Yesterday, as called by Brian Beutler, the House of Representatives voted to issue contempt of Congress citations to White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, and former White House Counsel and Deputy Chief of Staff Harriet Miers for failing to comply with House subpoenas summoning their testimony regarding the controversial firing of eight U.S. Attorneys for allegedly political reasons. Yesterday's House vote prompted a highly staged walk-out by the House Republican leadership and a number of G.O.P. House members, and yielded a photograph of a herd of elephants -- mostly men in dark suits, with a smattering of women wearing skirted numbers in Valentine's Day red -- arrayed on the Capitol steps. While this is all fabulously dramatic, the question is, will it come to anything?
It is truly heartening that the House, under the guidance of Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), at long last got these citations passed. But President George W. Bush has said in the past that, should the vote for citations win the day, he will not allow the Justice Department to prosecute any such citations. Current Attorney General Michael Mukasey has yet to make his own pronouncement on the citations.
Now, if the Senate had any backbone, it could, via procedures unique to that body, issue civil contempt citations that do not require Justice Department involvement. But considering the fact that even some Democratic senators -- 19 of them -- just sold out your privacy to the administration and the telecom companies, it's not likely that they will muster the gumption to take a stand on the Constitution.
--Adele M. Stan