House Cites Two Bush Aides for Contempt
John Holusha - The New York Times
The House of Representatives voted Thursday to cite two White House aides for contempt for refusing to testify about their participation in the firing of federal law enforcement officials.
The measure calls for House officials to seek enforcement of the contempt citation by the courts if, as expected, the Justice Department declines to act on the resolution.
The vote was a lopsided 223 to 32 in favor of the contempt citation, after most Republican members walked out to protest what their leaders called a political move. Instead, they said, the House should be voting on the extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act approved by the Senate earlier this week.
The resolution would seek to compel testimony from Harriet E. Miers, who was White House counsel when several United States attorneys were replaced; Democrats contend that replacements were for political reasons.
It would also order Joshua B. Bolten, the president's chief of staff, to produce documents related to the dismissals.
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, said that the House vote came about six months after the Judiciary Committee voted for contempt and that the White House resisted any effort to reach a reasonable compromise.
Both Ms. Miers and Mr. Bolten were instructed by the White House not to comply with the Judiciary Committee's requests for testimony and information and neither appeared before the panel.
Ms. Pelosi framed the dispute in constitutional terms, saying that if Congress could not compel testimony from White House officials, it would lose it power of oversight on the administration's actions.
Republicans said the House was wasting its time on a partisan stunt while the nation's security was being endangered by allowing legislation allowing advanced eavesdropping to expire.
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