Just ... hold ... it ... back ...

Until the handoff in January 2009 and Georgie can flee to Paraguay...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has temporarily stayed a ruling requiring top White House aides to comply with a subpoena issued by Congress about allegedly politically-motivated dismissals of federal attorneys.

The Justice Department has been trying to delay a court decision ordering presidential chief of staff Josh Bolten to provide documents, and former White House counsel Harriet Miers to testify before lawmakers about the firings of nine prosecutors in 2006. Both officials refused to comply with subpoenas, citing executive privilege.

Contempt charges passed in the House

Reading the final line of the quote, I get the mental picture of the Bush cabal hunkered down in the White House yelling out the window, "Yer never gonna git me, sheriff! I owns the judge!" (my bold):

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House Judiciary Committee voted contempt of Congress citations Wednesday against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and President Bush's former legal counselor, Harriet Miers.

The 22-17 party-line vote - which would sanction for pair for failure to comply with subpoenas on the firings of several federal prosecutors - advanced the citation to the full House.

A senior Democratic official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the House itself likely would take up the citations after Congress' August recess. The official declined to speak on the record because no date had been set for the House vote.

Committee Chairman John Conyers said the panel had nothing to lose by advancing the citations because it could not allow presidential aides to flout Congress' authority. Republicans warned that a contempt citation would lose in federal court even if it got that far.

Oh my!

Turning up the heat:

Rep. Waxman wrote a letter to White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten asking him to explain why the White House failed to conduct any investigation following the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson’s covert CIA employment. Read it here.