John Dean: Why ** Refuses to Allow Miers or Rove to Testify

[hang a left]

---
New Developments in the U.S. Attorney Controversy:
Why Bush Refuses to Allow Karl Rove and Harriet Miers to Testify Before Congress, and What Role New White House Counsel Fred Fielding May Play
By JOHN W. DEAN
----
Friday, Mar. 23, 2007

At the outset of this column -- which discusses Bush's new White House Counsel, Fred Fielding -- I must acknowledge that I am the person who first hired, and brought Fielding into the government. He served as my deputy in the Nixon White House, and was untouched by Watergate, because I shielded all my staff from that unpleasant business. Fred is an able lawyer, and now finds himself in the hot seat, with President Bush seemingly looking for a fight with Congress. (But that's what makes the job interesting.)

One further disclosure: I have never been an advocate of executive privilege, except as it might relate to the most sensitive national security information. To the contrary, you show me a White House aide who does not want his conversations and advice to the president revealed, and I will show you someone who should not be talking with or advising a president.

Of course, I do not know what is transpiring behind closed doors at the White House right now. But I do believe there is more occurring than meets the eye with respect to the potential confrontation developing between the Democratic Congress and the Bush White House. On the surface, the clash appears rather simple: Congress wants information, and Bush does not want to provide it if it means breaching the sanctity of the realm in which he receives advice from his aides privately. But this surface conflict, as I will explain, does not get to the bottom of this developing dust-up.

snip>

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20070323.html

[ananda]

1. dust up

"These issues strike at the heart of what post-Watergate conservative Republicans seek to create: an all-powerful presidency."

Exactly. Bush simply wants to bypass Congress and use the in-justice system to his advantage.

Sue

[City Lights]

2. "Bush feels that he has his manhood on the line."

That's it, right there.

[mahina]

3. Then somebody should do what they did in the old days

and whack it with a bible.
Sorry guys.

[Disturbed]

5. Busholini is a corupt, arrogant weasle.

Congress may have to Impeach Bush & Cheney in order to retain any semblance of democracy in the USA.

[rodeodance]

7. i think this has been said about the war also.

[Mandate My Ass]

10. True

The entire world is being victimized by a sociopath with a tiny weenie and a huge chip on his shoulder.

[City Lights]

11. Newsweek called his daddy a wimp. It's all about out-doing daddy.

No one will ever call junior a wimp.

Hey junior, you are a fucking wimp!

[arewenotdemo]

34. His Andover pom-poms?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. John Dean, above most others

understands what is going on in the WH, because the mindset is so similar to what was going on there during Nixon.

[freesqueeze]

6. Key Personnel Must be Protected

..at all cost. If they know enough to put you in jail then they must be protected at ALL COSTS.



just sayin'

[Pachamama]

25. Protecting is one thing, what about the ones like Harriet Miers who if under oath might sing?

I sure hope Harriet doesn't have any accidents and an untimely demise..... :scared:

[femrap]

32. As a ballerina.....

get that slimeball out of my tutu and put the orange jumpsuit on him that he deserves....and don't forget the leg irons!

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. I just think he wants to put off emigrating to Paraguay for as long as he can.

[rodeodance]

9. "They are recasting conservatism by expunging the traditional conservative ambivalence about preside

The Contemporary Conservative Vision of Executive Power: A Strong Presidency

In a piece last year for The New Republic's July issue, legal journalist Jeffery Rosen summed up George W. Bush's outlook on the presidency: "One of the defining principles of the Bush administration has been a belief in unfettered executive power. Indeed, President Bush has taken the principle to such unprecedented extremes that an ironic reversal has taken place: A conservative ideology that had always been devoted to limiting government power has been transformed into the largest expansion of executive power since FDR."

Rosen reported that Bush's perspective is not "mere political opportunism--a cynical rationale devised after September 11 to allow the president to do whatever he likes in the war on terrorism." Rather, Rosen explained, Bush's actions stem from his embrace of the "unitary executive theory." (Of course, Bush may not himself have mastered the fine points of this theory, but it is clear he understands the core idea, and acts accordingly.)

Bush's governing style is not surprising to those who took a close look at how he governed before he arrived in Washington. Indeed, the perceptive conservative commentator George Will saw it coming.

Will visited Governor Bush in Texas in 1999, and talked as well with the team Bush had assembled to work on his presidential campaign. "They are recasting conservatism by expunging the traditional conservative ambivalence about presidential power," Will reported at the time. "Hence the presence on the cluttered desk of chief speechwriter Mike Gerson of Terry Eastland's book, Energy in the Executive: The Case for the Strong Presidency. Eastland's title comes from Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Paper Number 70: 'Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government.'" Will then explained the theory that would turn out, later, to be Bush's bottom line: "Eastland's thesis is that 'the strong presidency is necessary to effect ends sought by most conservatives.'"

[aquart]

17. Well, of course. Totalitarianism REQUIRES a dictator.

Goodness, I thought everybody knew that.

[tanyev]

27. You don't stage a coup unless you have an agenda.

[rodeodance]

12. What Exactly Is the Unitary Executive Theory? A Short Answer

What Exactly Is the Unitary Executive Theory? A Short Answer

Before the Alito confirmation hearings, Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank correctly described the "unitary executive theory" as an "obscure philosophy … that favors an extraordinarily powerful president." Milbank found an invocation of this philosophy in the notorious "torture memos."

For example, Milbank quoted a passage from one of the memos that was laced with conservative pipe-dream rhetoric: "The Framers understood the clause as investing the president with the fullest range of power," the memo claimed, including power over "the conduct of warfare and the defense of the nation unless expressly assigned in the Constitution to Congress." Such power was given, the memo theorized, because "national security decisions require the unity in purpose and energy in action that characterize the presidency rather than Congress." (Conservative scholars, I have discovered, have a unique skill of channeling the thinking of the Founders in their writing.)

When the obscure philosophy surfaced during the Alito hearings, Writ guest columnist Jennifer Van Bergen assembled a brisk overview of its salient points. But for a quick and a bit more in-depth course in Unitary Executive Theory 101, I would suggest an analysis by Loyola Law School Professors Karl Manheim and Allan Ides.

Professors Manheim and Ides trace the origins, evolution, and current uses of the unitary executive theory. While it is beyond the scope of their analysis, they also, along the way, provide information useful to deconstruct and critically analyze this concocted effort at legal (and historical) legerdemain. This is not the place for me to unload on this hogwash theory, but I must pause to comment, at least, on its purported links to Alexander Hamilton's purported vision of "a unitary executive."

This was not remotely Hamilton's vision. Listen, for example, to what Morton Rosenberg says; he is a specialist in American Public Law at the non-partisan Congressional Reference Service of the Library of Congress, and he is described by many of those who know him as the smartest guy in the place. Rosenberg was one of the first to correct this loopy scholarship when it began appearing in the early 1980s.

[glitch]

33. They can take their "unitary executive theory" and spin on it. nt

[ClayZ]

13. The last paragraph, ahhhh, the last paragraph! K and R

<snip>
In short, all those who have wanted to see Karl Rove in jail may get their wish, for he will not cave in, either -- and may well be prosecuted for contempt, as Gorsuch was not. Bush's greatest problem here, however, is Harriett Miers. It is dubious he can exert any privilege over a former White House Counsel; I doubt she is ready to go to prison for him; and all who know her say if she is under oath, she will not lie. That could be a problem.



:woohoo:

[merh]

14. that is the part of the piece that sparked my interest

Miers better be careful crossing the street and I hope she stays off of small airplanes. :scared:

And if Congress cares at all about the "separation of powers"/"balance of powers" doctrines, they are going to have to impeach the lunatic in chief.



hi ClayZ :hi: :hug:

[ClayZ]

16. Hi merh!

Just planning our Tuesday morning breakfast.
Dang, we have to get up early to watch on the left coast.

Maybe:
*Get Gonzales Granola
*Traitor Jose's Turd Blossom Tea
*Can of W's Gummy worms (for snacks)(They are kinda old, as they have been opened for 6 years)
*Bottle of Pelosi Punch
*Blood Oranges (just for color)

Tuesday cometh!






:beer: <Pelosi Punch

[aquart]

18. What time is Gonzales scheduled?

[hang a left]

20. I think it is 2PM Eastern

CSPAN3

[ClayZ]

21. C-SPAN3 at 10am ET

Tuesday, April 17
Senate Hearing with Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales on Dept. of Justice Oversight
On C-SPAN3 at 10am ET

[HowHasItComeToThis]

15. READ THE DEAN PAPER

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20070323.html

[DCKit]

19. AFIC, high treason beats a BJ any day

But I'm not a sexually repressed, closeted, limp dicked right winger, so maybe it's just me.

[Pachamama]

22. Because they know where the bodies are buried....

:eyes:

[whistle]

23. John Dean nails it I think...

<snip to last two paragraphs>

This time, it is my belief that Bush -- unlike Reagan before him -- will not blink. He will not let Fielding strike a deal, as Fielding did for Reagan. Rather, Bush feels that he has his manhood on the line. He knows what his conservative constituency wants: a strong president who protects his prerogatives. He believes in the unitary executive theory of protecting those prerogatives, and of strengthening the presidency by defying Congress.

In short, all those who have wanted to see Karl Rove in jail may get their wish, for he will not cave in, either -- and may well be prosecuted for contempt, as Gorsuch was not. Bush's greatest problem here, however, is Harriett Miers. It is dubious he can exert any privilege over a former White House Counsel; I doubt she is ready to go to prison for him; and all who know her say if she is under oath, she will not lie. That could be a problem.

[hang a left]

24. I posted about this the other day.

** is going to the wall on this one. This is the fight they have been looking for.

[Canuckistanian]

26. 'scuse me, but didn't Miers resign?

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/04/D8MEJB7G0.html

So how does Commander Bunnypants get a say in what she does?

Isn't she fair game for a subpoena WITHOUT pre-conditions?

[Cameron27]

28. Rove wants a Republican States of America

...under God...(and that would be the Republican President)

[tanyev]

29. The hypocrisy of conservative limited government.

In a piece last year for The New Republic's July issue, legal journalist Jeffery Rosen summed up George W. Bush's outlook on the presidency: "One of the defining principles of the Bush administration has been a belief in unfettered executive power. Indeed, President Bush has taken the principle to such unprecedented extremes that an ironic reversal has taken place: A conservative ideology that had always been devoted to limiting government power has been transformed into the largest expansion of executive power since FDR."


They only want to limit the government's power to do things they oppose. Things they support--the sky's the limit.

[AnnInLa]

30. More:

"It Seems Likely Bush, with Fielding, Will Go to the Wall on Executive Privilege

This time, it is my belief that Bush -- unlike Reagan before him -- will not blink. He will not let Fielding strike a deal, as Fielding did for Reagan. Rather, Bush feels that he has his manhood on the line. He knows what his conservative constituency wants: a strong president who protects his prerogatives. He believes in the unitary executive theory of protecting those prerogatives, and of strengthening the presidency by defying Congress.

In short, all those who have wanted to see Karl Rove in jail may get their wish, for he will not cave in, either -- and may well be prosecuted for contempt, as Gorsuch was not. Bush's greatest problem here, however, is Harriett Miers. It is dubious he can exert any privilege over a former White House Counsel; I doubt she is ready to go to prison for him; and all who know her say if she is under oath, she will not lie. That could be a problem."

from link in OP

((absolutely fascinating article on executive privilege...if you did not read the whole thing, make sure to do so...gives you real perspective about where they are coming from))

[Mme. Defarge]

31. Great read!

Thanks for posting.

[jazzjunkysue]

35. Nice of them to give all this power to President Edwards.

He'll re-seat all the boards and comittees and offices so that all the cronies are gone.

Nice of George to set that up for him.