Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Pravda on the Potomac

Totally grifting off the same post title as John Cole, because it's the best post title. From the testimony of the former Surgeon General:

Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona told a Congressional panel Tuesday that top Bush administration officials repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of political considerations.

The administration, Dr. Carmona said, would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues. Top officials delayed for years and tried to “water down” a landmark report on secondhand smoke, he said. Released last year, the report concluded that even brief exposure to cigarette smoke could cause immediate harm.

Dr. Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. He also said he was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates and to attend political briefings.

And administration officials even discouraged him from attending the Special Olympics because, he said, of that charitable organization’s longtime ties to a “prominent family” that he refused to name.

Oh, and hey, look --

WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Bush has ordered his former White House counsel, Harriet Miers, to defy a congressional subpoena and refuse to testify Thursday before a House panel investigating...

Anyone with legal training can feel free to enlighten me in comments as to why that is not totally batshit insane. Can you just blow off subpoenas because your boss tells you to? Aces.

This is, to a great degree, why you don't let rich people be criminals. They're bad at it. But that's the nub of another post, so it'll wait.

If the Senate Republicans would stop filibustering literally everything, I'd almost be pleased at this point. Did you know you can't get anything passed in the Senate with a simple 51-49 majority? You need 60 votes, if the other side filibusters. The Senate Republicans have decided to derail the business of the people, and simply, effectively, shut down Congress and the Senate in a really elegant manner which almost no one in America intuitively understands.

Yes, yes, the Senate is there to avoid the tyranny of the majority, and force compromise. What no one seems to have anticipated, however, was a minority party that would simply refuse to compromise, ever. The Founding Fathers never anticipated a party of men for whom simple, childish obstructionism was a perfectly acceptable manner in which to while away the time while collecting a big-ass government paycheck.

Yet another reason I really would like to see the Senate abolished, but it ain't happening.

56 comments:

Will said...

The filibustering wouldn't bother me so much if the Democrats would force the GOP to actually filibuster. For fuck's sake, make McCain and Stevens and the rest stand up there for twelve or fourteen hours trying to justify keeping American troops in harm's way. Let them kill their chances in '08 for you, you spineless fucks.

Dwight Williams said...

There is a certain positive value in practicing the political equivalent of aikido.

Ron said...

The only thing I have to add here is that the cloture rules in the Senate where the only thing the Democrats still had going for them until not that long ago. I for one am glad they are there for that reason alone.

neal s said...

Will is exactly right. The filibuster exists for good reason, but the idea that we should never require the opposition party to actually follow through on it is ridiculous. Make them camp out and talk for hours on end and then we'll finally start to see who stands for what. What could be better than that?

And, on a related note, am I the only one who had to watch Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in 7th grade "social studies" class?

ns
on Borrowed Time

Bruce Durling said...

Am I the only one who remembers when the old Republican Senate majority threatened the "nuclear option" when the Democrats were trying to filibuster?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_option

There was so much screaming from the Republicans at the time that Democrats were trying to subvert democracy using parliamentary tricks.

Anonymous said...

That's why having two parties is very bad for things because even with one more party as a small minority things would suck way less. Both of the two gangs of idiots and liars will have to work hard to earn even one more vote from me. I'd rather "waste" my vote on a libertarian or someone else and at least not support the childish behavior they seem to live by today.

The lesser of two evils is still evil.

Anonymous said...

I', with Will and NeilS. make them OWN their stance. Make them explain all day everyday to their constituency why they are against the troups. against the Constitution etc. Let's call it a reverse Mr Smith.

Dee Loralei

Anonymous said...

Opps, I forgot to answer your question in re., Harriet Meiers, IANAL, but sometimes a subpeona is just a subpoena and they can't ever ever be ignored. If someone wants to declare their 5th Amendment rights, they actually have to show up in court ( or hearing ) and declare them to a specific question or questions. So, if Harriet wants to allow Dubs to claim Executive Privelege she actually has to answer the subpoena by showing up and either then refuse to answer because Dubya invoked priv., or she can choose to answer. If she chooses to not show up, then Congress's only recourse is to hold her in comtempt.

And if, Dubya and Feilding have ordered her not to appear under subpoena, they are not also just in contempt but are heading toward some serious obstruction charges.

That's all I know about it, but I'm no Christie Hardin Smith :-)

Dee

Anonymous said...

John, it doesn't take legal training. It isn't batshit insane if the Democrats let them get away with it.

It's not like the media will paint the such blatant disregard for the law in a bad light. They've ignored far worse from the malAdministration. And as you yourself noted, they have no shame at all and are willing to shoot the bird at the entire nation if it gets them the smallest smidgen of partisan advantage.

Anonymous said...

It's not batshit insane, it's quite a carefully calculated move by the whitehouse. IANAL and all that, but here's my $0.02.

Yes, they can hold Meiers in contempt, but they know that there's *absolutly no teeth* in that. Being held in contempt can have one of two outcomes - inherent contempt, or statutory proceedings - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contempt_of_Congress - even if it does get that far (doubtful)

In the first case, a trial can be called which is headed by... you've guessed it - Mr Cheney.

In the second case, the contempt has to be referred to the US Attorney for DC, which is.. Jeffrey A Taylor who not only is a policical appointee, but also a collegue of Alberto Gonzales.

There other things congress can do, but they amount to little more than a slap on the wrist.

So, really, it seems (to my little knowledge), that it's reasonably carefully thought out. Sure, the Dems could make something out of it, but that's unlikley isn't it ;)

Anonymous said...

Sorry, follow-up link for Mr Taylor that I forgot to add - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_A._Taylor

Jerome Comeau said...

Dee,

It's important to note that in regards to Congressional hearings, there is no 5th Amendment protection.

And, even if they want to figleaf it, all they have to do is offer immunity to the individual, and the 5th Amendment protection goes away. At that point she can be held in contempt and then...

...well, another poster laid out the recourse options for this Congress, which are both crappy.

I just wish the Congress would go ahead and take the fight to the White House. It wouldn't do any good, but it'd make me feel better.

Anonymous said...

Yet another reason I really would like to see the Senate abolished

Thus leaving us with only the House of Representatives?? Do you *remember* what that gang was like in the mid- to late-'90s?

No sirree bob. I'll take obstructionism now over what those drooling lunatics would have given us then, thankyouverymuch. Unless you're talking about throwing out the whole system and going all parliamentary democracy-style, in which case, I'm listening.

Unknown said...

Parliamentary-democracy style. The Senate, in the last thirty years has been magnificently obstructionist.

And thanks to all for explaining to me the legalities of Contempt of Congress. So it IS insane, but rigged to be that way. Thanks.

Matt Worzala said...

What I love about the whole attorney firing is how mind-crushingly stupid everyone appears. I remember on the Daily Show where using bits of the testimony they had Alito blaming this guy, who blamed this girl, who blamed this guy, who put all the blame back on Alito. And all of them claim to never know anything!

Changing subjects, who doesn't love a good filibuster? Mr. Smith just started reading from the Bible if I remember, that'll kill a couple of hours. If the Dems were smart they would have forced the Republicans into doing that, because then THEY'RE the ones holding everything up, not the Dems.

Oh well, at least Iraqi's not reaching the benchmarks created by Congress.

Unknown said...

Personally I think the Dems shouldn't be afraid of the filibuster. In fact the should encourage it. Since they set the agenda, put up a bunch of small bills that are good ideas, but they know the other side will hate. Let them filibuster away.

Exhaust them.

CK said...

My two cents:

I'm hoping Congress takes Bush to court on Executive Privilege (EP). EP is deliberately ambiguous and it appears that nobody really wants the matter clearly defined by the courts because then they will be bound by whatever that definition becomes. Now the White House can bluster about the broad exemptions inherent in EP even from Congressional subpoenas. And Congress can bluster back about the power of congressional oversight and its absolute authority over EP. Typically the EP issues eventually get compromised and not litigated.

The White House (especially this White House) won't go to court because they risk weakening EP which they need to hide the rest of their shenanigans for the next two years. Congress won't go to court (especially to this Robertsalitofied Supreme Court) because they risk emasculation of any oversight power they claim over the White House.

And the courts? They're just as happy not to get involved at all. It's almost like their job is to protect the wiggle room.

In this case, I think having a clear definition of just how much the president can say "naah, naah, I don't have to tell you..." to Congress is more important than ever for this country.

Anonymous said...

So it looks like Meiers didnt turn up and the commitee want to hold her in contempt. This means it would go to the floor for a vote (and it's doubtful it will go much further because of the majority voting to protect the president), and if they all agree she is in contempt then it goes to the justice dept (which of course Alberto and the US Attorny for DC will shoot down).

This is the *big* damage that this administration has done - because the congress and judicial are both under their control then they can pretty much do as they please. It's not supposed to be like that (the judicial should be completely independent with a firewall between them and the administration) and congress "should" work towards a compromise (but they don't and just act like kids stamping their feet if they dont get what they want)

Unknown said...

I don't want to abolish the Senate, I just want to cut the terms down to four years, and bring the House of Representatives' terms up to 4 years. Balance shit out a little bit. As it stands, Reps are focusing on re-election as soon as they get to their office.

Anonymous said...

Forgive me if I'm wrong here, but wasnt the whole idea of govt in America that the people who made of the govt were people successful in their own lives/business, that went into govt positions as a "service" or sense of civic duty, and were considered "trustworthy" in those positions because they had nothing to prove because they could (should) go back to their "old" lives/business.

This, IMHO, is where modern democratic govt (not only in the USA, but across the world) has failed. Career politicians are only intersted in what *they* can get from the system and *have* to keep their job by getting re-elected (any way they can) as they have little (nothing in some instances) to go "back" to.

Anonymous said...

I say we keep the Senate more or less as is, but we make the house MMP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_member_proportional_representation). Then we'd get the same crazy ass coalitions they have in NZ, Germany and a few other places whereby they actually have to work together and accomplish things all the time, and nobody can simply be obstructionist. Plus, I think all the Congressional investigations/hearings panels would be something more than each party blindly voting 7-5 on every single point.

Anonymous said...

I never understood why a rich boys club of 100 has any say over the decisions made by the body properly representing the people.

Anonymous said...

Excuse me for my lack of knowledge, can the Senate in the US just refuse to pass bills, or negotiate them, or re-work them? I know in Australia that if a bill is approved by one House (usually the House of Reps) and denied by the other (usually the Senate), they only get two or three shots at it. If a Bill gets denied for the third time in the Senate, the government goes into Double Dissolution, and basically has to run another election.

... Anyone can see what a fuss that would be and why any government would want to avoid it by negotiating concessions with the Opposition and minor parties to get the numbers in order to pass the legislation...

~ JL

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