Judge tells Congress...You Can Enforce Your Own Subpoenas..!

[KoKo]

(Hat Tip to DU poster "Madezzmom" for posting this isn LBN)
-----------------------------------

Judge reluctant to wade into White House subpoena fight

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer 24 minutes ago

Congress was trying to be diplomatic when it brought an unprecedented lawsuit to settle its subpoena fight against the White House, a lawyer told a federal judge Monday. After all, lawmakers could've just arrested the president's former lawyer for refusing to testify.

The judge's response?

Maybe they should have.

-snip-

Nathan urged the judge to force Miers to appear on Capitol Hill where, if she wanted to refuse to testify, she could. He also asked that the White House be forced to turn over a document-by-document summary of what it was withholding and why.

Justice Department attorney Carl Nichols argued that would tip the scales toward Congress in any future disputes with the president.

"There really is a floodgate problem," he said. "Once you create hard-and-fast rules, it does change how the parties behave going forward."

Bates suggested that the two sides might still settle the dispute before he rules, avoiding a final court showdown altogether.

That hinted at one option the judge has that could pre-empt his own ruling: He could order both sides to negotiate further and, if nothing came of it, Bates could just put the case on a shelf until the end of the year. When the new Congress begins its term in 2009, the subpoenas essentially vanish and the case would be moot.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080623/ap_on_go_co/congress_contempt

[ingac70]

1. They need to just arrest...

all the little bastards that ignore subpoenas and be done with it.

[lovuian]

33. They are just playing and we know they can ARREST just

they aren't going to do it

because they are in Collusion simple as that

[glowing]

2. Just arrest that assholes... they are in contempt.. if they don't testify, put

them in jail.. If there is something that would cause them to self-incriminate, they have lawyers and the right to assert the 5th.... So, enforce this.. go arrest them. Put handcuffs on their wrists and drag them in everyday until they decide to say something or testify to something.

[KoKo]

4. What's amazing about this is that it proves Congress is dragging it's heels in investigation.

John Dean and others said at the beginning that Congress had every ability to enforce those subpoenas and much was written at Progressive Blogs and here on DU about it. Yet...this spineless Congress takes it to a Judge knowing he won't rule...and the article says that when the New Congress comes in...the subpoenas will not be valid anymore. What does that tell us... And, they want to give Bush his FISA Powers, Grant Immunity for Telecoes and add more WAR Supplements...

There's nothing Obama will be able to do about all this in January except brush it aside and declare that it's time to "Move On from the policies of the past." No one who was responsible will be held accountable for all we are going through...along with Iraqi's and others who've had their lives torn apart by this lawless administration.

[crickets]

10. Yup.

Congress is just looking for a way out of doing their jobs.

[truedelphi]

17. They have the ability but they prefer to be complicit with this

Administration and its War Criminals.

And people wonder why Cindy Sheehan felt herself above being a Democrat??

[mmonk]

3. The whole point is they don't want to.

[bean fidhleir]

7. Exactly. This charade is much more theatrical. Not honest worth a damn, but more theatrical

and therefore worth more politically. They think.

[Echo In Light]

23. Bingo

[MrCoffee]

5. Good for the judge...do your job, Nancy!

Pelosi is so completely chickenshit incompetent when it comes to dealing with this misAdministration that she won't even exercise what little power she hasn't given away. In fact, she wants to willingly hand over enforcement power to the court.

[cobalt1999]

8. Exactly

Congress is just trying to pass the buck and the judge won't let them get away with it.

[Pastiche423]

6. K&R

Everyone needs to read this!

[mopinko]

9. file under

no shit sherlock.

[KoKo]

30. Given what John Dean and others have said...Yep!

We've been strung along...while the story goes down another "Memory Hole" for American People and is only barely kept alive on our Progressive Internet and then this comes down.

How long before the Cable Media and Networks get "OFF" Obama and Michelle's Appearance for the "Fasion Industry" and into what's going along "under radar" about shredding our Constitution?

:shrug: How long.

BTW..I like that the Obama's can spurn America to "look better" ...that's important. My Granny always said "Dressin' Up makes you look and feel better about yourself and it's your image to the World about how you think about who you are." My Granny was neither Repug or Dem...she was a "farm girl" from the South...who had much wisdom, though.

[jtrockville]

11. Call the Sergeant at Arms NOW or FORFEIT subpoena power forever.

[formercia]

13. This situation is what Inherent Contempt is all about.

You're right. Use it or lose it.

[Ichingcarpenter]

14. The Sergeant at Arms oversees 2300 Capital Police.

The Capitol Police Board is a group of three members who have jurisdiction over the United States Capitol Police. The three members of this board are the Architect of the Capitol, the Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate, and the House Sergeant at Arms. The Chief of the Capitol Police also serves as a member but in an ex officio status.

These same three individuals also make up the United States Capitol Guide Board which has jurisdiction over the United States Capitol Guide Service. The position of Board Chairman is alternated between the House of Representatives Sergeant at Arms, who serves as the chairman during even years, and the Senate Sergeant at Arms, who serves during each odd year.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Police_Board

[Poor Richard Lex]

20. But once the arrest warrant is issued by Congress

Can't the sergeant at arms then give notice to the NCIC (national reporting agency) so that any cop who comes into contact with them will arrest them pending extradition to Washington?

[Ichingcarpenter]

26. I don't see one reason this couldn't be done except for

Congressional cowardliness and lack of a spine.

[Hydra]

12. I'm surprised a Bush Judge was so objective

But as others have pointed out, it would seem Congress did this in the hopes that they would be denied, so they could claim(inaccurately) that they had no way of enforcing the laws with Bush's DoJ in charge.

[Disturbed]

16. If these folk in Congress were serious, Inherent Contempt

would have been issued & Josh Bolton & H. Meirs would have been arrested.

This is merely theater.

[progressoid]

15. Thney can, but they won't.

[tom_paine]

18. Like Caesar and Hitler, the Bushies have painted Loyal Americans into a corner.

They have so degraded and distorted the system that the system can no longer heal itself.

As Kurt Vonnegut once said, "(The Bushies) have disconnected all the burglar alarms of the Constitution."

My God, it becomes more clear every day. They have shut off all methods by which civilization protects and heals itself, from the judiciary to the media and everything in between.

And IF, as I suspect, the Bushies also exert enough control to shift an election 10-15%, that means the Amerikan Subject Populace has NO MEANS OF RECOURSE. NONE.

Though in practice, the veneer of our civilization remains in our daily lives (i.e. no wholesale roundups, the Halliburton Gulags are still sitting mostly idle, etc.), this nation is as lawless as Nazi Germany.

To put it mildly, it is creepy as hell to live as an aware person through the rise of a Bush, a Caesar, a Hitler, a Stalin, a Marcos, a Pinochet, and I am grateful every day that the Bushies are forced to be less violent than the other regimes like them throughout history.

But this right here describes perfectly just one of the hundreds of Constitutional burglar alarms that have been disconnected.

We've got to pray that Obama has what it takes to get the Democrats to grow a pair and also has what it takes to start (let's not kid ourselves, if repair is even still possible, it's going to take more than 4 years) reconnecting the Constitutional burglar alarms.

[NewJeffCT]

19. But, if they throw Miers & Bolton in jail...

Fox News and Rush Limbaugh might criticize them for being un-American, and they can't have that.

[malaise]

22. That is what needs to be done n/t

[NewJeffCT]

27. I know

I was being sarcastic, and I'm a bit exasperated as well.

[Senator]

21. There Exists ONLY Impeachment

(I know, broken record.)

But anyone not suffering from Impeachophobic Dementia can easily see that the judge would rather not make a ruling and have it ignored. Just like USSC rulings are ignored. As even a unanimous vote in the impotent Congress would be ignored.

Yes, Virginia (and Nancy, John, and Barak) there REALLY ARE war criminals in the WH. They break laws, not follow them.

See the difference? Apparently not.

Congress has no "legislating" power anymore. They are left ONLY with their enforcement power -- which is real.

You have to accuse/impeach criminals. Otherwise you are helping them -- and nothing ever gets any better.

--

[KoKo]

24. Enforcing "Inherent Contempt" and "Impeachment Proceedings that have Clout!

That's the way to go. But, Nancy/Hoyer/Clyburn and the rest say: "Impeachment is Off the Table" and John Conyers (our great hope) said...."..it will just take up too much of my time."

Waxman looks like a "hero" but isn't he the one who passed it off to the JUDGE? He's been better than the rest, IMHO...though.

But, they are all "dragging their heels..." ...not listening to anyone but their OWN AMBITIONS...

It's time for a CHANGE!

[Senator]

28. Well...

... there really isn't "enforcing inherent contempt" either. While it sounds good to say "just arrest them," it's like the "cutting the funds" hoax (which is based on the false assumption that a criminal regime would suddenly obey such laws, and not simply fund illegally).

Sending armed men to arrest the traitors would only draw armed men to "defend" them. (Unless they're going to offer congressional medals to fool them into the building, then pounce.) It might make a nice publicity stunt, (the ratings would dwarf the superbowl) but it's still playing the other side's game -- and losing.

Which is not to say we should be stopping those who loudly demand it. If it gets some of the impeachophobes to actually start thinking rationally about what they're allowing to happen, it might just cure their impeachophobia -- which really would change the game back to reality.

--

[KoKo]

29. What you say is what our Congress tells us we should "believe." That it will do no good..to drag

these liars and cheats into the Congress in handcuffs by the Sergeant at Arms ....Yet, NOTHING would be better for our DEMOCRACY or at the, very least, our CONSTITUTION than for those same Dem Committee Chairs to do JUST THAT!

DRAG THEM IN! FORCE THEM TO TESTIFY. They did it with Clinton over a "blow job" in that they FORCED HIM to TESTIFY and HAULED IN MANY in his Adminstration who had little knowledge or input into what happened with Monica. BUT...it was a SHOW OF FORCE and it got GEORGE II in Office for TWO TERMS! SHOW OF FORCE by Repugs on TRUMPED UP SEX SCANDAL...but NAZI-LIKE CRIMES by Bush/CHENEY seem to be "pushed aside by Congress" the very body that went after Clinton over "Consentual Sex" but seems to ignore all that Bush I and II and Reagan did to DESTROY OUR CONSTITUTIONAL form of GOVERNMENT!

How can this be? :shrug:

[spanone]

25. i bet the two sides settle it and bu$hco gets everything it wants

[KoKo]

31. I still hope that either Obama, Hillary or Dodd will institute a Fillibuster...

Maybe I'm dreaming. The least might be they can get "Telecom Immmunity" outta that bill and stall it until Obama's Inauguration.

Dreaming ...but it's good to dream.

[KoKo]

32. ...

For the night crowd... I wonder if we will hear about this from the Hardball/Situation Room Crowd. :-(