Serving The President

More stonewalling fun from the President: "President Bush ordered former counsel Harriet Miers to defy a congressional summons... Contempt citations [for this] were a possibility."

They should absolutely hold Harriet Miers in contempt, and action should be taken against the President as well. Subpoenas are legally-binding. It's bad enough that the President is using the flimsly shield of executive privilege (one that has failed past presidents from Nixon to Clinton, because it's mostly a presidential fantasy) to stimy these investigations... but this Miers business is a new level of gall.

Ms. Miers-- who lest we forget the President wanted on the Supreme Court-- no longer works for the administration in any capacity. She resigned in January, right as the U.S. Attorney story was about to break, in what was, no doubt, a big coincidence. Unless I am mistaken, a President doesn't have the authority to order citizens to defy legal subpoenas.

And I'd remind the President people acting like they have something to hide usually do.

One person who did testify yesterday, though, was Bush's former political director Sara Taylor. She, like AG Gonzales and others before her, didn't seem to remember or know much at all. "I'm trying to be consistent and perhaps have not done a great job of that," Taylor said about her refusal to give the needed information, "I have tried."

Finally, Talking Points Memo highlights a key moment in her testimony, one which sums up what this scandal was all about in the first place (and one larger problem with the administration in general)... the politicization of the Justice Department and the Bush/Cheney belief that the government is theirs and that all agencies, employees, and policies belong to The Decider.