Contempt and More Contempt

Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee voted to cite Karl Rove for contempt of Congress. The vote was only a recommendation. It still needs to be approved by the full House and the Senate - both of which are not terribly likely to happen. But still. It's nice to see that Congress has gotten into the contempt game. After all, the administration has been hurling contempt at Congress for years now.

As has become shocking for the lack of shock it elicits, Congress summoned some member of the administration to testify under oath about something. The administration member refused and Congress got mad. None of this is new stuff. In fact, it's pretty much the standard playbook for an administration that doesn't have much belief in its own need to follow the Constitution. So this time the committee voted to take some action.

The irony of this is that it doesn't matter to this administration for precisely the same reason that the contempt recommendation was made. Not since Andrew Jackson said that the Supreme Court would also have to enforce the ruling he disagreed with has a president shown such lack of regard for the supposedly co-equal branches of government.

That's the catch in all this. Congress is considering voting to hold Rove in contempt because he doesn't respect their authority to call him in to assert their oversight duties. However, the contempt vote won't really matter because Rove doesn't respect Congress' authority. Tough spot. I'm just glad that January is around the corner.