Stand up and do something
John Aravosis makes an unthinkable plea to Congressional Democrats -- stand up and do something. Like, for instance, cutting off Gonzales' salary.
There's a reason that Democratic voters aren't happy with Democrats in Congress. We feel as if Democrats in Congress are missing opportunities. Gonzales' crimes are one such opportunity. Rather than have another hearing, or issue another statement calling on him to resign, why not do something about it? Appropriations season is coming up. Cut off all funds to Gonzales' office, or at least his salary. The GOP may filibuster the bill, let them. If it's filibustered, it dies, and so does Gonzales' salary. If the bill passes the Congress, Bush will threaten a veto. Let him. You control the appropriations, not Bush. If he vetoes the bill, we win, Gonzales still gets nothing.
Now, Bush will claim that we're hurting the war on terror by stopping the DOJ from getting its funding. Let him. You will give DOJ all the funding it needs, you simply won't give it Gonzales' salary, because he's a criminal. If Bush wants a massive showdown over the fact that he is insisting in keeping a criminal as the head of the Justice Department, we as Democrats should welcome that battle.
posted by walldon | 3:12 PM
1 Comments:
Don't think that's allowed under the Constitution. As long as the office exists, it must be funded. Violation of separation of powers. Theoretically can abolish the office, but the Justice Department? I think not. I think the only option is impeachment -- and they don't have the votes to make it through even if Democrats did it as a bloc. Democrats are going to have to live with the fact that, without either the necessary super-majority or the Presidency, they do not have much power to do the most drastic things. Things can be changed a lot in 18 months. Keep our eyes on the prize, rather than pretending to get even when all we can do is throw punches that don't land.
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