GOP Walks Out After House Vote

House Republicans stomped out of the chamber today in protest of the authorization of criminal and civil contempt resolutions against former White House counsel Harriet Miers and chief of staff Joshua Bolten.

The 223-32 vote stems from the aides’ refusal to comply with Judiciary Committee subpoenas in its investigation into the 2006 firings of nine U.S. attorneys.

In July 2007, President George W. Bush cited executive privilege, prohibiting Miers and Bolten to participate. As an alternative, White House counsel offered to allow the aides to testify in private with no transcript and no possibility that they could be subpoenaed again. Both the House and Senate Judiciary committees rejected the offer.

The House Judiciary Committee then approved contempt resolutions. Democratic leaders postponed a floor vote until today.

“If the executive branch can disregard congressional subpoenas in this way, we no longer have a system of checks and balances,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said yesterday. “That is the cornerstone of our democracy, and it is our bipartisan responsibility to protect it.”

The White House has repeatedly called the investigation a “waste of time” and has urged congressional Democrats to move on to other issues.