The Imperial Congress Demands Fealty

So the Imperial Congress has decided that they are the most important of all branches of government and they must get they want dammit! And they want some show trials:

A House panel authorized subpoenas for White House aides on Wednesday as congressional Democrats and President Bush braced for battle regarding the extent to which the assistants should respond to scrutiny over the firing of eight former U.S. attorneys.

The House Judiciary subcommittee on commercial and administrative law on a voice vote approved the panel chairman’s authority to compel the president’s top aides to testify publicly and under oath about their roles in the firings.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., is now able to issue the subpoenas should he choose. He may also force the White House, the subpoenaed presidential aides and Department of Justice to turn over documents.

"We have worked toward voluntary cooperation on this investigation, but we must prepare for the possibility that the Justice Department and the White House will continue to hide the truth," subcommittee chairwoman Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., said before the vote.

As I said yesterday, this is all a concerted effort to get ready for ’08.

Put the Exececutive branch under oath prior to the finding of any "crime." Then shout it out enough with their MSM megaphone and the people think a crime was committed.

They already stated their plans months ago with calls for hundreds of investigations. Hundreds of little papercuts which do no real damage but with the help of our MSM the masses will THINK there is shenanigans going on.

We’re dealing with the MSM and the left which spun a trial on perjury to make it appear that the underlying crime Fitz was investigating was proven, which it most certainly was not. Actually the opposite was true. But the MSM spun and spun.

Same thing is going on here.

But as Patterico notes, the Democrats were singing a different tune in 1999. This statement from Sen. Leahy differs much from today’s Leahy:

I recognize that the presidential communications privilege is not absolute. For instance, in the context of a criminal case (one of the Watergate cases), the Supreme Court found that an assertion of executive privilege “based only on the generalized interest in confidentiality . . . must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial.” 418 U.S. at 713. In the context of a congressional investigation, the privilege would be more difficult to overcome and require a showing that the information sought to be obtained is “demonstrably critical to the responsible fulfillment of the Committee’s functions.” Senate Select Committee v. Nixon, 498 F.2d 725, 731 (D.C. Cir. 1974). This would be a difficult task in this matter given the peculiarly executive nature of the clemency process.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Democrat.

Thankfully Bush is sticking to his guns, as I knew he would: (via The Drudge Report)