Letter to Cheney: "make yourself available to appear before Congress"

[dajoki]

The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=33242

Posted 11/03/2005 @ 5:27pm
Congressman Want Cheney to Testify

Vice President Dick Cheney has had very little to say about the indictment of his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, and even less to say about aspects of the investigation that have touched on his own actions before and after the invasion of Iraq. Now, three key Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives want to give the vice president an opportunity to clear the air.

Recalling that Cheney's former boss, then-President Gerald Ford, testified before the House after his controversial pardon of former President Richard Nixon in 1974, Representatives John Conyers Jr., the Michigan Democrat who is the ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee; Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who is the ranking minority member of the Government Reform Committee; and Maurice Hinchey, the New York Democrat who has been one of the most outspoken critics of the administration's misuse of intelligence during the period before the Iraq War began, have asked the vice president to "make yourself available to appear before Congress to explain the details and reasons for your office's involvement -- and your personal involvement - in the disclosure of Valerie Wilson's identity as a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative."

The letter, sent to Cheney on Thursday, two days after Democratic Leader Harry Reid forced the Senate into closed session to discuss investigations of efforts by the administration to inflate intelligence assessments of the threat posed by Iraq, offers the latest signal that Congressional Democrats are determined to hold key players in the administration, particularly Cheney, to account.

"We are going to do everything we can to force this administration and this Congress to face up to the truth and to face up to their responsibility under the Constitution," said Hinchey.

[tuvor]

1. The guy who's REALLY in charge is in some deeeeeep poop. n/t

[dajoki]

2. yeah, and he's got...

the best waders money can't buy.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Did I hear "Executive Privilege"? I thought so.

[dajoki]

5. didn't work for Ford...

but these creeps are a different story.

[Demobrat]

4. I wonder what they'll do when

he tells them to go Cheney themselves.

[dajoki]

6. hopefully...

they Cheney him.

[dajoki]

7. i hope they mean it...

The people who wrote the Constitution that set this government up knew what they were doing. They knew what would happen if you let a regime go its own way without oversight. That's why they set up the system of checks and balances," added Hinchey. "This Congress has shunned its responsibility, tossed its obligations under the Constitution aside – allowing the administration to do whatever it chooses, even to the point of looking aside when the administration lies to Congress and violates federal laws. That's got to stop. We cannot have a monolithic government. We have to restore some balance, where the legislative branch is a part of this process. And we think that one way to do that is by asking the vice president, in light of the questions that have arisen with regards to his actions, to come to Congress and answer the questions that are on the minds of the American people and their representatives.

[texpatriot2004]

8. Is that from the letter? nm

[dajoki]

9. yes

5th paragraph
article
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=33242

[dajoki]

10. k

[gratuitous]

11. It's just too bad the Democrats can't subpoena Cheney

But if they take back control of either the House or the Senate in 2006, that would change in a big hurry. Then I would think Cheney would suddenly decide to spend more time with his family. In Rio.

[dajoki]

12. LOL

in RIO