Harriet Miers

Pelosi was ready for Mukasey's refusal to enforce the contempt citations. Now the next step - court:

"By ordering the U.S. Attorney to take no action in response to congressional subpoenas, the Bush Administration is continuing to politicize law enforcement, which undermines public confidence in our criminal justice system.

"Anticipating this response from the Administration, the House has already provided authority for the Judiciary Committee to file a civil enforcement action in federal district court and the House shall do so promptly. The American people demand that we uphold the law. As public officials, we take an oath to uphold the Constitution and protect our system of checks and balances and our civil lawsuit seeks to do just that."

Let's see how quickly this moves.

Chuck and Di's great pick for A.G. gives the administration another free pass on law breaking. Mukasey says he won't seat a grand jury to investigate Miers and Bolton refusing to show for Congres.

I was working on a post about the FBI investigating if Roger Clemens lied to Congress and wondering what it takes to get an investigation when someone from the administration does the same.

Well it looks like someone was in my mind. The AP has just issued a breaking news alert that Nancy Pelosi is asking for a grand jury to investigate rather Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton should be prosecuted for contempt of Congress.

We can

Democratic leaders are preparing to launch the second session of the 110th Congress this week with a partisan shot, hints of conciliation and some serious procrastination.

In its first couple of weeks after it returns tomorrow, the House is likely to take up contempt-of-Congress resolutions against White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers for their refusal to appear before Congress for questioning about the 2006 removal of nine U.S

The one time pick of George Bush to be one of the top judiciaries in the nation did not show up for her subpoena today, paving the way for contempt charges. Let's not forget George Bush in those charges either, who ordered Miers not to show up. As Josh posted yesterday:

18 U.S.C. Sec. 1505 : ... Whoever corruptly ... influences, obstructs, or impedes ... the due and proper exercise of the power of inquiry under which any inquiry or investigation is being had by either House, or any committee of either House or any joint committee of the Congress ... [s]hall be fined under this title, [or] imprisoned not more than 5 years ... or both.

18 U.S.C. Sec. 1515(b): As used in section 1505, the term "corruptly" means acting with an improper purpose, personally or by influencing another, including ... withholding, [or] concealing ... information.

Ordering someone not to show up under the title of President of the United States is very influential. High crimes and misdemeanors? Looks like we might have them now. Time for the Democrats to return justice to this once great nation.

MSNBC just now reported that Bush ordered Miers to not show up tomorrow for the congressional hearing and she indeed won't. Considering Congress hasn't released her from the obligation to show up, this means she will most likely face contempt of Congress charges. Just another chapter in the life of "Bush hates the rule of law".