[Sosfbay-discuss] WaPo: Congress could pursue contempt charges for Bush; Lugar's suprise call for Iraq change

[JamBoi]

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2007/07/post.html?hpid=topnews
July 1: Congress could pursue contempt charges for
Bush

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee
signaled today that he would seek to hold White House
officials in contempt of Congress if they do not
comply with congressional subpoenas.

"If they don't cooperate, yes, I'll go that far," said
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), when asked on NBC's "Meet
the Press" if he would ask Congress to hold President
Bush in contempt if he refuses to respond to
subpoenas.

"They've chosen confrontation rather than compromise
or cooperation," Leahy said.

Democrats and the White House are locked in battle
over two areas in which Congress has asked for access
to information.

Last week, White House counsel Fred Fielding said Bush
has claimed executive privilege in deciding not to
turn over documents relating to the administration's
warrantless surveillance program. Bush also has relied
on executive privilege to refuse to allow former White
House officials Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor to
testify in the continuing investigation over the
firing of nine U.S. attorneys.

"The president and vice president are not above the
law anymore than you and I are," Leahy said.

Leahy said he is not trying to shut down the
surveillance program.

"We're asking what was the legal justification they
tried to follow when for years they were wiretapping
Americans and everybody else without a warrant," Leahy
said.

On the fired U.S. attorneys, Leahy said, "The bottom
line is in the U.S. attorney investigation, we have
people manipulating law enforcement. Law enforcement
can't be partisan."

Leahy predicted the White House and Congress could
find a compromise, suggesting that sessions with White
House officials that are under oath and transcribed
would be acceptable. The White House has allowed only
for interviews that are neither under oath nor
transcribed.

"They've always found a way to ... get the information
Congress is entitled to," Leahy said of previous
Republican and Democratic administrations.

But if the White House continues to assert executive
privilege, he said, the next step for Congress is to
determine whether the claim is legitimate. "Based on
the court cases," it is not, he said. If his
colleagues agree, the Judiciary Committee and Congress
will have to vote on whether to hold Bush in contempt,
and if they vote in the affirmative, the case will be
relayed to the U.S. attorney for prosecution.

The war

Sen. Richard Lugar (Ind.), an influential Republican
and former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, called for a change in U.S. strategy in
Iraq, predicting the president's strategy of sending
30,000 more troops to the country will not succeed in
a timely manner.

Lugar surprised many in both parties last week when he
came out and made similar remarks on the Senate floor.
Democrats say they are planning to try to use a Senate
defense authorization bill next week to force
withdrawals, but most observers expect that, like
previous attempts, to fail ahead of planned testimony
in September from Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S.
commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the U.S.
ambassador in Iraq, on the effectiveness of the
"surge" strategy.

"The point of the surge was to give time for the Iraqi
politicians to work out the constitutional elements,
not only the oil law but the local elections, a whole
raft of things.They're not going to be able to do that
in that period of time of December or next March, or
what have you. It may take years," Lugar said on CBS'
"Face the Nation." "This is sad, but that is the
case."

Lugar called on President Bush to join with a
bipartisan group in Congress "to think through three
elements:"

* "How we can form a diplomatic forum in which the
Iraqis and the United States bring together all the
neighboring countries."

* How this can "be buttressed by American forces who
would stay relatively indefinitely in Iraq, performing
services of training the Iraqi police and military
people, but also working with other nations to secure
the borders."

* How to begin the "withdrawal of a majority of
American troops in a calm, orderly way, over the next
few months, so that we refurbish our ability to meet
problems elsewhere in the world."

If the president hopes to continue his current
strategy, he probably will be able to through the
conclusion of his term, Lugar said. But, he added, "My
guess is the constraints of the presidential campaign,
the congressional campaign are likely to bring pause
even to the president if he were to have that idea."

___________________

JamBoi: Jammy, The Sacred Cow Slayer
The Green Parties' #1 Blogger
http://dailyJam.blogspot.com

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