Letters to the Editor
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re: @Anonymous
EMStoveken,
"The Executive branch has ordered employees to defy Congressional subpoenas. The employees' denial is in essence a federal offense. If it can be established that they are committing said offense under orders that orginated with the Vice President, that would prove provocative."
Again this is executive privilege. Not sure I agree with this particular defense...but it does belong to the President.
"As for your question about my door being kicked down for no reason. The theory of the Unitary Executive and various attempts to bypass the rubber-stamp FISA court, imply that they may already be a reality. I think of this as a goose/gander sort of thing."
Perhaps. Yet if one is going to follow the rule of law (ie the Constitution), one must have some kind of evidence to support kicking in the door, and not just rumor or opinion.
"Ultimately, you have something of a point that there is not a documentably rock solid crime committed. But this has nothing to do with good behavior on the part of the administration and everything to do with careful manipulation and skirting of laws. The kind of measures which Impeachment is meant to be a check against."
Well I won't argue with this...I've lived thru enough administrations to know that ALL of them have done this to one degree or another.
"Lucky Wilbury once sang: In Jersey everything's legal, as long as you don't get caught. Your entire argument is based on extending that notion to the highest office in the land."
But then, our entire system is based on "innocent until proven guilty", hence I say have evidence first.
"Answer me this: Clearly you feel that the administration and Mr. Cheney have succeeded in avoiding illegal action. Do you believe that this administration has acted in the best interest of the nation? Do you think there is anything morally (not legally) wrong with the no-bid contracts given to companies with direct financial connections to the Vice-President (Haliburton, subsidiaries and spin-offs in particular)?"
Do I believe the Administration has acted in the best interests of the country? To a degree I say yes...but not entirely...I believe they THOUGHT they were but then, the path to hell is paved with good intentions. Then again, NO administration has done that entirely in my opinion. I believe we may not have had to go to war, but since we are at war, we need to finish the job.
Do I think there is a moral problem with no-bid contracts? Absolutely and said so during Desert Storm, the Clinton Administration and this Administration right now.
"We all already know your views on the legal/illegal question. Fine. They have managed to merely bend the laws to the point of screaming (at least at the level which Congress is allowed to investigate) without breaking them. But where do you stand on the right/wrong issue."
Are they completely moral? I seriously doubt it. Again, NO Administration is completely moral...probably not even Jimmy Carter, who I believe was a good man who was in the wrong job for him.
"My feeling is that if the administration had nothing to hide, it would invite impeachment proceedings. If it was doing everything legally, it would have cooperated with the Congressional investigations."
Um, didn't they just do that? The Republicans asked for debate on this per the directives of their higher management...and doesn't the RNC and the White House talk? Seems to me the Republicans did invite impeachment dialogue but this was stopped by Pelosi by putting it into Judicial Committee. Then again, there's nothing that says it has to STAY there either.
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One last point . . .
"The Executive branch has ordered employees to defy Congressional subpoenas....
Again this is executive privilege. Not sure I agree with this particular defense...but it does belong to the President.
Having the employees in question appear before Congress (thus honoring the subpoena) and then declining to answer certain questions based on the radically interpreted Executive Privilege theory would be one thing. I would begrudgingly accept that until we could get a debate before the Supreme Court to better interpret such nonsense.
However there are employees who simply refused to appear before Congress at all. This goes beyond the bounds of Executive Privilege into an area of open contempt of Congress. Very dangerous territory.
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re: One last point . . .
EMStoveken,
"Having the employees in question appear before Congress (thus honoring the subpoena) and then declining to answer certain questions based on the radically interpreted Executive Privilege theory would be one thing. I would begrudgingly accept that until we could get a debate before the Supreme Court to better interpret such nonsense.
However there are employees who simply refused to appear before Congress at all. This goes beyond the bounds of Executive Privilege into an area of open contempt of Congress. Very dangerous territory."
Perhaps. I do not pretend to understand Executive Privilege nor do I know the extent of it. However, I do know that if the questions Congress wish to ask are pertinent to national security, then the President can invoke executive privilege. That's about all I know about it. However, isn't it the responsibility of Congress to subpoena them and then if they don't show up, put them in Contempt of Congress and show them their jail cell? So if this is the case, where are the Democratic leadership to get this done?
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@Hell's Liberal
You are somewhat correct that there is now (largely) not any difference between Republicans and Democrats. And why is that? BECAUSE YOU VOTED FOR NADER, YOU IDIOT.
It was not true in 2000 that Al Gore was George Bush. That it is true in 2007 that Hillary Clinton is George Bush is because of the changes in politics that your idiocy made possible. If Al Gore was finishing his second term, we wouldn't have had the hell of the last seven years that you helped create and we wouldn't have a situation where everyone was trying to out-Cheney Cheney because Cheney would never have existed.
So fuck you, moron, for not getting it then and not getting it now and for not realizing that this is the story of your life, apparently. Please do us all a favor and just not vote. Thank you.