Snow Job
"Now we have a situation where there is an attempt to do something that's never been done in American history, which is to assail the concept of executive privilege which hails back to the administration of George Washington and in particular to use criminal contempt charges against the White House chief of staff and the White House legal counsel," said White House Spokesman Tony Snow.
Perhaps no White House chief of staff and no White House legal counsel have ever faced contempt of congress charges simply because never before in American history have the chief of staff and the legal counsel been so contemptuous of congress or the constitution.
As to "assailing the concept of executive privilege" -- also known as checks and balances -- Booman reminds us:
The last time a full chamber of Congress voted on a contempt citation was 1983. The House voted 413-0 to cite former Environmental Protection Agency official Rita Lavelle for contempt of Congress for refusing to appear before a House committee.
Booman goes on:
This demonstrates an appalling erosion of principle among GOP lawmakers. Ronald Reagan was not only a Republican president, unlike Bush he was a popular president. Nevertheless, in 1983, not a single Republican member of congress was willing to let him stonewall a congressional committee. Today, not a single Republican on the Judiciary Committee was willing to say the same.
What happened in the interim?
What happened indeed?
