{"id":5694,"date":"2008-02-14T16:39:24","date_gmt":"2008-02-15T00:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bradblog.com\/?p=5694"},"modified":"2008-02-14T19:16:19","modified_gmt":"2008-02-15T03:16:19","slug":"us-house-finally-passes-contempt-resolution-against-white-house-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=5694","title":{"rendered":"U.S. House Finally Passes Contempt Resolution Against White House Officials"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buried by a number of other things today, we refer you to Paul Kiel’s coverage<\/a> with a note that Harry Reid’s Senate has yet to hold a floor vote on similar contempt citations<\/a> against Karl Rove and Josh Bolten, as recommended to him by a bi-partisan Senate Judiciary Committee vote last December…<\/p>\n

Well, after all that<\/a> — after seven months, it’s done. The House passed the contempt resolution against White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers, 223-32. Most Republicans, having staged their walk out<\/a>, did not vote.<\/p>\n

So now the ball’s in Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s court. He’s expected to decline<\/a> to enforce the citation of contempt, since both Bolten and Miers declined to testify as a result of an assertion of executive privilege.<\/p>\n

The resolution included both a criminal contempt citation and the authorization for the House Judiciary Committee to sue the White House if Mukasey refuses to enforce the citation. You can read those here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Update<\/em>: Here’s<\/a> the final tally.<\/div>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object>UPDATE:<\/strong><\/em> Our favorite House member of late, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), speaks in favor of the contempt resolution for a minute and a half. Video at right, full statement below…<\/p>\n
Madame Speaker, no one<\/em> is immune from accountability and the rule of law. Not Harriet Miers or Josh Bolten. And especially<\/i> not President Bush or Vice-President Cheney. It is high time to defend the Constitution and Congress as a co-equal branch of Government. Our liberty and freedoms as Americans are dependent on the checks and balances that protect our nation.<\/p>\n

Not since Watergate…Not since Watergate has a President so openly disregarded the will of Congress. Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers have blatantly ignored Congressional subpoenas, thumbing their nose at Congress and our obligation<\/em> of legitimate oversight. The power of the Congressional subpoena safeguards our liberty. It protects against an all-powerful President. The Constitution demands<\/em> that we hold these renegade officials in contempt of Congress. Thank you Madame Chair, Madame Speaker.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buried by a number of other things today, we refer you to Paul Kiel’s coverage with a note that Harry Reid’s Senate has yet to hold a floor vote on similar contempt citations against Karl Rove and Josh Bolten, as recommended to him by a bi-partisan Senate Judiciary Committee vote last December… Well, after all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,334,198],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountability","category-robert-wexler","category-us-house","bb-type-bradblog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5694"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=5694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}