Open Warfare? Congress Takes on the White House

The US Attorney scandal has all the makings of a first class spectacle. It pits the slick spinmeisters of the White House, and the Frat Boy-in-Chief against people like Senator Leahy from Vermont who is the living embodiment of non-slickness. The crisis is building and the sides are lined up for the next round.

It took only a few hours for the House to ignore Bush’s completely vapid offer of cooperation and issue subpoenas for Rove and other White House officials. The Senate is expected to issues its own subpoenas when it meets Thursday. The AP has just broken the House story, here it is in the New York Times: House Panel Approves Subpoenas for Top Bush Aides

Let’s set aside the President’s spin that this is merely political grandstanding by Congress. He’s full of baloney. Congress has every right, indeed it has a Constitutional duty, to investigate what appears to be a serious attempt by the Justice Department to pervert the legal process for political gain. Were such an attempt to be proven true then our democratic processes have been threatened by the administration. This is not trivial. It cannot be laughed off as some ‘political game’ that ‘we all do’. We don’t ‘all do’.

The Bush family has always lived in its upper class, patrician bubble where silly rules, silly names, and fun tricks dominate, and where everyday stuff like obeying the law is deemed a nuisance for the masses rather than a golden rule for the Bush’s. George Bush grew up in a world of privilege. He has never succeeded in anything: his college life was bought by the influence of his family; his drug and drinking problems were not resolved but rather were covered up; his abdication of his Reserve Service was covered up; his business failures were bailed out and made to look good; his election was rigged; and his administration has been an unmitigated failure. Not one of Bush’s major initiatives will stand the test of time, and his legacy is one of disaster on top of failure, layered within devastation. His hubris is stunning. His total contempt for America is breathtaking: he really does think he is above the law. He really does think he can stall and prevent Congress from exercising its Consitutional rights. He really does think this thing he calls ‘executive privilege’ can shield his cronies from having to tell the truth.

He is wrong on all counts. White House officials have given testimony under oath many times in the past. They have been forced to give evidence by subpoenas. The Republicans themselves used subpoena power dozens of times in their attempt to oust Clinton. They created this monster, and now they cry ‘politics’ when the other side uses the weapon they built for political purposes. Tough. In politics, as in all walks of life, you do well not to dump too hard on your opponent: you never know what they’ll do if the positions are reversed.

Cheney could learn that lesson: he used several foul swear words in comments he made about a certain senator on the Senate floor a few years back. That’s when no one thought the Democrats would regain control.

That senator was Leahy.

Now look who’s running the show. As Leahy said yesterday in response to Bush’s evasion: “it is not helpful to be giving the Senate advice about how to conduct its business”. It would be helpful to be obeying the law.

I think the crusty old Vermonter is going to get his own back. Good for him. Good for the nation. This is supposed to be the land of the free. It’s people like Leahy that can give substance to that claim.