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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (344204)	7/25/2007 5:09:41 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1574216

House Panel Cites Bush Aides for Contempt of Congress by Laurie Kellman WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee voted contempt of Congress citations Wednesday against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and President Bush’s former legal counselor, Harriet Miers. The 22-17 party-line vote — which would sanction the pair for failure to comply with subpoenas on the firings of several federal prosecutors — advanced the citation to the full House. A senior Democratic official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the House itself likely would take up the citations after Congress’ August recess. The official declined to speak on the record because no date had been set for the House vote. Committee Chairman John Conyers said the panel had nothing to lose by advancing the citations because it could not allow presidential aides to flout Congress’ authority. Republicans warned that a contempt citation would lose in federal court even if it got that far. And the White House accused the Democrats of engaging in political theater. “Now we have a situation where there is an attempt to do something that’s never been done in American history, which is to assail the concept of executive privilege which hails back to the administration of George Washington and in particular to use criminal contempt charges against the White House chief of staff and the White House legal counsel,” said White House Spokesman Tony Snow. Snow used two video screens on either side of the White House lectern with images illustrating that the White House has provided documents that, if stacked up, would be twice as high as the White House. The drive to pass the citations on to a federal prosecutor comes after nearly seven months of a Democratic-driven investigation into whether the U.S. attorney firings were directed by the White House to influence corruption cases in favor of Republican candidates. The administration has denied that, but also has invoked executive privilege on internal White House deliberations on the matter. White House counsel Fred Fielding had said previously that Miers and Bolten were both absolutely immune from congressional subpoenas — a position that infuriated lawmakers. “If we countenance a process where our subpoenas can be readily ignored, where a witness under a duly authorized subpoena doesn’t even have to bother to show up, where privilege can be asserted on the thinnest basis and in the broadest possible manner, then we have already lost,” Conyers, D-Mich., said before the vote. “We won’t be able to get anybody in front of this committee or any other.” Conyers’ predecessor, former Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., argued that Democrats can’t win that fight. A civil lawsuit in federal court would be less perilous for the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches, he said, than a constitutional battle over contempt. “I think that the White House is going to win an argument in court” over the contempt matter, Sensenbrenner told the panel. “The proper thing to do is to determine the executive privilege claim aside from who said what, who refused to submit to what, who didn’t show up to subpoena,” the Wisconsin Republican said. Instead, Congress should “direct the general counsel to the clerk of the House of Representatives to file a civil suit,” Sensenbrenner added. Added Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah: “The real argument here is not over the audacity of the White House, but over the strength of our legal argument.” Conyers, however, did not discount Sensenbrenner’s suggestion. The fight over the limits of executive privilege erupted after Miers and Bolten refused to comply with subpoenas compelling testimony and documents about the White House’s role in the firings. Democrats reject Fielding’s claims that the White House aides were immune. Contempt of Congress would be a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to a $100,000 fine and a one-year prison sentence. If the citations win support in the full House, they would be forwarded to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia — a Bush appointee. And that’s as far as it’s likely to go, the Justice Department said in a letter to the committee late Tuesday. Brian A. Benczkowski, principal deputy assistant attorney general, cited the department’s “long-standing” position, “articulated during administrations of both parties, that the criminal contempt of Congress statute does not apply to the president or presidential subordinates who assert executive privilege.” Benczkowski said it also was the department’s view that the same position applies to Miers, who left the White House earlier this year. Republicans said Democrats couldn’t win this fight, noting the White House has offered to make top presidential aides available for private interviews about their roles in the firings. Republicans also suggested that the Democrats’ rejection of the offer leaves only one reason for the dispute: politics. “If the majority really wanted the facts, it could have had them,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. If history and self-interest are any guide, the two sides will resolve the dispute before it gets to federal court. Neither side wants a judge to settle the question about the limits of executive privilege, for fear of losing. But no deal appeared imminent. Contempt of Congress is a federal crime, but a sitting president has the authority to commute the sentence or pardon anyone convicted or accused of any federal crime. Congress can hold a person in contempt if that person obstructs proceedings or an inquiry by a congressional committee. Congress has used contempt citations for two main reasons: to punish someone for refusing to testify or refusing to provide documents or answers, and for bribing or libeling a member of Congress. The last time a full chamber of Congress voted on a contempt citation was 1983. The House voted 413-0 to cite former Environmental Protection Agency official Rita Lavelle for contempt of Congress for refusing to appear before a House committee. Lavelle was later acquitted in court of the contempt charge, but she was convicted of perjury in a separate trial.

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (344204)	7/25/2007 5:12:13 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1574216

Read the nonsense your candidates are spouting.......they are pathetic. Can't you all do better than that? Did any of you graduate college? Really, really pitiful! Jul 25, 4:36 PM EDT Romney, McCain lash out at Democrats By GLEN JOHNSON Associated Press Writer FRANKLIN, N.H. (AP) -- Mitt Romney and John McCain sought to enhance their stature in a field of Republican presidential contenders that Newt Gingrich derisively called "pygmies," criticizing their Democratic rivals as too liberal and ill-prepared for the nation's top job. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, singled out Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, telling a group of senior citizens in central New Hampshire, "I don't think Hillary Clinton could get elected president of France with her platform. France is moving toward us." Romney did not spare others, though, saying: "I'm convinced that America is going to change course and the question is which way it is going to go: Are we going to take a sharp left turn represented by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and John Edwards, or are we going to march forth with the American values that have always helped us be the strongest nation on earth. And I believe we'll do the latter." The Republicans' criticism of their Democratic counterparts comes amid national polls that show the White House race is far more volatile on the GOP side than on the Democratic side. The latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that nearly a quarter of Republicans are unwilling to back top-tier hopefuls Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, McCain or Romney. In sharp contrast, the Democratic race remains static, with Clinton holding a sizable lead over Obama. Responding to Romney, Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said, "Considering how often Governor Romney flip-flops, he'll be wearing a beret and eating baguettes on the Champs-Elysees next week." McCain took exception to remarks in which Obama asserted his foreign policy judgment was superior to any of the candidates in the race, Republican or Democrat, partly because he has lived overseas and had a multicultural upbringing. "Well, I also think I'm the most qualified to run the decathlon because I watch sports on television all the time," Arizona senator said with a degree of sarcasm between stops in this leadoff primary state. "I think that Senator Obama showed a degree of naivete when he advocated direct talks with the leader of North Korea and the president to Iran and of all these other people who are sponsoring terror all over the world," McCain told The Associated Press. The Democrats turned on themselves this week, after Obama said at a debate on Monday that, as president, he would be willing to meet with certain world leaders perceived as hostile to the United States without preconditions. Clinton was more cautious, saying she didn't want the prestige of the presidency used for foreign propaganda purposes. She, as did McCain later, called Obama's response naive. "One thing I'm very confident about is my judgment in foreign policy is, I believe, better than any other candidate in this race, Republican or Democrat," Obama said at a private event in New York City Tuesday, according to his campaign. "And I don't base that simply on the fact that I was right on the war in Iraq. ... What I was drawing on was a set of experiences that come from a life of living overseas, having family overseas, being able to see the world through the eyes of people outside our borders," Obama said. "The notion that somehow from Washington you get this vast foreign policy experience is illusory." Responding to the GOP criticism, Kate Bedingfield, a spokeswoman for Edwards, said of Romney, "No candidate is more out of step with the nation than Governor Romney, who supports President Bush's stay-the-course strategy in Iraq while the vast majority of Americans are demanding a new plan that brings our troops home safely and swiftly." Both Romney and McCain had active campaign days, with Romney making seven stops across central New Hampshire and McCain holding three events across the central and southern part of the state. The normally secretive Romney let slip a few details about his upcoming campaign agenda, saying he will outline his national health care plans, and that he and his staff have been studying abuse in the federal Earned Income Tax Credit program. Romney also shrugged off Gingrich's remark this week that the GOP field is a "pathetic" bunch of "pygmies." Gingrich is a potential GOP candidate. "I consider it an exceptionally strong field and think they're good people that folks will be able to choose from. And if Speaker Gingrich wants to get in, he would enhance the field," Romney said. McCain was less charitable when asked about Gingrich's comment on Tuesday. "If Mr. Gingrich decides he wants to get into the presidential campaign for the nomination of our party, then I would take some of his comments more seriously," the senator said. --- Associated Press writer Philip Elliott in Manchester, N.H., contributed to this report. © 2007 The Associated Press.