Dear Judiciary Committee: Enough with the US Attorney investigation
Posted by Ryan on July 13th, 2007.
One of the items that I have had enough of seeing in the news is the House of Representatives’ investigation into the firing of several US Attorneys last year. There was no crime committed. The US Attorneys are political appointments that serve at the will of the President. If there is anything I learned (and remember) from my political science class, it is that. There is no need for the President to justify why he is firing, he doesn’t even need a reason, although it is nice to have one.
So what does the Judiciary Committee do? They launch an investigation into something that is not illegal, or unethical. The Committee wastes its time and the time of everyone involved in any way of the investigation. They try to get former presidential aides to testify under oath, in a public hearing. The President has said that executive privilege exists, and that they don’t have to testify. Bush said that they could testify in a closed door hearing, not under oath, and that the Committee could get the answers to its questions. But what do they do instead? The Committee says no, and subpoenas them instead. Bush still claims executive privilege, and while one of the former aides answers some of the questions and claims privilege on others, one of the aides does not show.
Now the Committee is considering contempt charges. There was no reason to issue the subpoenas in the first place, so when this finally goes to a court, I predict that there will be a ruling that it was proper for Bush to claim privilege, and that the aides do not have to testify.
Why does this issue bug me? There are so many other things the Committee could be doing that would benefit this country. Better pay (and security) for judges and courthouses, prison overcrowding, gun control, drug issues, the list can go on and on.
So why has this issue dragged on for so long? The people in charge of the Committee (the Democrats) don’t like the way the war in Iraq is heading, and this is really the only way they can punish him for it. But the whole Iraq war is something for me to talk about some other time.