Former Reagan aide: Congress relinquished its power

The House Judiciary Committee’s hearing analyzing Congressional response to alleged actions of the Bush administration wrapped up after more than six hours of testimony and questioning. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) said the Bush administration told aides to ignore subpoenas, an action Wexler said is in direct violation of the Congressional oversight based in the Constitution. Bruce Fein, deputy attorney general under Reagan, said the Founding Fathers established oversight so that citizens would be aware of the decisions of their leaders, adding that refusing to appear before Congress is similar to contempt and grounds for impeachment.

Fein continued, saying that Congress has voluntarily relinquished its right to checks and balances to the White House by being unresponsive to the White House’s numerous actions that warrant investigation. He also said that Congress has accepted the notion that a President can declare war without the approval of Congress, an action prohibited by the Constitution. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) suggested that Congress form a bipartisan legal oversight committee that would investigate executive encroachments on the Constitution and the legislature. Schiff said the committee should begin functioning immediately, be bipartisan, and examine historical precedents that led to increased presidential power.

Comparisons were made between allegations against the Bush administration and the impeachment proceedings of President Nixon. Rocky Anderson, founder and president of High Roads for Human Rights, said Americans viewed Nixon’s impeachment as being based in a violation of executive trust, not necessarily violations of law. Former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman (D-N.Y.), who served on the Judiciary Committee during the Nixon era, said bipartisan investigations were successful during Nixon hearings because the Judiciary Committee went to great lengths educating members of Congress and citizens on the Constitution and the compiled evidence.

Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) the only Republican who stayed for the entire hearing, made a closing statement in which he emphasized the difference between a “misstatement” and an “intentional misstatement.” He said it is easy to make allegations but that hindsight is not enough to assume decisions made by the White House were intentionally misleading.

Comments

[Zack Jones]

If one acts intentionally to do that which the law (or morality) dictates is unlawful (or immoral), one is guilty of the infraction. In most cases that is all it takes to be in violation. If the rule has an added element such as knowing certain facts first or having a more precise intent (eg intent to mislead or to lie), then it gets more complicated in trying to assess guilt... more facts needed. But the main point is that with most laws, rules, "ignorance of the law is no excuse". More to the point: one does not have to intend to lie or mislead in order to violate the law with respect to declaring war or invading and occupying a foreign nation.

[Dave Thomas]

It sounds like Mr. Reagan's former aid, Bruce Fein, is a poor student of history, present and past. President Bush received the approval of Congress to send troops to Iraq, and it isn't a "war." Vietnam was not a declared war. The Cold War was never declared. Korea was not a declared war. Thomas Jefferson didn't ask for a declaration of war against the Barbary Pirates. The United States never declared war on the Native Americans, yet we kept troops in the field against them from 1789 until 1902.

Another part of history Mr. Fein neglected was the period from 1866-1901 when Congress dominated the Executive Branch. Historians refer to it as the Gilded Age, and it is the most corrupt period in the entire history of our republic. He should pick up President Woodrow Wilson's stinging rebuke of Congress being the dominant branch of national government, "Congressional Government."

I don't know what axe Mr. Fein has to grind, but it certainly isn't an historically accurate one.

[EthanQ]

John Adams, the second president, shredded the constitution in much the same was as George W. Bush. Over 250 years later, in spite of the fact that John Adams as much as Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington was responsible for American Independe, John Adams is greeted with mostly a quizzical grunt by the American public. There is no head of Adams on Mount Rushmore, and there is no monument to his greatness in Washington.

Those who commit perfidy against the republic pay. George W. Bush is as evil an impersonator ever to occupy the Oval Office. History will be far harsher on him than on his predecessor, Adams.

God save the Republic, may every Repulican perish!

[Karpy]

Ah, the lofty constitutional experts here who have revealed Bush as an evil soul, and wishes death on all Republicans. The constitutional verbiage vomits forth, with shouts of "perfidy against the republic" and promises to make the evil ones "Pay". This in the time of Messiah Obama, the Anointed Great Uniter and almighty Agent of Change who will once again set America on the path of righteous glory. Thew one who musters millions (would you believe 20,000?) to see him articulate glorious speeches oozing with feel good pap, while the double speak and gaffes escape those of the great unwashed. Its not about his words after all, no one listens to them. Its about the orgasmic, tingle up your leg experience of being manipulated by a master con and his handlers. The last time the world saw such mesmerized crowds was in 1935.
History, if it is not rewritten by the Stalinist gang taking over, will be kind to George W. Bush. The man has had the courage to stand in the face of howling cowards and America haters who would appease the real evil in the world. The number one job of any American President is to protect the American people, and Bush met that responsibility wonderfully. The enemy know Bush will smash him should he rear his vile head, and what is left of him stays hidden and on the run. Obama meanwhile, being the great uniter and all, has earned the cynical endorsement of every terrorist on the planet.

[chuckg]

It amazes and saddens me that someone would wish the the demise of almost half the population of the United States.

[Tom]

Thank God we will be rid of this corrupt Republican administration soon. Their malfeasance is becoming legendary, as is their foreign and domestic incompetence. But a lot of the blame for this wreckage can be squarely placed on the shoulders of Congress. They were complicit in the undoing of Constitutional authority with their corrupt compliance with Republican misconduct. We can only hope we will not see another repressive Republican administration like this one for a long long time.

[Sam, Wisconsin]

If you want to know if a person is a real patriot, then put ten million dollars in his hands and watch the whereabouts of that money would go as an investment. The country that most of the money will end up at, is the country of his true citizenship in heart and mind, not on paper. Sadly, today's Republicans, Democrats, and wall street tycoons, have a wishful thinking for the Chinese, Russian, and European citizenships. I am not a cynic by expressing that Democrats of Congress today are angry that they did not get a piece of the American pie that was cut and distributed on the Republicans and their tycoon allies in the past eight years. Democrats wanted a piece of the money that was flying over seas, they did not want to stop it. Now we see this fiasco smoke screen inside Congress of "bad president vs. bad opposition", and outside we hear the voices of the medieval ages calling for a "better crusade against terrorists", then we see Mr.Forbes, the de facto representative of top 1%, deliver his dream of abolishing minimum wage and working hours limitations, to make the American worker pay no taxes, no Medicare or Medicaid, no social security, unlimited working hours up to a year non-stop, with equal pay to his peers in India and China ($2/day), and you actually hear some of the Congress members mentioned in this article 'praise' his vision. While one Presidential hopeful is paving the ground for more American jobs and money moving overseas, the other is classifying the return of troops from Iraq as winning if they come back under Republican administration, and losing if they come back under Democratic one. Americans are separated on the view of the outside world, whether we should beat them up to submission, or feed them to submission. While David Walker, the US comptroller is blowing the sirens of an incoming Tornado, and the Constitution peered with the Declaration of Independence are begging people to read them AS IS without prior agendas, todays politicians and citizens alike decided to continue riding the loose train, yet no one wants to press breaks.

[Sonia Kermaz]

With very few exceptions the whole of Congress is complicit in the subversion of representative government, the evisceration of the US Constitution, and the murderous policies of the Bush-Cheney junta. We need a revolution, not impeachment.