Progressive World Review

In a showdown between the Legislative and Executive branches, the House Judiciary committee is suing the Bush administration in an attempt to force the president’s chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers, to comply with subpoenas requiring them to testify before Congress as well as turn over key documents concerning potential political meddling with the Justice Department.

This is the same scandal that resulted in the resignation of disgraced Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.  Gonzales was suspected of taking part in the firing of several federal prosecutors so they could be replaced with personnel loyal to Bush.  It’s not clear that anything illegal took place as federal prosecutors “serve at the pleasure of the president,” however; the Justice department is typically free from the partisan games normally played in Washington.  Moreover, if any obstruction took place through all of this, that could indeed be cause for legal action.

But the real issue is this; the American people deserve and are owed, a transparent government where all rules are followed.  Political gamesmanship belongs on the debate floor and not where the enforcement of our laws takes place.  And when Congress issues a subpoena, compliance should be considered mandatory regardless of political party.  That Bush and his minions consider themselves to be above the law is the defining characteristic of this administration and it is this, more than anything else that Bush has done, including lying to Congress to bring this country to war, that represents precisely the kind of tyranny that the Founding Fathers tried to spare us.  Bush’s presidency has been disastrous to this nation, his militant foreign policy, tax cuts that mostly benefit the rich, deregulation of the oil markets, all badly misguided policies but they are just the price we pay for electing such a man, the price of democracy.  But it is Bush’s lawlessness, his blatant disregard not only for the rule of law but for the very checks and balances that make our government work, that are actually threatening our democracy.

–Paul Wilden

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