Monday, July 23, 2007

Mark Kleiman: Gaming Out the Confrontation

This by Kleiman is pretty damn sweet. I don't know enough about congressional rules to play red team here...not that I'd make such tactical advice public even if I did.

This is the kind of serious, smart hardball that seems completely beyond the capacity of these Democratic leaders. They seem to be stuck in whiny/bitchy/shrill mode. But we can dream...

1 Comments:

Blogger The Mystic said...

This executive privilege thing is getting unbelievably out of control.

The timeline of events, as I recall them, is:

-Congress asks for Justice Department witnesses.
-Bush says they won't testify.
-Congress threatens subpoenaing them.
-The White House presents a compromise - Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, William Kelley and Scott Jennings will testify provided that:
1) the testimonies are executed in a closed-door session,
2) no transcript is kept of the meeting, and
3) the staff members are not under oath.
-The House Judiciary Committee authorizes subpoenas for the White House aides despite Bush's objection.
-Bush states that the aides will refuse to comply with the subpoenas under his order.
-Congress threatens to move forward with contempt of Congress proceedings against the aides for refusal to comply with subpoenas.
-Bush states that the aides are protected under his executive privilege to keep documents and information about the US Attorney firings secret, claiming the reason as "for the President to perform his constitutional duties, it is imperative that he receive candid and unfettered advice and that free and open discussions and deliberations occur among his advisors and between those advisors and others within and outside the Executive Branch."


Wtf is going on? This timeline may be incomplete or incorrect, but can anyone help me to fill it in where it is or correct the mistakes? I think it'd be a useful tool in showing people how f*cked up this situation is.

12:09 AM  

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