Josh Chavetz is a law professor at Cornell, and he has written an opinion piece in the NY Times entitled “The House Can Play Hardball, Too. It Can Arrest Giuliani: Two ways that Democrats in the House can match the White House’s aggressive tactics.”
Let’s just pause for a moment and reflect on the irony of the title, which ignores how incredibly aggressive the House and the Democrats in general have been, and the fact that much of the “aggression” the White House has mounted has been in understandable self-defense.
Self-defense is, of course, not allowed to Republicans, and one of the things about Trump that so enrages them is that he fights back in no uncertain terms. And sometimes, yes, he’s not even fighting back, but is on the offensive. Apparently that’s only permitted to the Democrats.
Here’s Chavetz:
Refusal to comply with a duly authorized subpoena from Congress constitutes contempt of Congress. Contempt of Congress is a crime, and there is a mechanism for referring such cases to federal prosecutors...Facilities in the Capitol or one of the House office buildings can be made into a makeshift holding cell if necessary...
...It seems the left doesn’t mind going backwards in time close to 100 years in order to get the results they want, despite the fact that this tool has not been used in all that time for a good reason having to do with escalation and overkill.
And despite the fact that, even back when it was used, it was never used in an open-ended impeachment “inquiry” in which the president and his aides were barred from presenting any defense, and his party prevented from having any say in the matter or asking any questions.As I’ve stated before, there is no reluctance anymore to say things that even ten years ago would be shocking and the vast majority of the public would understand that it’s a dangerous thing to do..."
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