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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.

It is an honor and privilege to live in the United States, the greatest country in the world. Yet for all its blessings, American society is beset by serious problems, including jihadists seeking weapons of destruction who want to create a world caliphate; a violent, sexually loaded popular culture that targets our children; unelected judges who ignore the Constitution and abuse their powers; and a disrespect for human life that has resulted in tens of millions of abortions. It is possible to become demoralized and conclude that everything is hopeless, and that we should withdraw from the political and cultural...

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...

WASHINGTON - House Democrats told no-show witness Harriet Miers on Friday that she could soon be held in contempt as they issued the Republican National Committee a new subpoena for White House e-mails. The deadline for replies from both: Tuesday. Miers, President Bush's former legal counsel who a day earlier defied a subpoena to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, could be held in criminal contempt of Congress if she fails to notify the panel by Tuesday that she has changed her mind and will appear, according to a letter sent to her attorney by Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich....

Bush Denies Congress Access to Key Aides Jul 9 10:25 AM US/Eastern By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush invoked executive privilege Monday to deny requests by Congress for testimony from former White House aides Sara Taylor and Harriet Miers. The White House offered once more to make the pair available for private, off-the-record interviews on any role it might have played in the firings of several U.S. attorneys. In a letter to the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary panels, White House counsel Fred Fielding insisted that Bush was acting in good faith and...

‘The 5-4 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion…’ -Associated Press April 19, 2007 “It's ready for a retarded president, why wouldn't it be ready for an African American president?’ -Chris Rock, Life Magazine 2007 President Bush’s management strategy is a thing of beauty. Walk around, act sort of absent-minded, mix up your words here and there, and people begin to lower their expectations – and their defenses. In an unguarded moment, something slips...

The House Judiciary Committee could vote as early as Tuesday to subpoena Karl Rove, White House deputy chief of staff, and Harriet Miers, former White House counsel, as part of the panel's probe into their role in the recent firing of eight U.S. attorneys. E-mails released this week show that Rove was aware of January 2005 discussions within the White House to fire all 93 U.S. attorneys, contradicting earlier White House statements about when and how much Rove was involved in the issue. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) was told by White House Counsel Fred Fielding on Friday...

In a signal that he could be open to working more closely with congressional Democrats rather than stonewalling, President Bush plans to name the widely respected Republican lawyer Fred F. Fielding as White House counsel this week, party sources tell TIME. Fielding, who held the same position under President Ronald Reagan, will succeed the President's friend Harriet Miers, who last week announced her resignation, effective Jan. 31. An official who has been briefed on the impending announcement, which could come as soon as Tuesday, called Fielding "the ultimate Washington lawyer-insider — he's the man to see." "He's the guy who...

Miers Resigns As White House Counsel In this Oct. 27, 2005, file photo, White House counsel Harriet Miers smiles as she walks into the White House in Washington. Miers has submitted her resignation as White House counsel, the White House announced Thursday. CHARLES DHARAPAKBy DEB RIECHMANN (Associated Press Writer) From Associated Press January 04, 2007 12:57 PM EST WASHINGTON - Harriet Miers, President Bush's failed Supreme Court nominee and longtime adviser, on Thursday submitted her resignation as White House counsel. White House press secretary Tony Snow said the president reluctantly accepted her resignation, which takes effect Jan. 31. He said...

Breaking per Drudge. (Also just mentioned on Rush.)

Open Letter to the GOP by Alan Caruba Posted Jul 11, 2006 I recently received a direct mail notice from Ken Mehlman, Chairman of the Republican National Committee saying that, “Our records show we have not yet received your 2006 Republican National Committee membership contribution.” One assumes a lot of these notices have been mailed to folks like myself who have decided not to financially support the GOP this year. They won’t miss my donation because it’s always small. It’s not that I won’t vote the Republican ticket in November. I probably will, but that’s because the Democrats in my...

"Trust the president." That was the Bush administration's main defense of the president's bizarre choice of corporate lawyer Harriet Miers for a seat on the Supreme Court. But the administration also had a backup rationale: as D.C.'s Hill newspaper reported, in an October 3, 2005, conference call with conservative leaders, Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman stressed "the need to confirm a justice who will not interfere with the administration's management of the war on terrorism." It was a bit unsettling to hear that proposition stated so baldly, but no one who has followed the administration's drive to expand executive...

by Mark Finkelstein April 21, 2006 Advice to any Republican loyalists planning to watch a replay of this evening's Hardball: hide the sharp objects, put the firearms under lock and key, flush any potentially poisonous potions. With beautiful-but-deadly Norah O'Donnell sitting in for Chris Matthews, this might have been the most unrelenting gloom-a-thon since Watergate. Riffing off the latest polls showing W at 33%, it was one guest after another - from Bob Shrum to Kate O'Beirne to a panel of "hotshots" - painting a decidedly unrosy scenario. And just when things couldn't get any more dread, a former Clinton...

Joshua B. Bolten, the new White House chief of staff, has raised the possibility of moving Harriet E. Miers from her job as President Bush's counsel as part of a continuing shake-up of the West Wing, an influential Republican with close ties to Mr. Bolten said Thursday. The Republican, who was granted anonymity to talk openly about sensitive internal White House deliberations, said that Mr. Bolten had floated the idea among confidants, but that it was unclear whether he would follow through or if the move would be acceptable to Mr. Bush, who has a longtime personal bond with Ms....

President Bush yesterday told Congress to increase legal immigration and temporary visas as part of the debate over illegal aliens and enforcement. "I've called on Congress to increase the number of green cards that can lead to citizenship," Mr. Bush said. "I support increasing the number of visas available for foreign-born workers in highly skilled fields like science, medicine and technology." ... The president first called for more green cards in 2004 when he announced his guest-worker proposal. Green cards signify permanent legal residence and are the key intermediate step toward citizenship. Mr. Bush has not said how big an...

http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/editorial_opinion/nation/10024757.html According to a Gulf News poll, 64 per cent of readers say the DP World affair "changed their opinion for the worst" about investing in the United States. A number of businessmen told the newspaper yesterday that Arab investors would think about other destinations. The majority agreed that DP World has been forced out of the US port operations due to "racism". President George W. Bush admitted Congress has sent the "wrong message" to the rest of the world. We don't feel that DP World lost. It in fact won the respect of the international business community when it...

by Mark Finkelstein March 9, 2006 Talk about people who live in glass houses . . . For some time now, Chris Matthews has played the leitmotif of a "second-rate second term" at the White House. When on this evening's Hardball he invited Margaret Carlson to whack the Bush pinata, there were embarrassing consequences for the toothy ex-Time editor, now languishing at Bloomberg News. Matthews tried his best to tee it up for Carlson: "Margaret, I look at a pattern of events and they come out of people's mouths, conservatives, liberals, whatever: Katrina - competence question. That nomination for the...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President and Mrs. Bush are spending the weekend at their ranch in Crawford, TX. They will return to Washington on time for President Bush to participate in the swearing-in of new Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at the U.S. central bank in Washington. The Fed said in a statement that the ceremony was scheduled for 10 a.m. (1500 GMT). Mr. Bernanke's acceptance remarks will be his first public comments since he took office. Former Chairman Alan Greenspan, members of Congress and the cabinet, and agency officials were among the invited guests, the Fed said. Fed...

It's too early to gloat, but with speculation mounting that Judge Samuel Alito will be confirmed by the Senate, it's appropriate to reflect on how this nominee was appointed, in the first place: Conservative bloggers, pundits, and activists stopped the Harriet Meirs nomination. Should Judge Alito go on to be confirmed by the Senate, much of the credit will rightfully belong to the conservative movement. This story has been under-reported, but it is truly an historic accomplishment. Twenty years ago, before the advent of alternative media, this simply would not have been fathomable. Conservatives have long had the passion to...

Anita Hill criticized President George W. Bush's standards for selecting U.S. Supreme Court justices, arguing Wednesday night that nominees are selected based on their ability to further his political agenda.

Harriet is so last week. Let's try to move on. It's nicer when we don't fight. With Alito, there's nothing to fight over.

"The conservative screamers who shot down [Harriet] Miers can argue that they were fighting only for a 'qualified' nominee. . . . But whatever the rationale, the fact is that they short-circuited the confirmation process by raising hell with Bush. . . . A cabal of outsiders--a lynching squad of right-wing journalists, self-sanctified religious and moral organizations, and other frustrated power-brokers--[rolled] over the president they all ostensibly support." --David Broder, Washington Post, Nov. 2       Nothing like the calming tones of The Dean to bring context and a needed sense of perspective to the proceedings. In his comments on Sunday's "Meet the Press" and in his...

WELL, THAT'S MORE LIKE IT. In Judge Sam Alito, President Bush has chosen a more plausible High Court nominee. Make that a much more plausible nominee. His legal qualifications are exceptional, his character widely attested. And having spent 15 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, he has demonstrated an approach to judging that clearly identifies him as a judicial conservative. Two points are worth noting on day one of this nomination. The first is Alito's legal experience. His many years on the Third Circuit mean that he knows the labor of an appellate judge,...

As President Bush prepares to make a new appointment to the Supreme Court, the lessons of the failed Miers nomination are still being absorbed. One that deserves study is how a lightning-fast news cycle, a flat-footed defense and the growth of new media such as talk radio and blogs sank Ms. Miers's chances even before the megabuck special-interest groups could unload their first TV ad. Ms. Miers herself has told friends that she was astonished at how the Internet became a conveyor belt for skeptical mainstream media reports on her in addition to helping drive the debate.

Bush Approval Rating Up 5 Points Since Miers Withdrawal

As President Bush prepares to make a new appointment to the Supreme Court, the lessons of the failed Miers nomination are still being absorbed. One that deserves study is how a lightning-fast news cycle, a flat-footed defense and the growth of new media such as talk radio and blogs sank Ms. Miers's chances even before the megabuck special-interest groups could unload their first TV ad. Ms. Miers herself has told friends that she was astonished at how the Internet became a conveyor belt for skeptical mainstream media reports on her in addition to helping drive the debate. The rapidity with...

The last group President Bush thought he had to worry about opposing Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers was the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill. But it turns out the man most responsible for taking Miers down was an insider, the G.O.P.'s fourth-ranked Senator, Jon Kyl (rhymes with smile). The second-term conservative from Arizona argued at length in meetings with majority leader Bill Frist and G.O.P. whip Mitch McConnell that the Miers nomination was too risky ideologically and too costly politically, sources on Capitol Hill tell TIME. From Day One, says a G.O.P. staff member, "[Kyl] was trying to kill Miers."...

The Bush administration's second-term bear market has bottomed outLAST WEEK THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S second-term bear market bottomed out. On Monday, Bush nominated as the next Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, who of all the leading candidates will be the central banker least hostile to tax cuts and least likely to direct monetary policy to any end other than combating inflation. At the end of the week, the Commerce Department announced that economic growth in the third quarter had been 3.8 percent, suggesting that, thanks in large part to Bush's supply-side tax cuts, our economy may remain strong enough to overcome...

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate's minority leader, said on ABC's "This Week" today that Bush's nomination of Harriet MIers was not a mistake and he believes she could have done well in a nomination hearing. He urged the president not to be too quick to move to the right on a nomination and to steer toward the middle.

The White House decided to employ a politically-palatable, pundit-prescribed exit strategy with the withdrawal of Harriet Miers. Because of that, Miss Miers is no longer a nominee to the United States Supreme Court, and much of America may believe the Bush Administration's contention that she withdrew over a request for documents. In actuality, she withdrew because her 1993 pro-abortion speech came to light, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back for the great Dr. James Dobson, Senator Sam Brownback, Senator John Thune, and any members of the conservative base who had reserved judgment up to that point....

The choice of Harriet Miers to be nominated to the Supreme Court, and her subsequent withdrawal, shows that caution is sometimes the most dangerous policy.She was obviously chosen cautiously as a "stealth" nominee -- someone without a paper trail or a judicial record that could ignite controversy -- in hopes of avoiding a confirmation fight that the Senate Republicans had the votes to win, but had neither the unity nor the guts required to make victory certain.Harriet Miers was a choice made from political weakness. Now she is gone but the political weakness remains. So celebrations in conservative quarters may...

After Miers, the Right Is Expecting More By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK Published: October 30, 2005 In his two choices for the Supreme Court so far, President Bush has tapped what some conservatives called "stealth" nominees: jurists without a clear record of legal opinions on abortion rights or other contentious social issues. But with the announcement of a third nominee to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor expected as early as Monday, prominent conservatives said they were confident that this time would be different. They argued that the reaction against the nomination of Harriet E. Miers had proven the perils of such...

My, My! Miers Morphs Carol Turoff October 28, 2005 Since the withdrawal of Harriet Meirs’s nomination to fill the O’Connor supreme court vacancy, spin has centered on the enormity of the conservative clout. It is no secret that many were dissatisfied with her lack of demonstrable qualifications or even an inkling of her judicial philosophy. Service as the Texas lottery director, a stint as an at-large city council representative and personal lawyer to George W. Bush is hardly the background one expects for a U.S. Supreme Court justice. But those meager qualifications alone were not enough to energize the onslaught...

WASHINGTON - President Bush's bad week may yet prove the administration's great turning point. None of the reverses need be fatal; each of them contains an opportunity to move back on to a more successful path. Everything depends on the wisdom, self-discipline, and perspective of the President himself. Yesterday's indictments of Lewis Libby are one opportunity. For while Mr. Libby now stands in serious legal peril, the broader administration has been exonerated of intentional wrongdoing. From the start, there have been two competing theories of what happened in the CIA leak scandal. Call them the "big" theory and the "little"...

WASHINGTON -- Managers of the failed Harriet Miers nomination for the Supreme Court set the actual day of her demise as Oct. 18, when conservative Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sam Brownback of Kansas called for the release of her work product as White House counsel to justify her confirmation.  Miers's strategists at that point felt the game was over because of inability to fight congressional demands for documents that the White House would not release. This was compounded when her visits to Republican senators went so badly that further sessions had to be suspended.  A footnote:...

Whether it was an accident, or a sheer stroke of genius, the historical record of what nominating Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court will mean to the nation may look very different than what most liberals would like to see. For the last five weeks, the Chuck Schumers and Pat Leahys of the universe have driven to their Georgetown brownstones and chuckled to themselves as to how the conservatives in America could have ended up in such disarray. Over cocktails, you could see the arrogance slipping into the conversation. They believed themselves to be watching the self-destruction of the conservative...

'We are proud of her'07:26 AM CDT on Friday, October 28, 2005 By KIMBERLY DURNAN / DallasNews.com Putting their political leanings and ideologies aside, students and professors at Southern Methodist University had taken pride in the idea that one of their own might become one of the most important judicial decision-makers in the nation. On Thursday, their hearts were heavy as news spread that the woman who had attended SMU as an undergraduate and law student had pulled out of the contentious battle for a spot on the U.S. Supreme Court. *snip* Joseph F. Kobylka, an associate professor in the...

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for usAn eternal glory that far outweighs them all.So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. II Corinthians 4: 17-18

When Harriet Miers, essentially an unknown in the legal world, was nominated for the US Supreme Court, this writer’s first reaction was that either President Bush has had the proverbial ace up his sleeve, or he is being extremely foolish. It now looks as if the latter possibility was correct. First it was the fact that she was unknown, and had no reputation as a judge or scholar to evaluate her by. That might have been a plus, except that things began to appear, rather like the Clinton era bimbo eruptions. Miers’ background began to look rather shady. Her implication...

It's been a difficult few weeks for the president, his conservative base, and Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers herself, said American Values President Gary Bauer on Thursday. Bauer said President Bush did the right thing and showed "real leadership" in accepting Miers' withdrawal.