From The New York Times

WASHINGTON, July 20 — The Justice Department would be likely to block any efforts by Congressional Democrats to seek contempt charges against present and former White House officials for refusing to give information to Congress, a White House spokesman said Friday…

A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, said Congressional threats to have presidential aides charged with criminal contempt would probably end in failure. “It has been the Justice Department’s long-held view that the law does not permit Congress to require a U.S. attorney to convene a grand jury or otherwise pursue a prosecution” when someone refuses on the basis of executive privilege to testify or turn over documents, Mr. Fratto said.

Now my first thought here is that this is an excellent opportunity… for Congress to get out there and hire their own lawyer.

Yes, I know that traditionally the AG is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government. But something tells me that the White House “predicting” what the AG might or might not do is a little like the late, lamented Senor Wences predicting what “Johnny” might be up to next. [Excepting, of course, their weird feud back in the late 70’s, resulting in Johnny’s autobiography, “S’not Alright: The Johnny Wences Story.” Even by today’s standards, that might be one of the strangest, most disturbing books ever written.]

I have to confess that I’m not sure if Congress is allowed to hire their own lawyer… but what else are you going to do if your lawyer won’t take the case? My advice would be for Congress to hire a high profile, out-for-blood prosecutor and sic ‘im on White House Counsel Fred Fielding. This will leave Alberto Gonzales free to be a witness and do what he does best: Testify in a hesitant, unconvincing and weirdly prissy manner. That seems to be the best approach.

Or I should say it seemed to be the best approach until I read, buried at the end of the article, this:

Congress has another route to enforce its will, an inherent power of contempt. But that has not been used since early in the 20th century. It has long been deemed unwieldy in the modern era as it entails Congress stopping all work to hold its own trial and imprisoning any offenders in the basement of the Capitol.

That’s right, all Congress has to do is take a break from its important work of doing absolutely nothing, and it will be able to throw just about the entire executive branch into the Capitol’s basement, where they can contemplate their wrongdoing as well as mouldering copies of The Congressional Record and the arcane and horrifying instruments in Karl Rove’s now-abandoned satellite “office of clarity” (just ask Arlen Specter about his 9 days there).

Would the above solution move our government “forward?” I don’t know if “forward” has much meaning when you’re pointing directly at a cliff. I do know it’d be pretty cool, though. That might seem like a poor substitute for actually serving the people of this great land and tackling the vital and crucial issues that confront our nation. But failing that… it’s entertainment. And that’s something.