Conyers & Pelosi grow a pair. Finally.

Duo attempt a "Watergate style" maneuver.


Stating that "we will not allow the administration to steamroll Congress", House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers today sued former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten . The suit claims that Miers and Bolton are not immune from their obligation to testify and produce documents as requested by Congress relating to the politically motivated dismissals of nine U.S. attorneys.

Conyers expressed confidence that, much like the Watergate scandal, the federal courts will agree that the Bush administration's position is at odds with constitutional principles. In the Watergate case, the Supreme Court confirmed the legitimacy of the executive privilege doctrine, yet found the privilege to be qualified and rejected Nixon's assertion of privilege over the White House tape recordings. That ruling prompted Nixon to surrender the tapes to prosecutors and ultimately resign from office.

Today's case was assigned to U.S. District Judge John Bates, a Bush appointee and former prosecutor in the Whitewater criminal investigation of the Clintons in the 1990s. The House had first issued a contempt citation against the pair, but AG Mukasey refused to refer the House's contempt citation to a grand jury, stating that neither Bolten nor Myers had committed a crime. That action prompted Speaker Pelosi to give authority to the Judiciary Committee authority to pursue Bolten and Myers in federal court.