Spector: Senate could try a contempt charge of its own, or consider the model of the impeachment

[kpete]

Specter criticized Gonzales for failing to give a clear explanation for why the 8 prosecutors were firing. He also slammed the White House for lacking flexibility in preparing oversight.

"Now we have a very remarkable turn of events: we now have the announcement that administration will preclude the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from bringing a contempt citation," he said. "The president in that manner can stymie Congressional oversight...if that is to happen, the president can run the government as he chooses."

Specter then suggested the possibility of appointing a special prosecutor because he said the President had a conflict of interest. He went on to also offer the alternative that the Senate could try a contempt charge of its own, or consider the model of the impeachment of Alcee Hastings, a former federal judge who now serves as a Democratic Congressman from Florida.

more at:
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Gonzales_returns_to_Senate_Judiciary_Committee_0724.html

[bigtree]

1. "Specter then suggested the possibility of appointing a special prosecutor"

correct on that, as well . . .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1388932

[PA Democrat]

2. I am bookmarking this thread so I can quote Specter's own words back to him

in the event that he backs down like he has in the past.

[bigtree]

3. he only follows through if his vote isn't determinate or decisively against his party

but, he's correct.

[PA Democrat]

4. Yes, as one of his constituents, I've noticed that and point it out to him

frequently.

[madokie]

5. this is not going to go away, it has legs of its own, long legs

[Voice for Peace]

6. I don't understand why the Department of Justice is part of the Executive Branch

How does this fit with separation of powers? It seems that the bush administration has the doj in its pocket. Can someone explain this?

[Marr]

7. The Executive enforces laws. Or is supposed to.

The DoJ belongs in the Executive Branch- it just that all the regular checks and balances on Executive power have been turned off for the last 7 years.

[Voice for Peace]

9. Is the Judicial Branch only the Supreme Court?

How can it be an independent branch of government?
Sorry I'm pretty ignorant on the structure of government, I slept through all my classes.

[Marr]

11. The Judicial is the entire court system.

Ideally, it's supposed to be the Legislative writing the laws, the Judicial interpreting them, and the Executive enforcing them. The system has been seriously gummed up and corrupted by the Bush Administration's appointment of political loyalists into the courts and the DoJ. Not to mention all the checks to Executive power that the Congress is *supposed* to exercise, but never did under the Republicans, and still seems gun shy about.

Each branch is supposed to check the other two's power. But for the last six years we've had a group that put party loyalty before the Constitution, and turned both the Supreme Court and the Legislative Branch into rubber stamps for the President, and the DoJ has been turned into just one more wing of the Republican Party.

They've broken the system out of sheer power lust. It's all party loyalty for these people- it's like the Soviet Union's Politburo.

[bigtree]

8. Jefferson

"The new Constitution has secured these in the Executive and Legislative departments: but not in the Judiciary. It should have established trials by the people themselves, that is to say, by jury."

The Judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric." (1820)

"…the Federal Judiciary; an irresponsible body (for impeachment is scarcely a scarecrow), working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States, and the government of all be consolidated into one….when all government … in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated. (1821)

"The opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action, but for the legislative and executive also in their spheres, would make the judiciary a despotic branch.

http://www.phnet.fi/public/mamaa1/jefferson.htm

[Voice for Peace]

10. Thank you

This is sad.
I am afraid our country was founded on a combination of idealism and corruption; the corruption there right from the beginning, the idealism quickly becoming a myth, by which even the most sincere people are religiously blinded.

[newyawker99]

14. Hi Voice for Peace!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[catmandu57]

12. I don't know why he isn't charged with perjury, handcuffed and frogmarched out

He's been caught in lie after lie after lie. Throw this smug asshole into the meanest goddamn prison there is, maybe then he'll start singing the truth and nothing but the truth.

[bbgrunt]

13. don't get palpitations. Specter has a history of raising hopes

only to weasel out later.