Hurry Up, Please. It's Time.
Cooperation is a one-way street for this White House, and Congress should quit pretending it is anything else. As an editorial in today's NY Times makes clear, it's time for Congress to do its constitutionally mandated job with respect to the investigations into the Department of Justice's "Saturday Night Massacre."
It is time for Senator Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to deliver subpoenas that have been approved for Karl Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers and their top aides, and to make them testify in public and under oath.
Witnesses from the Justice Department, all well-coached, all pleading ignorance as to who ordered the mass firings of US Attorneys who didn't follow the election stealing game plan, have been heard from. That leaves the people in the White House, including Karl Rove and Harriet Miers and their respective teams.
Congress has now heard from everyone in the Justice Department who appears to have played a significant role in the firings of the prosecutors. They have all insisted that the actual decisions about whom to fire came from somewhere else. It is increasingly clear that the somewhere else was the White House. If Congress is going to get to the bottom of the scandal, it has to get the testimony of Mr. Rove, his aides Scott Jennings and Sara Taylor, Ms. Miers and her deputy, William Kelley.
The White House has offered to make them available only if they do not take an oath and there is no transcript. Those conditions are a formula for condoning perjury, and they are unacceptable. As for documents, the White House has released piles of useless e-mail messages. But it has reported that key e-mails to and from Mr. Rove were inexplicably destroyed. At the same time, it has argued that e-mails of Mr. Rove’s that were kept on a Republican Party computer system, which may contain critical information, should not be released.
Sen. Leahy should issue the subpoenas and force the issue. The White House will no doubt fight the subpoenas, raising the issue of separation of powers, but the argument is a bogus one. That constitutional mandate cannot be used to hide criminal behavior, as Richard Nixon learned the hard way.
It's time for Sen. Leahy and the members of his committee, and all members of Congress to stand up and do their jobs. This is no time for compromise or cooperation with the White House.
It is time for Senator Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to deliver subpoenas that have been approved for Karl Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers and their top aides, and to make them testify in public and under oath.
Witnesses from the Justice Department, all well-coached, all pleading ignorance as to who ordered the mass firings of US Attorneys who didn't follow the election stealing game plan, have been heard from. That leaves the people in the White House, including Karl Rove and Harriet Miers and their respective teams.
Congress has now heard from everyone in the Justice Department who appears to have played a significant role in the firings of the prosecutors. They have all insisted that the actual decisions about whom to fire came from somewhere else. It is increasingly clear that the somewhere else was the White House. If Congress is going to get to the bottom of the scandal, it has to get the testimony of Mr. Rove, his aides Scott Jennings and Sara Taylor, Ms. Miers and her deputy, William Kelley.
The White House has offered to make them available only if they do not take an oath and there is no transcript. Those conditions are a formula for condoning perjury, and they are unacceptable. As for documents, the White House has released piles of useless e-mail messages. But it has reported that key e-mails to and from Mr. Rove were inexplicably destroyed. At the same time, it has argued that e-mails of Mr. Rove’s that were kept on a Republican Party computer system, which may contain critical information, should not be released.
Sen. Leahy should issue the subpoenas and force the issue. The White House will no doubt fight the subpoenas, raising the issue of separation of powers, but the argument is a bogus one. That constitutional mandate cannot be used to hide criminal behavior, as Richard Nixon learned the hard way.
It's time for Sen. Leahy and the members of his committee, and all members of Congress to stand up and do their jobs. This is no time for compromise or cooperation with the White House.
Labels: Justice Department, Separation of Powers, vote suppression
posted by Diane at 3:50 AM
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