by- Suzie-Q @ 12:28 PM MST
Senator Patrick Leahy said the Bush White House was more reckless in its exercise of executive power than President Richard Nixon Wednesday morning. The statement came as the Senate Judiciary Committee held a tempestuous hearing on the firing of 8 US Attorneys, with Sara Taylor, a former top aide to Karl Rove, as its witness.
“The White House lawyers have resorted to an unprecedented blanket assertion of executive privilege,” Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the committee’s chairman, said in his opening statement. “I didn’t even hear it during President Nixon’s term.”
He then asked, “What is the White House trying to hide?”
Another Senator criticized the White House for allowing young staffers like Taylor to pay the price for decisions made at more senior levels.
“Karl Rove should be sitting at this table, not you,” said Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL).
Taylor was subpoenaed to appear before the committee in June. On Saturday, her attorney, W. Neil Eggleston, made clear that she would abide by President George W. Bush’s invocation of executive privilege over her testimony, and asked that she not be subjected to an “unseemly tug of war.” Her appearance before the Judiciary Committee was an effort to balance Bush’s move with a Congressional subpoena. A failure to comply with the subpoena could result in the Senate holding her in criminal contempt.
Leahy in his opening statement called for Taylor’s “honest testimony” and gave her a clear warning.
“The White House is contemptuous of the Congress…I urge Ms. Taylor not to follow that contemptuous position and the White House down that path,” the Senator said, appearing to raise the specter of a criminal contempt charge.
He then asked, “What is the White House trying to hide?”
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Oh I would say they’re trying to hide the fact that this came from the top…
Btw… Yes, 110th Congress, we voted for you Dems so that you can bring Justice back to this country… not sit back and rubber stamp everything while collecting a fat paycheck like the 109th Congress did!
“SEN. LEAHY QUESTIONS, SECOND ROUND: You said, “I took an oath to the President, and I take that oath very seriously.” Did you perhaps mean that you took an oath to uphold the Constitution? Taylor says yes, she misspoke, and she took an oath to the Constitution, and that she takes her oath to uphold the President seriously. Leahy says, no, that her paramount duty is to uphold the Constitution and the laws of this nation, not the President alone, just like Leahy’s oath is to do the same and not just uphold the Congress. (CHS notes: Taylor sitting through this discussion with a sullen look on her face.)”
Firedoglake – Firedoglake weblog
Perhaps all federal employees, as well as U.S. citizens need reminded about the Constitution. Congress needs to restore it pre-chainsawed Bush/Cheney. An oath to Dubya, ptff!
If Taylor’s counsel doesn’t see what is standing before his client, and advise correctly and promptly, he should be disbarred.
Honor the “president?” Indeed, why not honor your client and the law?
Executive privilege should not be permitted or honored here, since the junta was installed as an illegitimate entity from Jan. 20, 2001. Everything that followed has been one massive crime-in-progress.
The evidence for caging by Rove and his minions alone-including those in the shadow Justice Department, is overwhelming.
Counsel: Have you been listening to Luskin?
Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:
POWER CLASH: BUSH ORDERS FORMER COUNSEL HARRIET MIERS TO DEFY CONGRESS AND REFUSE TO TESTIFY BEFORE A HOUSE PANEL INVESTIGATING PROSECUTOR FIRINGS
Congress needs to start Impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney NOW!
There is a fundamental confusion affecting the Neocons and their understanding between protecting the Constitution and protecting the President as if the President were the Constitution or Ultimate authority!
This is a huge mistake in these people and they need to disconnect this association that they have.
You take an oath to protect the Constitution of the United States and not the President, Congress & the Senate nor the Judiciary!
Congress needs to assert their Power as an EQUAL BRANCH of Government so that it is clear to the People of this Nation that the Executive Branch or the President IS NOT the Ultimate Authority.
There are 3 such entities…
The Executive IS EQUAL TO The Legislative and that IS EQUAL TO The Judiciary!
However the ‘Ultimate Authority’ IS the Constitution of the United States and not the President nor the Patriot Act(misnamed).
The Executive has violated the Constitution and made himself into a Monarch!
PREPOSTEROUS!
These rebots and theobots actually had to take a separate oath to the dictatorship that supplanted the oath to our Constitution.
Did they not know that the oath was taken as an act of subversion of the government of the United States?
What can Taylor’s counsel be thinking??? The entire nation sees what is going on. And if counsel thinks this matter will not leave a mark on his client and himself, he is deluded.
The Judiciary Committee is just getting started.
Are we nearing a countdown, whereby a force of federal marshals are assembled for the sole purpose of extracting members of the junta by force?
Miers knows, as an attorney, that she’s in over her head.
If someone has assured her she’s untouchable, both the source and recipient are mistaken.
Ignoring Rove’s lawyers and David Addington’s orders would go a long way to reducing her sentence.
Here’s the bottomline.
Bush does not have to answer to ANYONE. Not the House, not the Senate and not the American people.
We have a genuine Dictator.
Yet Speaker Botox insists, “impeachment is off the table.”
So when Dictator Bush decides it’s time to begin bombing Iran, who will be there to stop him? Not the Democratic Congress. They’re just along for the ride.
Isn’t it great living in a banana republic?
[...] fallout of the Scooter Libby pardon, or his keeping the women that he exploited (Harriet Miers, Sara Taylor - and is there a connection between Libby and Taylor?, Monica Goodling, etc.) from testifying [...]