Rove Ignores Subpena, Refuses to Testify

[Jeannieb43]

Looks like Rove is thumbing his nose at Congress, and daring it to cite him for contempt.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080710/ap_on_go_co/rove_subpoena

[carolaa]

Yup. Not surprising, considering the mindboggling arrogance of the entire administration.

[John317]

The separation of powers between the Executive and Legislative branches of our government make the issue more complicated than simply a case of the President or one of his former assistants being arrogant. Every administration in American history has had to deal with the same kinds of issues. In our form of government, it would not be to the benefit of the American people for one branch to be able to gain powers of control over the other. If it is really only limited information that Congress wants from Rove, there are fairly simple ways of getting it, just as the article itself points out.

[carolaa]

Yes, but they want him to say it under oath. Why won't he do that? I don't think Congress is trying to out-power the President, but they do have a right to know what's going on so they can provide a proper "check" on the executive powers.

[Dr. Shane]

Does anyone remember when the FBI raided a Congressman Jefferson's office? There was a lot of concern then about the separation of powers. Both Republicans and Democrats were up in arms about that raid.

In these cases dealing with a separation of powers the third branch of government must get involved. The Justice Department cannot simply send the FBI over to a congressman's office and search for what it wants. They must secure approval first from a judge.

So Congress cannot order a member of an executive administration to testify without a judge's approval or such a subpoena is meaningless. As the article says, Congress is now trying to enforce subpoenas that had issued for two other administration officials. Without the judicial, or third branch, Congress simply doesn't have the authority to enforce a subpoena on the executive branch. That is the system of checks and balances.