Mukasey: No, I Will Not Enforce Citations for Contempt of Congress

Email Print posted by awforrest 02/08/2008 09:53:51 AM EST

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Courtesy of TPM

Just to complete the theme of the day, Michael Mukasey said today that if Congress passed contempt citations against current and former White House officials based on their refusal to respond to subpoenas, the Justice Department would not enforce them, as federal law instructs.

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Mukasey: No, I Will Not Enforce Citations for Contempt of Congress | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden)
Huh? "Rule of law?" What's that? (none / 0)

Well, the House of Representatives doesn't care.  Public officials who admit having broken the law remain unimpeached (I'm speaking specifically about the President).  Desp ite the public pouting of various Senators and Representatives, they haven't had the U.S. Marshalls drag anyone down before them.  So if our chief law enforcement officer doesn't give a damn, what's new?

If you're a member of the Executive branch, you do not have to obey any laws.  The only thing that could help us is if the staff realizes that if they do anything wrong they'll get thrown under the tracks.  But those sychophants appear to be slow learners.

At this point, Bush is probably considering not stepping down next January.  After all, who's going to make him?

by Juarez Traveller on 02/08/2008 11:11:59 AM EST

Heh. That'll teach me (none / 0)
to not refresh the screen before I post.  I endorse your post, and declare mine redundant.  ;-)

"If you're not pumped up, then get the hell out, 'cause you don't belong here." -- Cenk Uygur

by Spinny on 02/08/2008 11:45:38 AM EST

[ Parent ]
Who watches the watchers? (none / 0)
So are there law enforcement officials on hand who can be counted on to do their job, which would be to frog-march Mukasey and anyone else violating federal law straight to the lockup?

Oh, yeah: nobody on the Hill is subject to the rule of law any more.  Sorry, I forgot.

"If you're not pumped up, then get the hell out, 'cause you don't belong here." -- Cenk Uygur

by Spinny on 02/08/2008 11:19:21 AM EST

Back in 2004 when Bush got *elected* (none / 0)
I was furious, depressed and disgusted (yes, it's possible to be all three as I found out the day after the election).

There were only 2 things I could think of at the time to provide me with small sense of comfort:

1)-Bush & Co would continue to screw up the country to the point where the Democrats would HAVE to take over for many years after (so far so good on that one but it's still too early to really tell).

2)-More and more insiders and whistleblowers would come out and explain many of the horrible, unlawful and or unethical things that occured in secret.  To some extent this *has* happened and is continuing to happen (altering scientific reports on global warming, devestating info on Iraq "intelligence", muzzling the former Surgeon General and on and on).

But how the hell do they KEEP doing the unethical, unlawful things?  It's truly mind boggling.  Wouldn't you have thought that when the republicans lost their majority and the president's approval rating dropped through the floor that they might've said "Gosh, it was fun while it lasted" and stopped being such crazy fucks?

PS---Rember this fun fact: One of the first things Bush did when he took office was to dramatically extend the Presidential Records Act. That should've been a HUGE story.  And hell, it would STILL make for a GREAT talking point.  Why aren't Dems saying "Mr. Bush, if you've done nothing wrong what are you trying so hard to hide?"  And it's a question that should be asked at the debates for *both* parties.  Don't we want to know how they'll handle presidential records?

I can't remember the specifics now, but I think he at least doubled the amount of time before which most presidential records can become public.

by ihavenobias on 02/08/2008 12:35:32 PM EST

[ Parent ]
I'm disappointed (none / 0)
A search of the MSM sites has turned up not a whiff of this, while the blogosphere seems to be alive with the story.  WTF?  I'd think this rolling over for BushCo would merit some sort of newsworthiness.

"If you're not pumped up, then get the hell out, 'cause you don't belong here." -- Cenk Uygur

by Spinny on 02/08/2008 05:24:33 PM EST

[ Parent ]
You fools (none / 0)

It's not like it's Mukasey's job to "protect" the law or anything or to prosecute "lawbreakers", whatever that means.

Honestly, though it won't make this whole shredding the constitution into meaningless little pieces thing go away, I at least hope nativist conservatives who LOVE President Bush's roughshod treatment of the law surrounding things like, oh I don't know, torture, will shut up about other people breaking the law, like the much-maligned "illegals" Lou Dobbs pay so his daughter can ride a pony. Fuck.

Cynicism is poison to reform and pumps life into the status quo.

by prezalex on 02/12/2008 12:02:18 AM EST

Mukasey: No, I Will Not Enforce Citations for Contempt of Congress | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden)
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