Quotes of the Morning: Begging Your Pardon

“Hello, everybody. As you probably know, the House Judiciary Committee has just voted along partisan lines to have a criminal contempt of Congress referral against White House legal counsel and the White House Chief of Staff. For our view, this is pathetic.”
-White House Spokesman Tony Snow, July 25, 2007

“Um. Harriet isn’t the White House legal counsel anymore. Tony, you work in the White House. I’m kind of surprised that you don’t remember that. Remember? This is all about Congress asking Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten questions. Congress wants them under oath and with a transcript. The White House says that they will let them testify, but only if they can lie and without a transcript to prove it..”
-Skippy

“Q The lack of a transcript seems to be the one area in which you could all agree. It seems to be one thing that is, frankly, just silly. Everybody knows that the lack of a transcript is something that --
MR. SNOW: You know what's silly, Victoria, is after we have made all these offers, Congress doesn't step forward with anything. That's silly.
Q -- that leads to this question --
Q Conyers says he has something.
MR. SNOW: Well, he has something -- would you characterize ‘something’?
Q Conyers says he has uncovered serious evidence of wrongdoing by retaliation for the improper firings. What do you have to say about that -- other than a pregnant pause?
MR. SNOW: Look forward to hearing what he has -- (laughter.)”
-Press Gaggle with White House Spokesman Tony Snow, July 25, 2007

“Of course, putting Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten in contempt just means that they should be prosecuted by the Department of Justice…”
-Skippy

"As it considers the contempt resolutions, we think it is important that the Committee appreciate fully the longstanding Department of Justice position, articulated during Administrations of both parties, that ‘the criminal contempt of Congress statute does not apply to the President or presidential subordinates who assert executive privilege.’"
-Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski, July 24, 2007

“…which, strangely enough, is not prone to wanting to enforce the contempt charges. You know, I could swear that I’ve heard something else about the Department of Justice in the news recently.”
-Skippy

“Q What do you mean when you say that nobody has really laid a glove on Gonzales? Isn't the President troubled by senators questioning his truthfulness and by Specter saying that he doesn't think he has any credibility?
MR. SNOW: Well, what's happened on a number of occasions is that people have hauled him up and there have been insinuations and, yet, in the end, what is the specific charge? What is the specific charge of malfeasance?
Q Well, for one thing, his truthfulness has been questioned.
MR. SNOW: But again, the President stands --
Q Isn't the President bothered by that?
MR. SNOW: The President is bothered sometimes by the tone of debate in Washington. He understands it can be bruising and he stands by the Attorney General.”
-White House Spokesman Tony Snow, July 25, 2007

“Nobody has touched him, and Congress is full of old meanies. Nothing has shown that Gonzales is a criminal.”
-Skippy

“Documents show that eight congressional leaders were briefed about the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program on the eve of its expiration in 2004, contradicting sworn Senate testimony this week by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
The documents, obtained by The Associated Press, come as senators consider whether a perjury investigation should be opened into conflicting accounts about the program and a dramatic March 2004 confrontation leading up to its potentially illegal reauthorization.
[…]
At a heated Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, Gonzales repeatedly testified that the issue at hand was not about the terrorist surveillance program, which allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on suspects in the United States without receiving court approval.
Instead, Gonzales said, the emergency meetings on March 10, 2004, focused on an intelligence program that he would not describe.
Gonzales, who was then serving as counsel to Bush, testified that the White House Situation Room briefing sought to inform congressional leaders about the pending expiration of the unidentified program and Justice Department objections to renew it. Those objections were led by then-Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey, who questioned the program's legality.
‘The dissent related to other intelligence activities,’ Gonzales testified at Tuesday's hearing. ‘The dissent was not about the terrorist surveillance program.’"
-Associated Press, July 25, 2007

“Well if Gonzales is found guilty of perjury Fearless Leader has a way of dealing with those people.”
-Skippy

“President Bush on Thursday acknowledged publicly for the first time that someone in his administration likely leaked the name of a CIA operative, although he also said he hopes the controversy over his decision to spare prison for a former White House aide has ‘run its course.’
‘And now we're going to move on,’ Bush said in a White House news conference.
The president had initially said he would fire anyone in his administration found to have publicly disclosed the identity of Valerie Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and a CIA operative. Ten days ago, Bush commuted the 30-month sentence given to I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby by a federal judge in connection with the case.”
-Associated Press, July 12, 2007

“The biggest concern that Fearless Leader has is that his hand will cramp up from all of the commutations and pardons he is going to have to write.”
-Skippy