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President Bush doesn't hesitate to kick Congress around, but Congress just can't bring itself to kick back. During oral arguments yesterday about whether a federal judge should enforce congressional subpoenas against a belligerent White House, representatives of the judicial and executive branches both noted that Congress hasn't exercised its full constitutional powers. As Del Quentin Weber writes in The Washington Post, District Court Judge John D. Bates suggested that "the House could take other actions to compel the testimony. For example, the judge said, the House could order [White House Counsel Harriet] Miers's arrest and detention in a cell in...

WASHINGTON - President Bush's refusal to let two confidants provide information to Congress about fired federal prosecutors represents the most expansive view of executive privilege since Watergate, the House Judiciary Committee told a federal judge Thursday. Lawyers for the Democratic-led panel argued in court documents that Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and former White House counsel Harriet Miers are not protected from subpoenas last year that sought information about the dismissals. The legal filing came in lawsuit that pits the legislative branch against the executive in a fight over a president's powers. The committee is seeking the testimony as...

Dems fault Bush on executive privilege By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 2 minutes ago President Bush's refusal to let two confidants provide information to Congress about fired federal prosecutors represents the most expansive view of executive privilege since Watergate, the House Judiciary Committee told a federal judge Thursday. Lawyers for the Democratic-led panel argued in court documents that Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and former White House counsel Harriet Miers are not protected from subpoenas last year that sought information about the dismissals. The legal filing came in lawsuit that pits the legislative branch against the executive in...

The House Judiciary Committee has filed a lawsuit to compel Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers to testify in the US Attorney firings scandal, now mostly forgotten. The lawsuit sets the stage for a resolution to the executive privilege claim by the Bush administration. It may also provide more closure on executive privilege than either branch of government will want: The House Judiciary Committee filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to force the White House chief of staff and the former White House counsel to cooperate with the committee’s investigation into the firing of a group of federal prosecutors.The lawsuit, filed...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) expressed her rage at Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s refusal to prosecute White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former presidential counsel Harriet Miers for their contempt of congress. Mukasey observed that “these individuals’ contempt of congress is not a crime. If we consult recent polls, we find that the vast majority of Americans share this contempt. The fact is, Bolton and Miers are in-step with voters on this issue. Perhaps the Speaker should reevaluate her Party’s actions to ascertain why this is the case.” Unmollified, Pelosi insisted that Bolton and Miers were guilty of...

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused Friday to refer the House's contempt citations against two of President Bush's top aides to a federal grand jury. Mukasey said White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former presidential counsel Harriet Miers committed no crime. As promised, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she has given the Judiciary Committee authority to file a lawsuit against Bolten and Miers in federal court. "The House shall do so promptly," she said in a statement. Mukasey said Bolten and Miers were right in ignoring subpoenas to provide Congress with White House documents or testify...

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has informed Nancy Pelosi that he will not enforce the contempt citations issued by the House last week. He informed the Speaker that neither Josh Bolten nor Harriet Miers committed any crimes, and therefore the Department of Justice didn’t really see the need to prosecute them: U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused on Friday to pursue contempt citations issued by the House of Representatives against a current and a former White House aide for not cooperating in a probe of the firing of U.S. attorneys.Saying no crime was committed, Mukasey rejected a request by House Speaker...

Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Friday rejected referring the House's contempt citations against two of President Bush's top aides to a federal grand jury. Mukasey says they committed no crime. Mukasey said White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former presidential counsel Harriet Miers were right in refusing to provide Congress White House documents or testify about the firings of federal prosecutors. "The department will not bring the congressional contempt citations before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute Mr. Bolten or Ms. Miers," Mukasey wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The House voted two weeks ago...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has asked for a grand jury investigation into whether White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers should be prosecuted for contempt of Congress. Pelosi is demanding that misdemeanor charges be pursued against Miers for refusing to testify to Congress about the 2006 firings of federal prosecutors, and against Bolten for failing to turn over White House documents related to the purge.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has scheduled a committee vote Thursday on contempt resolutions against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former presidential political guru Karl Rove for failing to respond to subpoenas. Under Judiciary Committee rules, the vote could be postponed for a week, but Leahy said he intends to move the criminal contempt resolutions as soon as possible. Last week, he rejected the White House's executive privilege claim in preventing Rove and Bolten from appearing before his panel, calling it "overbroad, unsubstantiated, and not legally valid," setting the stage for Thursday's showdown. Rove and Bolten...

Washington, D.C. - President Bush is quietly providing back-channel advice to Hillary Rodham Clinton, urging her to modulate her rhetoric so she can effectively prosecute the war in Iraq if elected president. In an interview for the new book “The Evangelical President,” White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten said Bush has “been urging candidates: ‘Don’t get yourself too locked in where you stand right now. If you end up sitting where I sit, things could change dramatically.’ ” Bolten said Bush wants enough continuity in his Iraq policy that “even a Democratic president would be in a position to...

For Immediate Release 07/25/2007 Pelosi Statement on Contempt of Congress Vote by House Judiciary Committee Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today on a vote by the House Judiciary Committee calling for the full House to seek contempt of Congress citations for White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers following their refusal to comply with subpoenas issued in the U.S. Attorney investigation: “The contempt proceedings in the House Judiciary Committee today are part of a broader effort by House Democrats to restore our nation’s fundamental system of checks and...

Snow blasts ‘pathetic’ House panel move By Klaus Marre July 25, 2007 White House spokesman Tony Snow strongly criticized congressional Democrats Wednesday, calling the House Judiciary Committee’s move to advance a contempt of Congress citation against two White House staffers “pathetic.” The panel voted along party lines to bring the citation against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and President Bush’s chief of staff, Josh Bolten, to the full House. Democrats say the move is warranted because Bolten and Miers ignored congressional subpoenas. The vote drew a harsh rebuke from Snow, who told reporters that the partisanship in Congress “quite...

WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee voted contempt of Congress citations Wednesday against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and President Bush's former legal counselor, Harriet Miers. The 22-17 party-line vote — which would sanction for pair for failure to comply with subpoenas on the firings of several federal prosecutors — advanced the citation to the full House. A senior Democratic official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the House itself likely would take up the citations after Congress' August recess. The official declined to speak on the record because no date had been set for the House...

The House Judiciary Committee, in a straight party-line vote, approved a contempt resolution against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, setting up a constitutional battle between the Bush administration and Congress over executive privilege. After several hours of skirmishing over whether to send a contempt resolution to the House floor, the committee voted by a 22-17 margin to approve the measure. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders will now have to decide if and when to hold a vote by the full House on the resolution. A vote could take...

Hawaii Reporter Freedom to Report Real News White House Chief of Staff Slams Democratic Senator Letter to U.S. Senator Reid Sent on the President's Behalf Re: War in Iraq By Joshua B. Bolten, 9/5/2006 8:36:24 PM Dear Senator Reid: Thank you for your September 4 letter to the President. I am responding on his behalf. A useful discussion of what we need to do in Iraq requires an accurate and fair-minded description of our current policy: As the President has explained, our goal is an Iraq that can govern itself, defend itself, and sustain itself. In order to achieve this...

September 5, 2006 Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid 528 Hart SOB United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Reid: Thank you for your September 4 letter to the President. I am responding on his behalf. A useful discussion of what we need to do in Iraq requires an accurate and fair-minded description of our current policy: As the President has explained, our goal is an Iraq that can govern itself, defend itself, and sustain itself. In order to achieve this goal, we are pursuing a strategy along three main tracks -- political, economic, and security. Along each of these...

Tue Sep 05 2006 19:28:01 ET Dear Senator Reid: Thank you for your September 4 letter to the President. I am responding on his behalf. A useful discussion of what we need to do in Iraq requires an accurate and fair-minded description of our current policy: As the President has explained, our goal is an Iraq that can govern itself, defend itself, and sustain itself. In order to achieve this goal, we are pursuing a strategy along three main tracks -- political, economic, and security. Along each of these tracks, we are constantly adjusting our tactics to meet conditions on...

Josh Bolten, chief of staff to the president, is like that guy who grew up small-town and stayed small-town...Bolten's live-in girlfriend, Dede McClure … calls him "the nation's number one government wonk." Their politics are different. McClure has been a registered Democrat for years, though she now considers herself an independent. She recalls that in the summer of '72, after Bolten graduated from high school, she and Abraham were handing out George McGovern pamphlets while Bolten headed to Miami for the Republican convention

by Mark Finkelstein July 24, 2006 - 18:40 I thought Tucker Carlson was supposed to be MSNBC's conservative counterweight to Olbermann, Matthews, & Co. Perhaps I better think again, judging by the opening roll of his 'Tucker' show this afternoon. Here's how it went: Open to video of an Israeli tank firing rounds, as an off-screen voice breathlessly announces "Lebanon, under siege" as the scene changes to smoke rising from an urban Lebanese landscape. Cut to a Lebanese couple, with the woman informing us that "our house is bombed, everything is bombed." Cut to what looks like a mosque in...