More On Congress's Inherent Contempt Power
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Law — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
This is a comprehensive analysis and shows again that Congress does not need to depend on the Executive Branch to enforce contempt citations. If Congress would exercise its powers, we wouldn't have this controversy to occupy our time. Indeed, if Congress chose to exercise its inherent contempt powers, it would likely come quickly to some sort of agreement with the Bush Administration concerning the disputed testimony that gave rise to the contempt citations from the outset.
Of course, the longer Congress takes to exercise its own inherent contempt powers--while complaining about the Bush Administration's supposed dictatorial tendencies--the more it becomes clear that certain members of Congress care more about being able to use talking points against the Administration than they do about genuinely protecting Congressional powers and prerogatives.
Eugene Volokh has more on this issue.
This is another PR gesture by Congressional Democrats to raise campaign contributions from the gullible. The LAST thing they want is a resolution of the issue.
And it has always been a phony issue. That happens over and over again, and it is not limited to Congress, or even to any government. The old "cop-killer" teflon bullet issue by the National Rifle Association was a phony issue pushed by one NRA faction to seize control of its national organization and thereby its lucrative fund-raising operation.
Here Congressional Democrats want this issue to go on for a while so they can use it as a vehicle to raise money from their nutroots. And not because they need the money, but because they want to sop up all possible campaign contributions to keep those from going to potential primary opponents.
And, of course, they don't have the votes to get a contempt of Congress resolution through. But first they simply want to keep the issue going for as long as possible.