Bruce Fein-Tells Pelosi What To Do-'If Miers/Rove Do NOT Testify-IMPEACH BUSH IMMEDIATELY!'

[kpete]

FEIN: Assault on self-government

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Self-government's defining tenet is the right of the people to know what their government is doing and why.

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If President Bush's absolute immunity claim were valid, it would have enabled President Richard M. Nixon to prevent former White House counsel John Dean from testifying about Oval Office conversations that implicated the president in the Watergate cover-up. It would also mean that the president could deceive the public by selectively waiving the privilege for exculpatory evidence taken out of context. President Nixon, for instance, might have released only that portion of presidential tapes discussing payoffs to the Watergate criminals in exchange for silence that recorded: "Yes, we could do that - but it would be wrong."

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As illustrated by the Miers litigation, President Bush has assaulted self-government by saluting secrecy and sneering at the people's right to know. He misconceives democracy as nothing more than citizen vassalage to an all-knowing and benign president punctuated by popular elections at four-year intervals. That alarming fallacy testifies to President Bush's confession to biographer Robert Draper that he does not learn by reading.

The victory by the House Judiciary Committee in the United States District Court in Miers, however, was illusory. The committee subpoenas commanding the testimonies of Miss Miers and Mr. Rove will expire on January 3, 2009, with the expiration of the 110th Congress. President Bush will run out the clock on the committee through appeals and delaying tactics. The American people will never know of President Bush's involvement in an attempt to contaminate law enforcement with partisan politics through appointments and removals of United States attorneys.

There is but one way to forestall this constitutional travesty. President Bush should be warned by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that if he neglects to direct Miss Miers and Mr. Rove to testify forthwith before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, he will be impeached immediately for the high crime and misdemeanor of crippling self-government.

Bruce Fein is a constitutional lawyer at Bruce Fein & Associates and author of the forthcoming book "Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for the Constitution and Democracy" (Palgrave Macmillan).

more at:
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/05/assault-on-self-government/