From an email:
Two weeks ago, the House took a bold step demanding accountability for the Bush/Cheney Administration by holding former White House Council Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten in Contempt of Congress for blatantly ignoring congressional subpoenas for over 8 months.
Though it was not a surprise, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, wrote a letter to the House of Representatives stating that he refuses to call a Grand Jury to enforce those contempt citations.
The Attorney General’s letter, effectively claiming that members of the executive branch are immune from congressional subpoenas, calls for quick action. [..]
The House of Representatives must re-establish its legitimate rights as a co-equal branch of government. Congress cannot allow its power to be summarily ignored and justice delayed.[..]
This is not an issue between Democrats and Republicans. As members of Congress, we have an absolute duty to enforce the checks and balances prescribed by our Constitution.
We have ceded too much for too long, enabling George W. Bush to assume a unitary imperial Presidency. It is long past time to secure accountability for those who have, by all appearances, committed significant breaches of our laws and trust.
Mukasey’s claims are simply the latest in a long line of outlandish legal arguments ranging from the idea that we can selectively cherry-pick from torture laws to the concept that the Vice President is no longer part of the Executive Branch (except, of course, when he needs to claim Executive Privilege).
You can support Robert Wexler by signing up at WexlerWantsHearings.com. You can donate to his efforts too…remember, in Washington, your dollars means endorsement.
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DONE!
Back in the USSA
Unitary Surveillance State of America
Impeach Mukasey for obstruction of justice!
It’s hard to imagine that Mukasey was ever a lawyer, let alone a judge. I only hope he feels some shame as he wends his way homeward after another foul day at the job. Republican first I guess.
Remember how Sen. Chuck Schumer kept telling us that he was in favor of putting Mukasey into office because we could trust him, and how he assured us that Mukasey would put the law first, before his allegiance to Bush/Cheney? Where is Chuck Schumer now? Where? He should be leading the call for Mukasey to either enforce the subpoenas or to step down as Attorney General.
Really, I admire my Brooklyn neighbor Chuck Schumer… but he’s got to accept some responsibility for Mukasey and for Liebermann. (He supported Ol’ Turncoat Joe when he should have backed Ned Lamont, the Democratic candidate.)
So can’t they trow this needle dick in jail for not upholding the law or for not doing his job or SOMETHING?
The end of this administration should not be the end of this battle.
The whole crew should be chased down, arrested, tried, and imprisoned as soon as they step off the White House lawn.
OF course, any trial runs the risk of the same kind of unjustifiable ratification of the Unitary Executive by the stacked Supreme Court, which would establish precedent, and essentially be game, set, match.
Which is why I strongly suggest deliberate caution. This war on our constitution was not waged overnight, and it may in fact require disciplined perseverance to keep the damage from becoming permanent.
RedWhite&Brooklyn @ 5:
sounds a lot like ole chuck schumer is a repug in dem clothing.
Deighveh H Stern MD @ 7:
I can’t wait to see how they act. I wonder if they’ll go into hiding or claim they have Alzheimer’s to keep the critics at bay?
“That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations, is as shocking as it is true; but when those who are concerned in the government of a country make it their study to sow discord, and cultivate prejudices among Nations, it becomes the more unpardonable.”
Thomas Paine
.
The CONGA line grows,
The Administration thumbs it’s nose,
At Congress and it’s prose.
Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, - talk!
Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, - walk!
WHERE IS THAT IMPEACH-MENT?
WHEN WILL WE HAVE JUST-ICE?
.
So, I CAN be the President of the USA and obstruct Justice WITH impunity? Just like ordering warrantless wiretapping of Americans? Or the use of TORTURE?
.
THE PEOPLE SHALL REMEM-BER!
COME VOTING TIME NOVEM-BER!
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6 Captain Hussein Kangaroo Says: So can’t they trow this needle dick in jail for not upholding the law or for not doing his job or SOMETHING?
Who is THEY? That is the whole point, it is as if a judge issued an arrest warrant for a rapist and the police chief saying I don’t care, I am not going to arrest that guy because I don’t feel like it. The attorney general is the highest law enforcement official in the country, so who are you going to get to arrest him? The justice department has been politicized beyond any recognition. The FBI, the CIA, the DEA, the Secret Service, all of the law enforcement officials think they work for the President and not the country. There has always been some influence but never even close to this degree.
Rep. Wexler would be well advised to teach his leaders how to grow backbones.
Failing that, he has to get on the evening news under some other pretext, and then slip in this info on the Cheney impeachment drive. And get his 13 additional congressional supporters in this drive to do the same.
When I think of our current Congress, I think of the Vichy French government.
The truly amazing thing is that the voting public’s respect for the holy institution of Law will remain largely unaffected, like a nation of sheep begging the wolves to play shepherd between meals.
dadams @ 8:
_____________________________________________________________________
Please also don’t forget on the left coast Ms. widebow Diane Finestien. She can ESAD.
Wexler is one of the few people who give me any kind of hope that we still have an accountable government. I fear though that his message may be too little, too late. Lets all give him some support folks
Snowball @ 3:
As a federal judge, Mukasey was best known for his expertise on national security issues, in part because he presided over the trials of “blind sheik” Omar Abdel Rahman and others in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. — WAshington Post
So, Pelosi has filed a civil lawsuit in the matter of Mukasey ignoring the subpoena’s which were given to Bolten and Meirs. I wonder where the lawsuit has been filed? Which court?
And furthermore I think it would be very interesting to understand the process by which this lawsuit might wend it’s way through the system. All the way to the Supremes? I guess we all know right now what that final judgment will be.
Oh, well.
Well ya got your checks.Balances?Not so much.
You can bank that Pelosi’s lawsuit will find its way to a court that Congress allowed Bush to stack with a toady.
Here’s some background on the lawsuit being filed by the House Judiciary Committee and on a grand jury investigation into the matter:
http://www.pr-inside.com/mukas.....464837.htm
Were Nixon’s members “immune” ?
Were Ronnie Retard’s ?
Where the hell does Mukasey get off making an unprecedented claim that protects the most dishonest and worst president and administration in US history ?
It is not only the snollygosters, but also the flugies we must fear.
Flugies are rules designed to aid only the rule-maker. No one uses the term today, but flugies still exist
Suggestions for Flugies
Exemptions under mcCain Fiengold
The regimen of review of contractors in Iraq (or any outside US boundaries)
The $5 million limit on reporting fraud. (call me snollygoster but i”d predict that the future of contract fraud will be less than $4,999,999.99)
PatrickD @ 17:
I have been supporting him and am proud of it. I remember watching Feinstein making her pitch for Mukasey. It was very much like Schumer’s. I recall thinking, “Am I reading this guy wrong, or is she taking the Pollyanna approach?”. Well, I just wish he would do one good thing, so I could say he is a major disappointment. But, he cannot even drag his ass off of zero. It would seem like he would be an easier target for impeachment than Cheney. Congress should go get a Ken Starr type, and keep him under the microscope until he breaks. Has anyone checked the bottom of his shoes?
One problem is that the Dems keep enabling the placement of even more corrupt cronies into office than were there before.
Can you believe he only has 17 members of congress on his side? wow, it just goes to show you that War Crimes in America are no big deal…sex crimes (or a BJ) is an impeachable offence, but murdering people in the name of big business is Okie-dokie!
*I use the words murdering people because if you launch a war based on lies then the people (our soldiers and the Iraqi’s alike) who are killed in that war are being murdered by the administration who lied to get us to in the war that killed these people.
If a person told another person to go through door #1 and the door opened over a cliff and the person fell to their death, would’t the person who lied about door #1 be accountable for the 2nd persons death? I would hope so!
Robert Wexler–The Balls from Boca.
Att Gen Mukasey with his refusal to follow the contempt citations has just failed his oath to follow and uphold the law of the land. He is of no more use to the American people. Just like Al Gonzo before him, he thinks the AG position is to serve Bush and not the American people. You’re wrong, sir, and you always will be. You’re ‘quaint’ interpretation of the law is irrelevant and you like your boss is irrelevant. Now if only you could be removed from office.
Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
“To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions”
The Congress shall have power
So, “”Calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union””. Or, imposts the same as imposition or the laying on the hands of confirmation.
What America has is a condition of in years of observational insurrection in the Iraq War. Where as Bush in Consul with the Arabs have illustrated armed insurgency on a continuous basis. But fail to notice the beligerence of imposition or imposts.
In short for the first time in history U.S. Marshall’s under orders are sent to arrest with warrant’s to bring to the Congress for questioning in a public investigation any and all person who deliberately and belligerently refuses to appear before a legal action of Congress.
It’s time, or is this a challenge by the powers that be, has anyone done this before? Is that why we have caution ? But if not is wrong why anyone would defy Congress the right to find the truth.
During the Senate Judiciary committees hearing, Mukasey stated flat out that he believes that if the President orders someone to do something outside the law, he is placing them within the law. It’s part of the novel, unprecedented and unconstitutional theory of the Unitary Executive. This should have alarmed the Senators enough to refuse to pass his nomination onto the floor. In typical gutless fashion, Schumer claimed that if they didn’t let Mukasey pass, Bush would merely install someone worse during recess. They should have just let him do that. Now, as it is, Mukasey has an undeserved veneer of legitimacy having been rubber stamped by the Senate. If Bush had been forced to make a recess appointment, his AG would have no such legitimacy.
PatrickD @ 17:
Support means donations.
http://www.wexlerforcongress.com/
I did just that, and I am poor as a church mouse in Michigan.
Let him know that courage of conviction means something.
Someone must stand up to these bastards.
Abbybwood @ 19:
The civil suit has not yet been filed (probably this week or next). It will be filed, IINM, in the district court of D.C.
Rove and others are in process for receiving the same disfavors.
I hope that Rep Wexler doesn’t let this drop.
Snowball @ 30 “During the Senate Judiciary committees hearing, Mukasey stated flat out that he believes that if the President orders someone to do something outside the law, he is placing them within the law. It’s part of the novel, unprecedented and unconstitutional theory of the Unitary Executive.”
Take that piece of information, and cycle it through your impeachment ideas.
“This should have alarmed the Senators enough to refuse to pass his nomination onto the floor.”
On the contrary, 70-80 Senators side with that argument, and have the whole way along.
“In typical gutless fashion, Schumer claimed that if they didn’t let Mukasey pass, Bush would merely install someone worse during recess. They should have just let him do that.”
Actually, Bush threatened to leave the office open, which he would have done. For the working of the Congress, it is FAR better to have a sitting AG than no one.
“Now, as it is, Mukasey has an undeserved veneer of legitimacy having been rubber stamped by the Senate. If Bush had been forced to make a recess appointment, his AG would have no such legitimacy.”
This is incorrect, for the reason that he stated he would leave the post open. However, your thinking that being “rubberstamped” by the 70-80 Senators is something surprising is also wrong. This is the vote-count that Speaker Pelosi did before she announced impeachment was off the table.
Do the math. She did. And she has taken hell for it, while the problem is in the OTHER body, and wasn’t her fault. Do the math!
Two weeks ago, the House took a bold step demanding accountability for the Bush/Cheney Administration by holding former White House Council Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten in Contempt of Congress for blatantly ignoring congressional subpoenas for over 8 months…
A “bold step” would have been to introduce articles of impeachment immediately after the new House members were sworon in after the 2006 election.
This, however well-intentioned, is sound and fury signifying nothing. Too little, too late, 4,000 Americans dead.
*sworn* in. Sorry.
RedWhite&Brooklyn @ 5:
This is also incorrect. Schumer recommended Mukasey IN 2003, for the federal bench. He did not suggest him for AG.
Mukasey is a neocon, a Federalist, a co-conspirator, and as such a traitor.
That he is AG isn’t going to change any of that, but at least Bushco has exposed another of their kind by putting him forward. Exposing him as such is actually work toward our goals, and the outrages being expressed here miss the point of that. Also important to note is that Mukasey was their secondstring choice; their first choice had to drop out because he is doing defense work for Gonzales! That’s also a success toward our goals, and driving out Gonzales (the work mainly of the Senate and House Judiciary committee hearings) was as well.
There has been progress, but a unicorn is not going to appear.
QuakerDave @ 35:
It is never too late to try to stop someone from raping your sister.
Do the math. She did. And she has taken hell for it, while the problem is in the OTHER body, and wasn’t her fault. Do the math!
Where did I say that Pelosi was responsible for the Senate passing Mukasey? I don’t even blame all the Democrats in the Senate. He only made it out of the Senate Judiciary committee thanks to Feinstein and Schumer, the rest of the Democrats opposed him. So, I must disagree that 70-80 Senators agree with Mukasey and the Theory of the Unitary Executive, they just decided to overlook it for whatever reasons.
Dahgrostab’ph-r-i @ 27:
Overtly on his side for the Cheney impeachment.
There is far greater support for the contempt charges.
Out of Iraq Caucus continues to have about 90 members (out of 435).
These facts and alignments go back YEARS now.
Snowball @ 39 “must disagree that 70-80 Senators agree with Mukasey and the Theory of the Unitary Executive”
Those are two separate issues. The vote against Mukasey, versus the conviction vote overruling the Unitary Exec in time of war argument, which would scuttle any impeachment conviction.
The Mukasey vote was hinged on the torture question, and received more opposition than it would have if that isue hadn’t been fronted.
Dem votes for Mukasey:
Bayh (D-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Nelson (D-NE)
Schumer (D-NY)
Not voting:
Biden (D-DE)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
QuakerDave @ 35:
That effort would have been dead in the Senate by February 2007. And we would be at war with Iran.
Paul in LA Says:
Summing up the Dems……..”excuses, excuses, come on and get your excuses”
Bravo Wexler, keep at it.
remember, in Washington, your dollars means endorsement.
in the real world, this translates to everything and anything can be bought.
So what happened to all the blather about how congress had its own marshal and it’s own jail cells in the capitol that we never hear about and, boy, Miers and Bolten would be in big trouble now with contempt charges because congress was boss and you don’t diss congress without reprecussions so you just wait because these mighty minions of congress will come to your door and carry you back to accountability?
The sort of impotence they figure voters will find trendily sexy around November? Still too late to impeach, you figure? Too late for what?