More on Immunity from Congressional Subpoenas

Well, yesterday the talk was that US District Judge John Bates' decision on Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers' claims of immunity from congressional subpoenas would determine next steps in bringing Karl Rove to justice through a Contempt of Congress resolution. Well, Judge Bates has made his call:

President Bush's top advisers are not immune from congressional subpoenas, a federal judge ruled Thursday in an unprecedented dispute between the two political branches.

The House Judiciary Committee wants to question the president's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and former legal counsel Harriet Miers, about the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. But President Bush says they are immune from such subpoenas. They say Congress can't force them to testify or turn over documents.

U.S. District Judge John Bates disagreed. He said there's no legal basis for that argument. He said that Miers must appear before Congress and, if she wants to refuse to testify, she must do so in person.

"Harriet Miers is not immune from compelled congressional process; she is legally required to testify pursuant to a duly issued congressional subpoena," Bates wrote.

He said that both Bolten and Miers must give Congress all non-privileged documents related to the firings.

Now, the contempt citation against Rove needs to get a full vote as soon as is humanly possible (which can pass the House with a single-vote majority) and once that's done, the Sergeant-At-Arms needs to be dispatched, post haste, to pluck that weasel off the streets.