Read a Pacific Northwest, liberal perspective on world, national, and local politics. From majestic Redmond, Washington - the Northwest Progressive Institute Official Blog.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

This contemptible presidency

The astounding arrogance of this administration continues apace. Congress appears to be losing patience. From MSNBC:
The contempt citations, issued against Josh Bolten, the White House chief of staff, and Harriet Miers, Mr Bush's former senior counsel, mark a significant escalation of a six- month tussle between the executive and legislative branches that could turn into a full-blown constitutional battle.
And it seems Alberto Gonzales may have been (surprise!) less than forthright in his testimony yesterday.
On Tuesday senators came close to accusing Alberto Gonzales, the embattled attorney-general and Bush loyalist, of perjury in the evasive testimony he gave over the sacking of the attorneys.

"There is no precedent for an administration to refuse its officials permission to testify to Congress; even Richard Nixon allowed it during the Watergate hearings," said Bruce Fein, a senior counsel in the Reagan administration.

"If Congress is denied the ability to oversee the executive then it is impotent. It has no choice but to respond."
Keith Olbermann was reporting on-air that there is "documentary evidence" that directly contradicts Gonzales' testimony yesterday about a briefing given to members of Congress. And the "p" word came up a lot in the broadcast, that being "perjury."

If the Bush administration is going to simply thumb its nose at the rule of law, then Congress may ultimately have no choice but to pass articles of impeachment against Gonzales and perhaps Cheney and Bush.

I've been fairly cool to the idea, given the closely divided Senate and the difficulty and turmoil involved in removing administration members by trial and conviction, but this is not a monarchy. Congress should stick to its guns and assert its lawful authority to oversee and review executive branch operations. "Executive authority" is not a license to be king.

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