Leahy postpones contempt vote

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Thursday postponed a vote on contempt resolutions against former White House adviser Karl Rove and Chief of Staff Josh Bolten after Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) objected to language in the measures.

Committee rules allow for a one-week delay, so the vote will likely take place next Thursday. Committee approval of the resolution would trigger a full Senate vote on the resolutions early next year.

{mosads}Specter, the panel’s ranking member, indicated he had asked Leahy to put off the vote on behalf of himself and other committee Republicans. “There is considerable concern on my side about the structure of the citation,” Specter said Thursday. “It would be my hope that we could negotiate some
intervening language.”

Republicans, he said, believed the resolution’s language goes too far in its assertions about what was uncovered by the Democratic-led investigation into whether politics played a role in the Justice Department firings of several U.S. attorneys late last year.

The resolution’s language, for instance, includes a line claiming “this investigation has uncovered grave threats to the independence of law enforcement from political manipulation.” It also maintained that “the evidence accumulated shows that White House political officials played a significant role in originating, developing, coordinating and implementing these unprecedented firings and the Justice Department’s response to congressional inquiries about them.”

Leahy agreed to work with Senate Republicans on the resolution, and noted that he only moved the contempt citations after spending months trying to find an accommodation with the White House. Judiciary subpoenaed Rove and Bolten as part of its investigation into the attorney firings, but the White House, asserting executive privilege, has refused to allow a number of aides to testify before the House and Senate judiciary panels.

“Executive privilege should not be invoked to prevent investigations, and certainly should not prevail,” he said Thursday. “These resolutions are an effort to provide a fuller account and accountability. We should act to protect Congress’s ability to conduct oversight and the right of the American people to learn the whole truth about these firings.”

Specter repeated his plea to have the matter resolved between Congress and the White House  because the constitutional dispute would end up spurring a lengthy court battle that would likely be decided after President Bush’s term ends. However, he acknowledged that with neither side yielding, there may be no other option.

“We cannot abrogate or relinquish our constitutional authority,” Specter said. “Since we can’t  delegate our authority, we certainly can’t surrender it."