Bush Orders Justice Department Not to Enforce Laws against Bush

The imperial president has again set himself above the law.

Let's review: Congress receives evidence and testimony suggesting that the Bush Administration politicized the Justice Department and U.S. Attorney offices in its hiring and firing decisions. Congress, investigating those allegations, subpoenas Bush Administration officials for their testimony. Bush Administration tells its officials not to testify to Congress and to ignore the subpoenas. Congress refers contempt of Congress charges to the Justice Department. President Bush orders the Justice Department not to do anything with those charges.

What further need is there to prove that Bush has politicized the Justice Department? We can see him doing it right now in real time, and hear him saying that he is doing it.

The ball is back in Congress's court. As Greenwald explains:

There is nothing new here. As has long been known, this administration believes themselves to reside above and beyond the reach of the law. What else would they need to do in order to make that as clear as can be? They got caught red-handed committing multiple felonies -- by eavesdropping on Americans in precisely the way the law we enacted 30 years ago prohibited -- and they not only admitted it, but vowed to continue to break our laws, and asserted the right to do so. And nothing happened.

. . .

There is no magic force that is going to descend from the sky and strike with lighting at George Bush and Dick Cheney for so flagrantly subverting our constitutional order. The Founders created various checks for confronting tyrannical abuses of power, but they have to be activated by political will and the courage to confront it. That has been lacking. Hence, they have seized omnipotent powers with impunity.