Citing the “we-do-whatever-the -hell-we-want” clause in the Constitution, The White House said Friday it could block Scott McClellan from testifying before Congress. From Think Progress:
QUESTION: Could the White House block him from testifying, if he wanted to testify? Or how does that work?
PERINO: Conceivably?
QUESTION: Yes.
PERINO: Hypothetically, which I’m not supposed to answer a hypothetical, yes, I think so. The law would allow for that. But by saying that, I’m not suggesting that that’s what would happen or not happen.
McClellan revealed this week that Andy Card told him to vouch for Scooter Libby, that Karl Rove and Libby had an unusual tete-a-tete about the Valerie Plame Wilson outing, and that Bush authorized leaking parts of the NIE.
House Judiciary Committe Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) expressed his concerns:
I find Mr. McClellan’s revelations about attempts to cover up the Valerie Plame leak extremely troubling. Particularly disturbing is McClellan’s assertion that he was specifically directed by Andy Card to ‘vouch’ for Scooter Libby after the investigation had begun, which, if true, could amount to obstruction of justice beyond that for which Mr. Libby has already been convicted,” said Conyers.
“I believe this issue may require closer examination, so I have instructed my counsels to begin discussions with Mr. McClellan to determine whether a hearing is necessary and to secure his possible cooperation.”
I don’t see Conyers tolerating White House interference because his patience has already been exhausted in his dealings with Karl Rove.
Filed under: Corruption, Crime, Karl Rove, Law, Media, News Headlines, Politics, justice, news | Tagged: Andy Card, Congress, Dana Perino, House Judiciary, John Conyers, Karl Rove, Scott McClellan, White House
Will Scott spill the beans? Will it matter? Probably not until after the November elections, and by that time the political will to prosecute the Bush administration for high crimes and misdemeanors will have evaporated.
http://www.stuffwhitedbagslike.wordpress.com
I wonder if they’ll pull a Ford and forget prosecuting in the name of healing.
MY political and Constitutional will won’t have evaporated – I firmly believe that the way back also includes accountability. I think other people feel that way also. I hope they do, anyway.
That “whatever-the-hell-we-want” clause … help me out. It got left off my copy of the Constitution. No wonder I’m so confused. It’s probably in the same paragraph with the establishment of the 4th Hybrid branch of government. Is your copy handwritten? Does it look like Dick Cheney’s handwriting?
Here’s an interesting question: if McClellan wants to testify, can the White House legally order him not to?
This is gettin’ good (finally), huh?
Yes, it is in Dick Cheney’s hand-writing.
McClellan says he’s HAPPY to testify. I’m not a lawyer or expert by any stretch of the imagination, but from what I’ve read of John Yoo, they really do believe they can do anything…especially if they can tie it to the President executing a war.
Oh, you’re absolutely right, they think that. And why shouldn’t they? When Pelosi took the “you’re fired” option off the table, she basically handed them the keys to the kingdom. What Cheney et al. have done IS the equivalent of re-writing the Constitution. I’m sure it wasn’t a stretch for people who also like to “rewrite” reality as well. Remember “last throes?”
I haven’t read the article, but I saw a headline that the White House has known about McClellan’s book for a month and they couldn’t keep him from publishing it. Maybe they won’t be able to keep him from testifying either, if that’s what he wants to do.
Hey, thanks for the Siegelman update. I don’t want to jinx us, but maybe in this confluence of recent events – McClellan’s book, Siegelman’s impending vindication, Conyers breaking bad – there finally is going to be something akin to redress. Or, at least, the beginnings of it. I really, really hope so.
IANAL BUT the White House had the book for a month and didn’t raise any objections. It’s been published. There is no way any privilege could attach to testimony about events already described to the public without objection.
And all the objections now seem to be:
Poor man, went crazy from the strain.
Disgruntled incompetent fired for cause, now a tool of the left.
Judas getting the silver.
Nothing about privileged information, since he was “out of the loop” anyway according to Rove. It will be a tough sell, since stuff the POTUS tells his press secretary is almost by definition the stuff the presser is supposed to tell people.
That phrase “whatever the hell we want” is a cute little observation that many do think appropos of our govt. Let me point out that nowhere/nobody does this fit better than the current Democratic candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton. If anybody is out to bang/smash/bash/ her way to steal an election, with no regard for fair play. I was very shocked that the DNC allowed her to have 50% of the votes that would have been otherwise denied.
Sadly, nothing surprises me anymore. If the Democrats can’t clean their party up to run a fair campaign 2008; how are they going to operate in the W.H. with all the vaugaries and complex situations that appear/ with no help from the sitting president?
Frosty, if I can fall on the side of cute rather than vituperative, it’s a personal, soulful victory. I think most Democrats have the experience of not having their first preference when it comes to candidates. Clinton’s momentum, or more aptly put, “power” comes from being an actor in the American political theater for 2 decades. It’s formidable. I just watched the Rules and Bylaws meeting online, and it’s a marvel to me that this is where the news cameras end up. Yet, Michigan and Florida, particularly Florida, had a case to make. Liberal flexibility bites itself in the butt. The end result leaves Obama with 66 delegates to gain and Clinton 240.5. Montana and South Dakota have a combined 47 delegates. Puerto Rico has 55 delegates. Clinton cannot make up the difference. She reserved the right to protest to the credentials committee. I don’t see they will accommodate her argument given Pelosi’s recent pressures that uncommitted delegates CHOOSE, but then I didn’t see them compromising on penalizing MI and FL. So…
As I have done in many elections where my first choice falls by the way side, I suck it up and vote Democrat. I heard Clinton supporters shouting “McCain, McCain, McCain.” Those aren’t normal Democrats in my view. Anyone with a pulse and a bank account knows the need to purge government of neocons and their disastrous policies.
Suzanne wrote a few days ago, “A plague on both your houses!” Seems that came to pass years ago, though it’s particularly festering now.
There was a rumor that Bush and Dick said the Constitution was just a G#d D@$m piece of paper.
I don’t know if anyone saw the movie Recount on HBO, but those Hillary supporters reminded of the Bush supporters in the movie. I wonder if they are really Hillary supporters or Republican trojan horses?