Harriet Miers' Contempt

I recently had an opportunity to travel to Tarrytown and the good fortune to rent a car with XM radio where I could avoid sixty second sound bites that passed for the news of the day by listening to CSPAN replay the hearings being conducted by the House Judiciary Subcommittee in the process of exercising their oversight by addressing the issue of the recently fired U.S. attorneys on the day that Harriet Miers was scheduled to testify.

Ms. Miers, former Counsel to this President refused to honor a subpoena issue by Congress based on the advice of this President’s Counsel, Fred Fielding the same Fred Fielding who was former Associate Counsel to the last president that displayed such an utter contempt for the rule of law and so abused the power of the executive branch of government by using executive privilege to conceal his violations of the Constitution of the United States.

During the hearings I became quite interested in the comments made by Rep Mel Watt from North Carolina in response to previous comments which appealed to a position of giving this President the benefit of the doubt in asserting the presumption of executive privilege. Rep Watt stated he could no longer yield the benefit of the doubt to someone who abused this presumptive privilege. He supported his claim by a litany of examples among which were that this President lied to the Congress and the American people about the reason for war with Iraq.

The response from the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, Rep Chris Cannon (UT) was swift by demanding Rep Watt’s remarks be removed from the record because they were “unparlimentarian” when he specifically accused this President of being a liar.

Since when is speaking truth to power “unparlimentarian” language when that power is being used to destroy the system of checks and balances which was created over two hundred years ago and consented to by the people in order to avoid the excesses of power and the tyranny that inexorably follows?

The reality is that the reasons for war in Iraq were based on fabrications and lies repeated ad nauseam by this President yet Rep Watt is the first representative of the people who I ever heard go on record by calling President George W Bush the liar that he has been proven to be.

As it stands now if no agreement is reached with the White House the full Judiciary Committee would hold hearings and vote on whether or not to hold Ms. Miers in contempt. Assuming this happens the full House would have to vote on the contempt citation.

When the White House claimed that if the House Judiciary Committee wants to avoid confrontation it should withdraw the subpoenas Congress should not agree to anything less than contempt of Congress unless Ms. Miers honors her subpoena to appear before the House Judiciary Subcommittee.

Congress now has the opportunity and the right to exercise its Constitutional responsibility of providing oversight by putting aside partisan ideologies on both sides of the aisle and representing the common good of the people who gave their consent to a government of checks and balances and one in which no one is above law.

To do so may provoke a Constitutional crises but to be silent would be complicit in the further destruction of the ground upon which this Republic was founded If the rule of law prevails Ms. Miers could be charged with contempt and the same evil genius behind the Libby commutation and future pardon could be employed once again. In a worse case scenario a Supreme Court that selected this President could be expected to support the claim of executive privilege.

For the last six years Congress actively supported the high crimes and misdemeanors committed by this President against the Constitution of the United States or looked the way. In 2006 the opposition party offered the olive branch to this President by taking impeachment off the table. That gesture was mocked by the Libby commutation. The Miers refusal to honor a subpoena by Congress is a blatant contempt for the rule of law as well as an insidious contempt of the governed by Ms. Miers and the Bush Administration

If either Bush or Cheney had any honor or sense of duty for country they would resign rather than pursue this Constitutional confrontation with a Congress it holds in contempt. for the history of this administration has proven that Bush and Cheney both lack any semblance of honor and duty beyond mere rhetoric and mindless repetition of the lie while wrapping themselves in the flag.

If Congress has any honor or sense of duty for country they wouldn’t care if they had the numbers to successfully impeach this President and his Vice-President for now is indeed that time which tries men’s souls. Are we a nation of laws or a nation of men or are we too afraid to ask? How Congress responds to the contempt for its existence indeed the very contempt for the American public as shown by this President will determine who we are indeed as a nation without all the red, white and blue rhetoric.