I agree with the need for accountability, but I don't think giving Congress subpoena power on the President's staff is the way to achieve it. I don't have a good answer as to what the mechanism should be, though. I want to say it should be the judiciary, but that still leaves the system relying on someone in the executive branch (i.e. at the Justice Department) to start an investigation. The independent prosecutor law was created to try and meet this challenge, and we saw what a fiasco that turned out to be.
The question period idea is interesting but I doubt whether it would pass the same test of co-equal branches of government. On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 6:17 AM, Larry wrote: >>http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20080731-1544-congress-contempt.html > And just think without this accountability, how easy it is for the > administration to abuse its power. Federal attorney firings, political > appointments to non political positions within the justice department, > unconstitutional wiretapping, Whitehouse interference with regulatory > decisions, White House interference with judicial decisions etc. All are the > result of a lack of accountability to the representatives of the people. > Another couple of good examples, the Iran-Contra and Watergate scandals. > > I hope not, the current administration is a prime example of what happens > when there is no accountability. > > Here's a great suggestion, have the equivalent of a Prime Minsiter's question > period where the president appears before the senate to any and all questions > from the senators. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:265134 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
