gritty, passionate pioneers of freedom only to have those founders ousted and the nation forcibly occupied and run by fat-assed, profiteering chicken hawks.
Must we wait for the Neo-Cons’ Lee Atwater moment, the deathbed retraction of all their unfair, unethical, inhuman behavior they’ve engaged in? Ain’t gonna happen, chums. Think of what America was and what it has become. And once you grasp that then look only a little farther ahead to what will be. You don’t need a pie chart or a power point presentation. All the work’s been done and done and it is in-fucking-fallible. To see the future one need only look to the past. Look at BushCo and his Neo-Con stormtroopers: the more intense their denials, the more incendiary their threats, the more their eyes pop and their veins swell, the closer they are to their ideological orgasm: Fascism. We either heed the signs and choke it off or run before you get drenched. Constitution of the United States: prepare for the money shot!
So, good bye, Abe Lincoln. So long, Thomas Jefferson. Adios, Greatest Generation. You are over. Greed has won. Money has won. Might has won. The beasts of our nature have won. And so it is left for another future people to escape from the tyranny of their oppressive masters, to forge with their sweat and soul a nation that stands apart from the mechanized soulless empires that writhe about the surface of the depleted planet, and who can hopefully learn from our mistakes and create a nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Best known for having played a string of affable, horny fools and affable, quirky sociopaths, in a logical next step Steven Weber played the appealingly prickish chairman of a television network on NBC’s recent Studio 60, finally attaining the credentials to become a spewer of hyperbolic, liberal-leaning outrage, which first burst forth some 6 years ago.
© 2007 The Huffington Post