Well, it took some time but at last according to a recent article in Politico
The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed David Addington, chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, seeking information on his role in helping prepare Justice Dept. memos authorizing harsh interrogation methods for detainees.
Addington is required by the subpoena to appear before the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on June 26. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) chairs that subcommittee.
John Yoo, a former top DOJ official who helped draft the interrogation memos, is scheduled to voluntarily appear before the panel that same day, according to the Judiciary Committee.
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee also are still in discussion with former Attorney General John Ashcroft and Douglas Feith, a former top Pentagon official, about voluntarily testifying as well.
If you aren’t excited about this subpoena, you haven’t been paying attention.
David Addington is the attorney and chief of staff to Cheney, and one of the key figures who decided that Cheney and Bush could do just about anything they wanted to do… some of the over-extended executive power.
John Yoo is the creative young official who sat in a little known or noticed area of the Justice Department, writing up powers of the President, as Cheney wished them to be, not as the Constitution describes them.
To best understand the importance of David Addington and John Yoo… and how our country got in the mess it’s in, I suggest that you take the time to watch Cheney’s Law, a PBS documentary that lays out exactly how Yoo expanded and extended the constitutional powers of the executive branch. You will also learn from this little documentary that timing is everything, that Cheney believes the President should be Emperor and has despotic powers, and that Bush is the best damned little puppet Cheney could ever have wanted.
We all now know that the Emperor has no clothes and the brains of the Stray Man. But, for those who wonder how powerful and how large a role Cheney has played in getting us into the War in Iraq, Cheney’s Law is a must see. And, as for me, I will mark my calendar for June 26th. I can’t wait to see Addington and Yoo explain their ways out of this one.
