Executive privilege belongs to the President and exists to protect the President's ability to get candid advice. In the absence of a criminal investigation, Rove is likely correct to refuse to disclose his communications with the President regarding the Plame matter.

Executive privilege does not extend, however, to communications between Rove and, for instance, members of the press. Or Rove and his subordinates. Congress should be able to get that information.

The claim of privilege, however, has been radically widened. The claim is not just that communications with the President are privileged, the claim is that Executive Privilege "confers upon him immunity from process." That is, nothing that a presidential advisor knows, says or does can be discovered.

It calls to mind the centuries of debate relating to the "divine right" of kings. In its simplest terms, the Rove assertion is that we are a nation of men, not of laws, and his man trumps everybody else.

Posted at July 4, 2008 5:11 PM in response to Rove Refuses House Judiciary Subpoena

There is a suggestion that Bear would have filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and that would have wiped out the shareholders entirely instead of merely goring them - a much more satisfactory result.

And if Bear had bankrupted, it would have defaulted on its (huge) obligations which would have led to the next failure and the next.

The commenters on this board are so ravenous for the blood of the corrupt elite that they are willing to adopt the free market laissez faire positions of Herbert Hoover in order to punish a few individuals. Nobody here is taking into account the fact that if we have a string of financial failures and the Chinese get a little concerned, our economy is toast.

Posted at April 21, 2008 12:34 PM in response to George Will Moves to the Left of the Democrats

Good point!! The same thing happened in 1929 but they knew then how to deal with fat cat executives! That bank in Cleveland failed and the government decided that there should be no bail-out. And then another bank failed. And then there was a run on the banks. And then...oh well...but the populist purity of refusing to interfere with the draconian vengeance of markets was preserved.

The Fed is under the illusion that what matters is whether the financial system continues to function. What matters is whether we grind the face of those executives into the mud!!! Who cares if the financial system fails. We survived the last depression and it produced some pretty good songs and not a few pretty good novels.

The proposal is that, in order to get government assistance, the executives have to accept a salary cap. Which means, the executives decide whether or not the financial system of the country is sufficiently at risk to require government intervention. Nah! That decision should be made in a general election. That way we could get a little political pandering into the debate. And pandering is always good for a laugh.

Posted at April 21, 2008 11:18 AM in response to George Will Moves to the Left of the Democrats