Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) calls for the formation of a Congressional committee that would look into executive encroachments on the Constitution and the legislature, a committee that would be bipartisan and analyze past actions that have led to increased presidential power. (0:44)
Bruce Fein says Congress has surrendered to the increased power of the president by being unresponsive to decisions made by President Bush. (0:51)
Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) says it is not debatable that President Bush has ordered officials in the administration not to testify to Congress, saying this abuse of executive privilege meets the Constitutional standard for impeachment. (1:14)
The House Judiciary Committee’s hearing analyzing Congressional response to alleged actions of the Bush administration wrapped up after more than six hours of testimony and questioning. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) said the Bush administration told aides to ignore subpoenas, an action Wexler said is in direct violation of the Congressional oversight based in the Constitution. Bruce Fein, deputy attorney general under Reagan, said the Founding Fathers established oversight so that citizens would be aware of the decisions of their leaders, adding that refusing to appear before Congress is similar to contempt and grounds for impeachment.
Fein continued, saying that Congress has voluntarily relinquished its right to checks and balances to the White House by being unresponsive to the White House’s numerous actions that warrant investigation. He also said that Congress has accepted the notion that a President can declare war without the approval of Congress, an action prohibited by the Constitution. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) suggested that Congress form a bipartisan legal oversight committee that would investigate executive encroachments on the Constitution and the legislature. Schiff said the committee should begin functioning immediately, be bipartisan, and examine historical precedents that led to increased presidential power.
Comparisons were made between allegations against the Bush administration and the impeachment proceedings of President Nixon. Rocky Anderson, founder and president of High Roads for Human Rights, said Americans viewed Nixon’s impeachment as being based in a violation of executive trust, not necessarily violations of law. Former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman (D-N.Y.), who served on the Judiciary Committee during the Nixon era, said bipartisan investigations were successful during Nixon hearings because the Judiciary Committee went to great lengths educating members of Congress and citizens on the Constitution and the compiled evidence.
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) the only Republican who stayed for the entire hearing, made a closing statement in which he emphasized the difference between a “misstatement” and an “intentional misstatement.” He said it is easy to make allegations but that hindsight is not enough to assume decisions made by the White House were intentionally misleading.
Susan Minushkin of the Pew Hispanic Center says Hispanic voters have a more favorable opinion of Sen. Obama than Sen. McCain. She also says more Latino supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton in the primary elections have transfered allegiance to Obama than non-Hispanic white voters. (1:09)
Mark Lopez of the Pew Hispanic Center says family issues like education, the cost of living, jobs, and health care are most important to Latino voters in November. Lopez also notes crime, immigration, and Iraq as important issues. (0:28)
The Pew Hispanic Center released the results of a survey on Hispanic voting trends in the presidential election during a conference call. Susan Minushkin said Hispanics surveyed lean towards Sen. Obama by a 3 to 1 margin. According to Minushkin, Hispanic Catholics, 56 percent of Latino voters, favor Obama while Sen. McCain enjoys higher support among non-Catholic Hispanics. Minushkin said 32 percent of voters said Obama’s race would help him, contrasted with 11 percent who said it would hurt him. At the same time, 24 percent of respondents said McCain’s race would hurt him while 7 percent said it would not. Minushkin also said 76 percent of respondents who voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the primary elections, a candidate who enjoyed large support in the Latino community, have shifted their allegiance to Obama. She contrasted this with white Clinton supporters, saying only 70 percent have expressed support of the Obama campaign.
Mark Lopez said 55 percent of the registered voters surveyed leaned Democrat and 26 percent leaned towards the GOP. Lopez stated that the Hispanic vote is crucial on a national stage due to large Hispanic populations in key battleground states like Florida, Colorado, and New Mexico. According to Lopez, the most important issues found among Hispanics in the study were education, the cost of living, employment, and health care.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee held a press conference to discuss elections being held in November. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told the press that Saturday, July 29 begins the 100 day countdown to the November election, saying that the DSCC has overwhelming evidence that Americans are looking for change and finding it in Democrats.
Schumer said polls indicate that Americans are more concerned over topics like health care and education rather than national security and abortion, a concern he said shows a preference for Democratic policies. He noted Mississippi, which he described as the most conservative state, is leaning Democratic in November and becoming a swing state. Schumer, who said that only 3 of the 35 seats contested in the fall are in blue states, said Sen. Barack Obama’s popularity in the Republican Deep South is a valuable asset for Democratic senatorial contests. Schumer said Democratic senatorial candidates are well ahead in Virginia, New Hampshire, Colorado, New Mexico, and Alaska while candidates in Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska are behind but gaining momentum.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) stated that elections are also looking promising for Democrats on the House side of the Hill. He said that the DCCC is focusing on early contact and persuasion, launching “Get Out and Vote” campaigns in 50 districts throughout the United States. With a Democratic-controlled White House and Congress, Van Hollen said policies concerning stem cell research, children’s health care, Iraq, and gas prices would be successfully addressed.
Joe Romm of the Center for American Progress states that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is not strategic, saying it was created at a time when the United States feared other countries withholding oil and that the failure of a price decrease after releasing oil from the Reserve would show that the Reserve is “useless.” Romm questions when the Reserve would be used if not now. (0:38)
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) says past releases of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve have driven down prices. He says oil prices fell 33.4 percent when President George H.W. Bush released oil in 1991, by 18.7 percent under President Clinton in 2000, and by 9.1% by President George W. Bush following Hurricane Katrina. (0:46)
