Elijah Cummings (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings has indicated that he will move forward with contempt votes for Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, after their latest decisions to ignore Congressional subpoenas.
For all the good that will do.
Holding these people in contempt is absolutely the right action, albeit one that will yield no operative results, unless Elijah Cummings or some other Congressional Democrat is willing to lay hands on Barr and Ross and lock them in a basement under Congress.
I’m serious about the “Representative arrest” thing. It’s clear that Trump’s Department of Justice, led by the aforementioned Barr, will not use its executive authority to actually punish people like William Barr for ignoring Congressional subpoenas. However, the contempt of Congress statute clearly states that a person found in contempt can be imprisoned for up to 12 months. If Congress arrests these people, it’s not clear to me who, if anybody, has the authority to set them free. At the very least, I’d like to see a de novo court case on the issue, while Barr and Ross are cooling their heels in Nancy Pelosi’s powder room.
But, I grudgingly recognize that asking Congressional Democrats to treat the Trump administration as a unique threat that requires unique responses is asking too much of Congressional Democrats. Oliver Cromwell is not walking through that door. The House will hold these people in contempt, these people will laugh and snigger at the process, and all I’m supposed to do is give money to the DCCC so that red state Democrats can continue their quest to offer a slightly less racist alternative to the Republican party.
Sorry, this is all so freaking pointless. The Trump administration is going to get away with defying Congress, and there’s nothing Congress is prepared to do to stop them. Whatever, I guess I’ll just look forward to having my vote suppressed in 2020, and gerrymandered out of existence in 2022. I’m going to go outside and play catch with my kids before Trump makes it a crime for black children to have “recreation time,” and Democrats throw up their hands and say the policy polls too well with white people in suburban Philadelphia for them to do anything about it.
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may go unnoticed by white people with landlines.
House likely to hold William Barr, Wilbur Ross in contempt after subpoena demands are rejected [Washington Post]
Elie Mystal is just some guy nobody freaking listens to anyway.