Options for Congress to Enforce Contempt Charges

With the White House saying -- out loud and in front of everyone -- that it will instruct the Justice Department not to enforce the law regarding contempt of Congress charges, there has been a flurry of talk on the blogs about what the Democrats can do about it. What makes all this so important, of course, is the fundamental change we would see in our form of government if the White House prevails in this dispute.

If Congressional subpoenas cannot be enforced -- or enforced only at the whim of the "unitary executive" -- then it will in many respects cease to be a co-equal branch of government.

Kind of a big deal.

Kagro X offers a list of possible remedies Congress could pursue. Her summary:

In sum, the options (in no particular order) are these:

1. Try to negotiate a settlement acceptable to both the Congrses and the White House
2. Roll the dice on statutory contempt and see what the U.S. Attorney does
3. Use the inherent contempt procedure, either after statutory contempt has failed, or as a concurrent threat to encourage the U.S. Attorney to move
4. Create some new procedure legislatively, and hope it stands up to court challenges from the "administration" when Congress actually tries to use it
5. Move to impeach, whether the target be Gonzales (as the U.S. Attorney's boss), Bush (for misapplying executive privilege claims), or Cheney (if Congress believes it has established a connection between him and this particular obstruction, which to this point they apparently do not, despite Senator Whitehouse's revelations yesterday)
6. Do nothing, and hope some future administration does the same thing but is in an even weaker position politically when it does so, and can be brought to heel.

And there is short entry on Wikipedia with some good historical information.

And finally, there is a newly-revised report from the Congressional Research Service, "Congress's Contempt Power: Law, History, Practice and Procedure." I haven't read it yet, but it's getting good reviews.

Late Update:Keith Olbermann interviews Bruce Fein, who lays out a pretty compelling case for impeachment. Fein wrote the articles of impeachment against Bill Clinton and worked in the White House during the Nixon Administration. The man knows from impeachment.