John Dean on Randi Rhodes' show, Friday, July 20:

It's reached new extremes.... the overbroad claim of exec privileges.... Bush is more defiant by virtually saying 'Come and get me.... I've got the troops..'

Congress needs to get its act together! They can have their own trials before their own bar... otherwise it all will be meaningless.

The August break isn't the end of the session.. It has to be sine die (sp?) (a final adjournment).. the August vacation is only a temporary recess, but they are still in session. They could right then put Bolten in the basement with bread and water...

The WH is betting that Congress won't get their spine. Candy Crowley calls it the "wuss factor." She nailed the Dems on that one. I don't agree with much of what she says, but she is right on that one. They must act or become an irrelevant body..


The Senate can go for a civil action in court to enforce their subpoenas, but the House can't do that.

The House is a collective body without a strong leader... I think Pelosi has it in her... she's very institutionally-minded.... she loves the House, but the House MUST get their procedures together quickly.

The Congress has inherent power to prosecute, even according to Scalia.

People don't understand the "new conservative cannon"... the GOP used to be deathly afraid of an all-powerful prez... When Clinton started using some of the powers of Unitary Executive that were imposed by Reagan to be business-friendly, he started to reverse the policies! Then the GOP started attacking Clinton to weaken him personally so he couldn't exercise those powers any longer.


Congress MUST agree on a trial procedure and do it quickly! The WH will take notice if that happens, believe it.


Randi said she worries that some of the newbies in Congress don't really understand the intricacies of the US Constitution.... Dean responded, "amen".