Dems Fault Bush on Executive Privilege

[lovuian]

http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/C/CONGRESS_CONTEMPT?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-04-10-19-31-12
snip..
House lawyers told U.S. District Judge John D. Bates that subpoenaed White House officials cannot simply skip hearings as Miers did during the committee's investigation. Further, they said, any documents or testimony believed to be covered by the privilege must be itemized for Congress' assessment.

Executive privilege is not a right spelled out in the Constitution, so the legal issues are murky and disputes are normally resolved politically. The suit is risky for both sides. Courts have not been kind to the presidency in fights over subpoenas; Congress could have its power to demand information curtailed permanently.

The White House has said Bush was not personally involved in deciding which U.S. prosecutors to fire and that any White House communications on the matter are off-limits under the privilege. Presidential counsel Fred Fielding declared Miers and Bolten immune from prosecution because their refusal to comply with the subpoenas was done at the White House's direction under the privilege.

He also did not provide a privilege log, arguing that revealing the information sought would compromise the president's access to candid advice.

The result, the committee wrote, is White House defiance of congressional oversight unseen since the presidential intransigence that led to Richard Nixon's resignation.
more...

I like this line

The idea that Miers could disregard an order to appear at a hearing simply at the president's request suggests a return to the sentiment expressed in Nixon's statement, as quoted in a 1977 New York Times interview, that "when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal," the House lawyers wrote.

Bush and Nixon
parallels
Vietnam War and Iraq War
Devaluing dollar
corrupt vice presidents
tapping phones
corruption


the president is king in Bush's world

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Figures the Post would get it wrong...

...the headline should be:

GOP Abuses Executive Privilege, Ignores Constitution, Ruins Nation