With Democrats piling ridicule and denunciation on House Government Reform and Oversight Committee Chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind., the committee voted 24-19 along party lines today to recommend the House cite Attorney General Janet Reno in contempt of Congress.
Reno, in a telephone conversation with Burton before the vote, made another offer to give Burton's panel her thinking on the appointment of an independent counsel on campaign finance, but remained firm in refusing to produce subpoenaed internal memos.
Left unclear was how far the action of Burton's panel would go. The House will not be called on to ratify it until the fall. If the House supported Burton, the matter would be referred to the local U.S. attorney.
Before fall, Reno has promised to finish a new review of her old decision not to name a special prosecutor to investigate campaign finance allegations and pledged to brief the chairmen of the two judiciary committees and Burton's committee about her legal reasoning.
Republican members cast the vote as a serious, precedent-setting action. Democrats dismissed it as political theater. When Burton tried to quiet a stir by noting the vote was "historic," Democrats broke out in forced laughter. Some Democrats were using the debate to portray Burton as ineffective, while Republicans tried to shape it as a challenge of congressional prerogatives to enforce subpoenas, oversee the executive branch, and get cooperation.
At center stage from the start, Burton tried to underscore "the very serious purpose" of his action. No attorney general has ever been cited for contempt, a crime calling for a $100,000 fine and up to a year in prison.
In the phone conversation just before the hearing, Burton said "she didn't budge an inch" from her unwillingness to give the panel memos by FBI Director Louis Freeh and former Justice Department attorney Charles LaBella, who ran her internal investigation on the subject. Reno's latest offer was to brief Burton's full committee in public in two weeks after she finished her review of LaBella's memo and made a decision on what to do.
Noting that Freeh, LaBella and an FBI investigator had testified a special prosecutor should be named, Burton said, "Three individuals who know the law and the case better than anyone else in the world have told the attorney general that she has an obligation under the law to appoint an independent prosecutor."
Ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., accused Burton of "demeaning perhaps the most serious power we have--the power of contempt" and ticked off what he felt were his failures. "Our investigation has been so discredited by the chairman's mistakes and partisanship that no one pays any attention to us anymore," Waxman declared.
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