Rep. Brad Miller: Contempt Vote for Rove
Ashcroft testifies on Capitol Hill
Unfortunately, MSNBC has disabled the embed feature for this video. It's 11 minutes and features Brad Miller on the panel. Watch the whole thing if you have time, but this exchange occurs after minute seven:
Q: Are you going to have a vote on contempt of congress with regard to Rove?Miller: I feel pretty confident that we will.
Rep. Miller goes on to say he hasn't spoken to the House leadership about it, but that he is pretty confident that there will be a vote.
The congressman also had a chance to discuss the Miller bill that has been introduced.
Congressman Brad Miller (D-NC) today introduced legislation to allow Congress to ask for a special prosecutor for criminal Contempt of Congress charges against executive branch officials.“The law explicitly requires the Justice Department to present Contempt of Congress charges to the grand jury, but the Bush Administration claims Congress can not compel a U.S. attorney to prosecute contempt cases where the White House claims executive privilege,” said Rep. Miller. “Other presidents have made bodacious claims about their powers, but always compromised in the end. No president, not even Nixon, has gone this far before.”
Again, Thanks Brad Representative Miller.
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Just another Rep looking to get our hopes up!
We see these 'maybe' comments all over the internet, maybe because the Dems in Congress feel some guilt at not trying to hold at least 'one' individual accountable for the criminality of this administration. But the leadership of Pelosi, Hoyer and Emanuel have no stomach for doing the 'right thing', and maybe because they have been complicit in these wrongdoings, so I have great doubts that anyone will suffer any consequences. Just keep kissing up to the Bush crooks!
The stomach or the support?
I don't think the problem is that Pelosi et al lack the "stomach," but rather that their read on their constituencies is that the political will isn't there.
It's extremely discouraging. Today's latest revelations about the abuses of Scott Bloch remind me that last month's equally shocking revelations about Bloch went by with barely a blink. I think the media was busy with whether Jennifer Anniston or Angelina Jolie had more magazine covers. Something like that.
The MSM is pretty much tied up by the corporations who sign their paychecks, and the public interest just continues to dumb down, down down.
It's political play
I don't think it's a matter of "stomach" or "will" for Pelosi et al. It's about expedience and playing the political game. Threats of contempt votes make for good theater in the news, and the high crimes and misdemeanors of the current administration make for productive fodder for the '08 election. Same reason why impeachment is "off the table" and why the current Dems in congress seem so ineffectual in bringing an end to the fiasco in Iraq. If they actually did anything to hold people accountable before November (the reasoning goes), what would they have to campaign on? As a result, things like justice and accountability—and integrity too for that matter—once again take a back seat to political maneuvering.
Well, yes, it IS political play
I kinda like to think that's what I wuz saying, what with my use of the term "political will." That wasn't meant to refer to Pelosi's personal political will, but rather the message she (and others) got from constituents.
But it sounded better when you said it, and it sounded disjointed and vague when I said it, so lemme just second that.
I have a little bit more confidence in Rep. Miller
than I do in most of elected officials. I think if he says he'll get something done, he'll get it done.
Can we, instead, start talking about "for the good of North Carolina?" --Leslie H.
Pointing at Naked Emperors
Rep. Miller, Wexler, Kucinich, etc. may have good intentions,
but without Pelosi&gang, it doesn't get on the agenda. I know many people don't want to put the Democratic party in a bad light right now, but there's more to it than just a bunch of whining voters. There are many of us who realize that this administration will be looked at by history as successfully completing eight
years in office without any blots. There have been more illegal activities carried out than any other administration in anybody's lifetime. Compare this to Bill Clinton, where they tried to throw him out for immoral activity! Over four thousand of our troops have died for a war that we know was based on selling lies and misinformation to the public. And history will only look at documented opposition, and succeeding administrations will use Bush's methods as a road map for an overbearing executive branch.
I do agree that much has to do with politics, but at this level of government, that type of policy is also criminal in my book.