One week after the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the "Imperial Presidency," where many congressional members and expert witnesses called out for the immediate impeachment of President George Bush, none of the offices of three of the congressional major players in the hearings, Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), John Conyers (D-MI), or Trent Franks (R-AZ) has issued any public statements on the results or public response.
"One week follow-up" calls on August 1 to all three offices showed staff very busy trying to keep up with increased public calls for information on the impeachment, despite what Kucinich District Office staffer, Marian Carey, characterizes as "minimal media reaction." Carey did however a share her excitement over the wave of citizen action the hearings have generated, calling it "very positive" and urged all citizens to continue calling their congressman. Kucinich's office also commented on the importance of the new July 30th ruling by Federal District Court Judge John Bates, one of the pro-GOP Bush appointed judges, that Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton are not exempt from complying with congressional subpoenas. "It's two ahead of Rove, so it is really good news," Carey noted.
Over at Judiciary, staff called this week's citizen call volume "tremendous" and confirmed citizen reports that there will be an official Judiciary Committee statement on the hearings released on August 15th. Even after a double check that date held firm. For those keeping track, the confirmation of a soon-to-be-released public statement by the committee is a backpedal from an earlier mid-week backpedal, when Judiciary staff denied their earlier claim of an upcoming public statement.
Trent Franks' office also had no public statement, but also allowed that their office had experienced a marked increase in citizen phone calls on impeachment. "There have been a quite a few calls this week on that," the staff member acknowledged. Franks had been one of the major GOP players in the hearings, condemning and insinuating that those calling for impeachment hearings were friends and/or agents of the terrorists.
Upon Franks' office request, the following list of questions was submitted via email to Franks' press staff member, Bethany Barker:
1. Has the Representative issued any public statements or have plans to issue public statements regarding the July 25th hearings?
2. Does he have a position on the role party politics has played in giving the accusations made in the hearing fair light?
3. Does he have reassurances for either constituents, or Americans in general, who are concerned with hearing witnesses' extensive claims of criminal behavior by the Whitehouse and congressional GOP complicity?
We await their reply. Meanwhile at the Whitehouse, Press Secretary Dana Perino's office acknowledged that the presidential website and press office had not released any public statements thus far, though promised to look into press accounts of the hearings and the public response to them and get back to this reporter for a statement.
