Perhaps the Most Astonishing Abuse of Executive Power and Privilege Ever (Nixon Included)

Oh. My. God.

I apologize for that little cliché. Normally I don’t really care for it when people make a three word sentence into three one-word sentences. But I had to do it. My jaw was on my chest as I said the words and I had to physically lift my jaw, this the periods.

What could have invoked such paroxysms, you might ask? The Bush administration has just said that if Congress cites anyone for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify and the administration has invoked executive privilege, well, then the Justice Department will not be allowed to prosecute those individuals thereby cited. In shot, if Congress cites Harriet Miers or Josh Bolten or, frankly, anyone for contempt, the arm of the federal government charged with law enforcement will not be allowed to actually prosecute the cases. The Bush administration is giving immunity and a pre-prosecution pardon at the same time.

This is truly the administration’s biggest “fuck you” yet to Congress and you and me. If you want to know what really happened with regard to the US Attorney firings and think/hope that Congress might actually force some answers, well, you’re screwed. Congress can’t force people to testify unless it can actually charge them with contempt. The Bush administration cannot really “instruct” people not to testify but it can’t make its feelings known. Given the propensity for this administration to only hire loyalists, it seems pretty obvious what will happen here: The administration will tell people “we don’t want you to testify and we will rig the system to prevent you from being prosecuted if you do what we want you to do.

This is yet another stunning abuse of a President who places himself and his cronies above the rule of law. What do you want to bet that the Republicans in Congress just sit around and let this abuse go on?

What possible checks in the check and balances system our founding fathers devised can remain if the President says that he refuses to answer questions and invokes executive privilege. He refuses to allow anyone else to testify and, just in case someone might be prosecuted for breaking the law, he then enjoins his butt-boy Alberto Gonzales from prosecuting anyone. Even Nixon had people who would resign before stooping to this kind of behavior.

I love America, I really do. But why are people not angrier with this president? Why are people not calling their Congressmen and Senators and telling them to do something, anything, to mitigate the damages this President has created?

People tend to get the government they deserve, I guess, but I can’t for the life of me think of what I did to deserve this.