Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy, (D-VT) was on “Meet The Press” this morning to discuss the ongoing DOJ and White House scandals. and clearly states that if George Bush and Dick Cheney continue to withhold requested documents and ignore the subpoenas they have been issued, he will hold a vote to hold them in contempt of Congress. If the Democrats are paying any attention to their miserable poll numbers and the blogs, they will see that America is clamoring for them to stand up to our out of control Executive Branch and force them to comply with the law. Leahy did well this morning, calling Timmeh out on his RNC, straw man question right out of the gate:
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Russert: “As you well know you’ve issued subpoenas on the Bush White House regarding the eavesdropping - wiretapping put in place by the President after September 11th. Critics this morning will say, Senator, that this plan is so essential for monitoring contact between international terrorists and people here in the United States, that subpoenas now is very very counter-productive and could effect our anti-terrorism situation.
Leahy: “Well, of course that’s the kind of talking point that the White House is trying to put out. The White House has chosen confrontation over cooperation I think that’s unfortunate. Nobody on my committee, Republican or Democrat, is trying to subpoena the operations of what’s been done in wiretapping terrorists…”
Filed Under: Alberto Gonzales, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Meet the Press, NBC, The Senate, White House
3 Trackbacks To “Leahy: If Bush And Cheney Don’t Cooperate With Subpoenas He Will Push To Find Them In Contempt Of Congress“
Dick Cheney before he dicks you.
If it comes to this and they don’t begin impeachment proceedings when Cheney flips them the bird for the 10,000 time forget it.
Are the video links working for anyone? Not for me… ??
I’m not getting video either.
If the Dems don’t stand up and roll out a series of punitive actions against this mutiny against the rule of law, they will be saddled with the blame as a result. Congress is supposed to be the ultimate cop.
OK… So it’s only the White House that has the security clearences to view secret intel…..hmmmmmm????.
Right……No Senators?…..They can’t afford the chance of a leak to the public.
If the public finds out …their in a world of hurt..
Russert once again, with his stupid/idiotic question/statment, proves that
he is totally out of touch with reality and is playing the usual dumbass
politics of the right-wing. Tim continues to disappoint me.
Jo-Ann @ 5:
Of course. And people are going to think hey if these guys-gals can’t stand up to Bush and Cheney what are they going to do if China or Russia starts trying to bully us around.
“National Security” information is really political information about Cabalist activities and frauds and corruption schemes.
The Republicans have ALWAYS operated like this.
no video
Uh maybe I’m just a radical or a liberal, but I believe that these Corporate News Pundits should be brought to justice for war crimes against humanity, including censoring and underreporting the failures in Iraq/Afghanistan. They have wall to wall Military Government Propaganda about Al Qaeda car fire bombs, while US Bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan killed hundreds, YESTERDAY! McClatchy News Papers claim that only One Hundred Iraqis died in June! Can you imagine? Unbelivable! Bizzaro World! We only want justice for the third world war. I’m not a democrat or a republican, I’m just a U.S. Citizen, regards PS Live Free or Die.
“A man is not what he wishes himself to be, a man is what his actions prove him to be.”
-Jean Paul Sartre
I guess that says that Cheney and Bush are :
Quislings!
quis·ling (kw¹z“l¹ng) n. A traitor who serves as the puppet of the enemy occupying his or her country. [After Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945), head of Norway’s government during the Nazi occupation (1940-1945).]
I wish Dems en masse would confront Timmah and the other RW-MSM talking heads every time they do this by simply saying “Well, that’s the White House’s current talking point, and as an impartial journalist I’m surprised to hear you mouthing it.” Can you imagine how slapped back Timmy boy, Chris Matthews and the rest would be?
Video doesn’t work.
►Shiva H Vishnu◄ @ 12:
In the course of the treason trials following the war, Quisling, along with two other Nasjonal Samling leaders, Albert Viljam Hagelin and Ragnar Skancke, was convicted of high treason and executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress.
Leahy didn’t seem to have “the fire in the belly” this morning. However, the context of his discussion with Timmy is excellent. But the Dems need more “fight” among their ranks. It’s time to take this country back!
Notice how when Bush and Cheney are in deep sh*t this stuff starts up constantly. I wonder if Rove controls the U.S. Media?
Suspicious package forces JFK evacuation
AP - 35 minutes ago
NEW YORK - Authorities found a suspicious package and evacuated the American Airlines terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday, but the package proved harmless, officials said.
L.A. Confidential @ 15:
Sounds GOOd to me!
The roof
the roof
the roof is on fire
These guys like timmeh need to be asked ….. who are these “critics” or “people” so we can find out who is feeding them the talking points ….. I would bet there would be lots of stammering trying to come up with a response.
Go get em Pat Leahy, that’s what America is waiting for!!! This is what Congress SHOULD be doing instead of waisting its time with other stuff (like phony terrorism etc.) which actually helps the GOP.
L.A. Confidential @ 17:
Of course, FEAR is their only card, so they not only play it…They PRAY for it, and if that doesn’t work, just leak some shit to the slimey media.
Jo-Ann @ 5:
Um, no, we the people are. Or at least, that’s what the founders thought.
Maybe it’s time to read the Declaration of Independence again folks. A wonderfully seditious document. Powerfully written and just as apt now as it was in 1776.
►Shiva H Vishnu◄ @ 18:
You forgot to put Rove in their. Cheney-Bush-Rove. The Trifecta
I’m not getting the video either, but I had to comment on this:
Russert: “Critics this morning will say, Senator, that this plan is so essential for monitoring contact between international terrorists and people here in the United States, that subpoenas now is very very counter-productive and could effect our anti-terrorism situation.
Russert, how about “Subpoenas now is very very very very very counter-productive.”? It has even more force to it.
Whenever you see someone using that many copies or extent of a qualifier, it usually means they are trying to convince themselves and realize their case is hopeless on its own merits.
Tim Russert and Chris Matthews are should be ignored at all costs from now on and have their ratings crashed . These guys ALWAYS suck up to Republicans and their talking points . Matthews tried some damage control this week by having John Edwards on the day after Coultergeist trashed Edwards wife WHILE MATTHEWS WAS SITTING THERE AND SMILING so this proves that his bosses are keeping an eye on the ratings and switchboard . Put the boots to these so-called journalists by changing channels .
Wow, little Timmy really is a living, breathing Squauking Point for the RNC. I never understand how these ‘journalists’ have the balls to immediately parrot the white house press releases like that.
How is it that this bunch of criminals can just defy Congress? If Harriet Myers and Sara Taylor are supoened and don’t show up ready to testify under oath, why can’t they be held in contempt, arrested and put in jail until they do? All this defiance from them and chest-pounding from the Democrats is getting very tiresome. It is waaaay past time to actually take some action against these people and that includes the apologist for them in the media.
Contact Leahy and tell him to use “inherent contempt” against the White House!!!! That circumvents both Alberto Gonzales AND the supreme court that has ruled that congress has complete authority over inherent contempt.
Sam Erwin used it to threaten Nixon’s White House in the 70’s, when he said if the people there ignored the congressional subpoenaes, he would send the Sargent at arms to the White House to BRING the people to the congress. Go to Daily Kos and read the linked article about inherent contempt.
Call Leahy and your representatives and tell them to charge the White House with inherent contempt.
►Shiva H Vishnu◄ @ 22:
Run to your basement or bomb shelters…we gotta scare you, with help of the MSM,
in order to keep you disinformed as to what is going on yestereday, today and tomorrow
in Afghan and Iraq. I am trembling in my boots with ALL of these terriorist threats;how about you? Sorry, I for one think it’s just more BS from this admin…Later, I’m going
shopping and not for duck tape or water and foods so I can hide out.
ecotopian @ 23:
I rewrote it to fit todays situations. If someone can help me out I will try to get C&L to lead it with an article.
OOPS - I can not find that file!
9:45 AM LA time and no vid…
Sorry for the inconvenience. We’re working on it now. Thanks for your patience.
Sitemonitor
Timmeh made Fox look fair and balanced this morning on his show,
Meet the Whitehousemouthpiece.
Stopped watching him quite some time ago.
[Deleted. Off topic]
A democrat making empty threats. Yawn. I’d like to see Leahy take some real action against the loser president. But that will never happen.
And this with another DOJ official quiting just this Friday. Apparently, Rachel Brand had also helped in the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. Now maybe she is not connected to the illegal wiretapping but with this Administration, who knows. In any case, this is just another bad mark for an already loathed Administration.
Seventh official quits Justice Department
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An assistant attorney general at the Justice Department announced her resignation on Friday, becoming the seventh official to quit the department since the Democratic-led Congress launched an investigation in March into the firing of nine federal prosecutors.
http://today.reuters.com/news/.....NATION.xml
Russert is the mouth of Sauron. Leahy is a fool. The Bushies would like nothing better than to have this matter drop in the lap of their Federalist Society justices. Leahy knows the Dems will loose that confrontation, which is exactly why he is pushing it. The Democrats then get kudos for having fought the unbeatable foe. What crap. The only way the Democrats can reestablish the balance of power and rule of law under the constitution is to impeach both George Bush and Dick Cheney. That will keep the Federalist Society hacks on the sidelines, allow the public to hear the evidence against the defendants sans all the MSM spin, and will, even if Bush and Cheney are acquitted, cripple their war powers, discredit their theory of unitary executive power and restore tripartite government if the Democrats have the guts to assert their authority.
Too bad that isn’t prosecutable. Face it people, your reps aren’t going to do shit about Cheney or Bush.
This one is interesting…
Unlike the Attorneygate stuff, they have clear evidence of a crime that is prima faciea, the FISA Act violations.
If the Senate Judicial Committee declares that they are investigating a crime, then the Senate Subpoena’s can not be ignored and executive priviledge doesn’t apply. Nixon fought this one to SCOTUS and lost.
It does lead to two very sticky points that are very serious:
1. A Special Prosecutor would have to be appointed and right now everyone in the Department of Just Us has recused themselves down to the Solicitor General, who in John Dean’s opinon should also recuse himself, but is not likely to appoint one.
This makes for a constitutional crisis.
2. Do the Dems want to risk taking this to the SCOTUS level given the NeoFascist cabal that Bush put in place and risk a legal precedent being established for an all powerful, monarchical executive?
Alito, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas are all Federalist Society protofascists, with Kennedy being the swing vote. Recent rulings though are going 5 to 4 on to the conservative side, but they have ruled against the White House in a number of key cases involving the detainees.
Its a very risky and dangerous time for America because of Bush & Cheney and what their protofascist think tank supporters have been quietly engineering for the last thirty years.
Now the Republic is hanging by a thread and congress knows it… especially Leahy and the other Senate Judiciary Committee members.
Somehow all this ‘tough’ talk seems a bit useless at this stage of game. Unless they plan to go after the War Pigs when their reign is over. So far all I see is a whole bunch of talk and very little action. Smoke and mirrors just to gain support for the ‘08 elections. The only way the dems will get my vote now is if they put some kind of royal smack-down on Preznit War Pigs’ White House. LOL…..I just might actually vote for Nader! Is he running?
Senator Patrick Leahy is a decent, reasonable man with respect for the law and our Constitution. I’m glad to see him reframe Russert’s questions in a way that revealed true events and facts and unspun the spin. I really enjoyed how he framed the issues as bipartisan congressional agreement vs. Whitehouse stonewalling and spin.
Tim Russert seemed to be a straight shooter once a upon a time, he seems uninformed and ignorant in this clip.
Tony @ 35:
Even though I’m a “card-carrying” member of that nebulous group known as “Independents” (and by our very definition, we carry no cards) I’m nevertheless troubled that lefties (of which I am one) are so quick to blame Democrats for all the scheit going on in the Administration–not because Democrats are responsible, but because “Democrats aren’t doing anything about it.”
I agree, I’d like to see some action, but keep in mind that the Senate especially is working with the slimmest of majorities–especially since LIEberman and Ben Nelson are not really Democrats at all, and many “sympathetic” Republicans on this subpoena issue (such as Specter, the ladies of Maine, Oregon’s Smith, et al.) *say* they want the White House to cooperate, but when it really comes to down to crunch time, they won’t vote to embarrass their own party’s administration.
In other words, Leahy is *not* working with a true majority, here. He’s going to need some leverage to bring a few Republicans around, and that’s not his fault (though it is his problem). He has to convince them that they’re being screwed by this stonewalling, too, which they are, of course. And people don’t often make changes until they’re too uncomfortable to keep doing things the way they have been.
Yes, the two parties worked together (and much more swiftly) during Watergate, but the politics of the time were not so poisoned. Remember that many more Southerners were Democrats, and Republicans were much more moderate at that time.
Jerry @ 40:
So Jerry, are you going to vote for the repugs instead?
Pat Leahy is leading a heroic effort. Americans know that the war on terror is a complete fake and that there is no such thing as Islamist enemies. Leahy is focusing Congress’ effort on the real enemies of the USA, being Bush and Cheney.
Rasputin @ 39: