How the Housa can take up the political gauntlet against Obama

[Quantum Windbag]

I thought this was an interesting approach to Holder ignoring the subpoena. This is, ultimately, a political issue, why not fight it out using politics?

Fortunately, it has other options. A better way of dealing with such controversies, one truer to our constitutional traditions and history, requires recognizing that, in high-level separation-of-powers fights, the line between law and politics breaks down almost entirely. It is precisely in such cases that our constitutional order seeks to harness “ambition . . . to counteract ambition,” as James Madison put it. Once we view this as a political battle, we can see the panoply of political tools available to Congress.
There are some big guns: If the House holds Holder in contempt, it can send its sergeant-at-arms to arrest him and hold him until his contempt is purged. The House has arrested and held executive-branch officials twice in U.S. history, although the last time was nearly a century ago. Traditionally, courts will inquire into the House’s jurisdiction to arrest — which undoubtedly exists here — but not its reasons for doing so. This option is risky; it even raises the possibility of a standoff between the House sergeant-at-arms and the executive-branch police tasked with protecting Holder. But executive-branch contempt of court also raises the possibility of a standoff between judicial marshals and executive-branch police.
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Or the House could use its power of the purse. It could threaten to cut funding to the bureau running the Fast and Furious program or to the Justice Department as a whole. It could even refuse to pay Holder’s salary until he purges his contempt. Lower down the scale of confrontation, the House could pass a resolution censuring him or continue to hold hearings designed to embarrass him. The House risks looking petty in doing any of this, just as the Obama administration risks looking petty by withholding information from Congress. As with all high-level conflicts over the separation of powers, whoever can win public opinion will ultimately win the day. And that is as it should be; after all, these people are competing to be our public servants. It is a fundamentally political contest and should be settled by political means.

If the House holds Holder in contempt, what then? - From Our Inbox - MiamiHerald.com