Pelosi: Dems 'absolutely' will continue pursuing contempt after Bush leaves office Nick Juliano

Published: Thursday March 6, 2008



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Print This Email This House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Democrats would not abandon their pursuit of contempt of Congress charges against two Bush administration figures after the president leaves office. Last month the House approved contempt citations for White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers. Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused to refer the citations to a grand jury, so Pelosi said House Democrats plans to move forward with a direct appeal to the courts. Pelosi was asked if Democrats would keep up the fight assuming a court battle would not be resolved by the time the next president is sworn in in January. "Absolutely," Pelsoi said during a conference call with bloggers Thursday. "This is about the Congress of the United States. We can't say that it was important when you had a Republican president and not important when you had a Democratic president. ... We might as well shred the constitution." The Speaker did say she "hoped" to reach an agreement with the White House before the end of Bush's last term. Pelosi also discussed pending legislation to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which remains stalled in the House. She criticized the secrecy surrounding the program and the administration's push for immunity to telecommunications companies that facilitated the warrantless surveillance of Americans. The full picture of President Bush's pre- and post-9/11 surveillance expansion may not emerge before he leaves office, she said. "It may take another administration to go in there and see what they did," Pelosi said, warning that the push for immunity, which would halt about 40 ongoing court cases, could hide illegal actions by administration officials or the companies. "If their instructions were beyond the constitution, I think that's what their concern was about," she said. Although Pelsoi opposes telecom immunity, speculation is mounting that the House bill ultimately will include an immunity provision similar to the Senate's FISA measure. Bush has threatened to veto any bill that does not include immunity. During the call, Pelsoi seemed to indicate that an "exclusivity" provision, which would ensure that FISA is the sole means to collect foreign intelligence on Americans, is "the issue." The Speaker said Bush ignored FISA law enacting his warrantless wiretapping program, and she said any FISA update must prevent him from doing so again. Otherwise, Pelosi said, Bush could continue to say, "'Crown me king, I don't have to obey the law to collect intelligence and invade the privacy of the American people.'" Pelosi stressed that the House's failure to renew a stopgap FISA fix has not imperiled US intelligence collection, and she accused House Republicans and their conservative allies of turning the FISA fight into a political bludgeon with negative television ads running in Democratic districts. "Their fear mongering is their way of life," she said, "and now they're politicizing the FISA law. ... It shows how frivolous they are."



