Sunday, March 2, 2008

Only in American Politics...

"U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey Friday said he will not ask a federal grand jury to investigate whether two top Bush administration officials should be prosecuted for contempt of Congress" (http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/29/congress.attorneys/).

Harriet Miers, former White House Counsel, and Josh Bolten, White House Chief of Staff, each invoked executive privilege when subpoenaed by Congress in regards to the U.S. Attorney firings in 2006.

President Bush has asserted that to force these two individuals to testify and/or produce documents would infringe on the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of the government. Congress contends that the inaction of these two individuals in regard to the subpoenas violates a federal statute.

Can both be right? If not, which is the law? And why isn't someone asking this bigger question?

Let's see...Roger Clemens may have a Justice Department investigation as to whether he perjured himself or not...Meirs and Bolten, employees of the federal government will not be subject to such an investigation, nor will the larger matter of executive privilege versus Congress's right to subpoena individuals from the executive branch. Really, how many places in the world, let alone how many republics in the world, operate like this? Only in America...

No comments:

Post a Comment