Contempt, Indeed

Is it any wonder why the American people hold Congress in lower regard than President Bush these days? After campaigning on their “Six in ’06” slogan last year, Democrats have instead claimed they received a “mandate” from the American people to pull troops out of Iraq and investigate the living daylights out of the Bush administration. I don’t remember much of that on the campaign trail, do you? 

Just a few minutes ago, the House Judiciary Committee voted to authorize criminal contempt of Congress charges against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and current White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten. Their alleged crimes? Refusing to disclose internal deliberations and documents that the president of the United States asserted were protected by executive privilege. The notion of executive privilege, of course, is that the president should be able to have confidential discussions with his closest advisers in full candor without fear of their being hauled up to Congress on fishing expeditions.

Never mind that the dismissal of the nine former U.S. attorneys in question was entirely proper and permissible for the president to do for any reason or no reason at all. While Justice Department explanations on this topic have been clumsy at best, the president is able to hire or fire political appointees entirely at his pleasure or discretion. Should the president dislike their tie — gone. So they have bad breath? Hit the exits, please.

Yet congressional Democrats have alleged that there must be something nefarious behind these firings. Something that warrants the kind of constitutional showdown on which the courts have previously sided on behalf of the executive branch: The president can hire or fire certain employees for any reason or no reason at all.

So here we are. There’s a war on terrorism being waged bravely by our servicemen abroad and serious issues here at home for the Congress to address. Instead, today’s vote shows true contempt for the American people by showing more interest in scoring partisan political points against the president than doing the job these members were elected to do. For shame.