Galloway Gets his Dues, Friend Of Chavez Delahunt Alarmed by Abuse Of Executive Power!!

--just not that of his Good Buddy, Hugo:

July 25 (Bloomberg) -- A House panel cited President George W. Bush's top aide and former counsel for contempt of Congress over their refusal to cooperate with an investigation of the dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys.
The Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee, on a 22-17 party-line vote, approved citations against Joshua Bolten, White House chief of staff, and former counsel Harriet Miers. Bolten refused to turn over documents related to the dismissals, and Miers disobeyed a subpoena to appear before the panel and answer questions about her role in the firings.

Massachusetts Democrat William Delahunt said Congress must ``assert itself against an administration that has expanded executive power to a point'' that ``has become dangerous to our democracy.''

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, complained yesterday to Gonzales that Bush was trying to prevent Congress from obtaining a court ruling on his executive privilege assertion.
``Do you think constitutional government in the United States can survive if the president has the unilateral authority to reject congressional inquiries'' and bar courts from ruling on his assertion, Specter asked Gonzales.
Specter suggested that a special prosecutor be appointed by the Justice Department to prosecute the contempt cases. If the Bush administration refused to do that, the Senate could convene its own trial of the aides. Under such circumstances, any official found guilty of contempt could be held in a jail until the end of the congressional session.

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LONDON: British MP George Galloway personally thanked Saddam Hussein for his
regime's financial backing in a campaign against sanctions on Iraq, and even
asked him to raise the payments, it emerged yesterday. Mr Galloway also offered
to help set up with Saddam an Iraqi satellite television channel, broadcasting
in English, months before the beginning of the Iraq war.

An account of their meeting, published for the first time in a House of Commons report into Mr. Galloway's failure to declare his financial backers, contradicts the MP's insistence that he was unaware of receiving money from the former Iraqi regime.

The record was unearthed by Philip Mawer, the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards, during a four-year inquiry into Mr Galloway's activities. As a
result, he faces being suspended from the house for 18 sitting days.

In his report, Sir Philip is coy about how he obtained the document, saying only
that he "became aware" last year that a record might exist of a meeting between
Mr Galloway and Saddam, and he "began inquiries to see if I could obtain a
copy". He did so in November, he said.

The document says that during the meeting in August 2002, Mr Galloway praised Tariq Aziz, Iraq's deputy prime minister, who also attended, for helping to secure his financial backing.

Mr Galloway, addressing Saddam as "Your Excellency", tells him: "Mr
Tariq Aziz has helped us with his contacts ... But we are now suffering from the problem of the price of oil, which has resulted in a reduction in income and delay in receiving our dues."

There was also a reference to discussions between Mr Galloway and Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, Iraq's information minister, who earned the nickname Comical Ali for his surreal defiance as the regime was toppled.

After considering Sir Philip's findings, a committee of senior
MPs concluded that Mr Galloway had secretly accepted funding from Saddam's
regime

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George Galloway has been officially suspended from the Commons for 18 days following an inquiry into his financial links with Saddam Hussein's regime in
Iraq. The Respect MP had earlier been ordered out of the Chamber after clashing with Speaker Michael Martin.

They rowed over a speech in which he denounced the Commons Standards & Privileges Committee as hypocritical and unjust.

Mr Galloway was sharply criticised by the committee over payments to an Iraq children's charity, the now-defunct Mariam Appeal.

MPs said he should be heavily punished for concealing funding from Saddam's regime and for unjustified attacks on the inquiry itself

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