Impact of John Conyers Speech on Investigating Constitutional Crimes
Rep. John Conyers‘ remarks on July 24, 2009 to the National Press Club concerning investigations of unconstitutional behavior by members of the Bush administration (my transcription of public NPC video):
Eric Holder must appoint a special counsel to review the Bush administration abuses of power and misconduct. A criminal probe: he’s got to do that. That’s why I love being at the Press Club; he’ll hear about this. I do not have to call him or send a… of course, he knows how I feel about this. Eric and I go back a long ways.
Number two, I’ve got a bill that calls for a blue-ribbon panel about the same thing, and so why, Chairman, do you need both? Well, because a special counsel is not going to work in the public. They have to work confidentially, of course. And so we need a 9-11 type panel, no congressmen on it, I wouldn’t even put ex-members on it, so that we can publicly go into what we’ve talked about and been doing.
What impact have John Conyers’ words had? On Capitol Hill, none. No new congressional cosponsors to H.R. 104, Conyers’ bill for that blue-ribbon panel, have emerged in the wake of Conyers’ speech. No new cosponsors to Conyers’ bill have emerged in the past month and a half.
