In comments to yesterday's Roundup, one reader mentioned that they wanted more structure so, heck, here's a table. The dominant emotion in the blogosphere this evening:

Contempt

I guess the good news is that we're letting go of our anger!

Contempt power From the Congressional Research Service's Report on Congress's Contempt power (PDF):

In McGrain v. Daugherty, which arose out of the exercise of the Senate's inherent contempt power, the Supreme Court described the power of inquiry, with the accompanying process to enforce it, as "an essential and appropriate auxiliary to the legislative function." The Court explained:

A legislative body cannot legislate wisely or effectively in the absence of information respecting the conditions which the legislation is intended to affect or change; and where the legislative body does not itself possess the requisite information - which not infrequently is true - recourse must be had to others who possess it.

The power of contempt Prairie Weather:

There is something we need to face: Members of this Congressional generation may well be a good deal more interested in preserving their political futures than responding to urgent political pressure from their constituents. Democrats may figure that we'll cave and vote for them, as the lesser of the two etceteras. Listening to the calls to the middle-of-the-road Ed Schultz show today while driving home, I decided that any Democratic representatives who really believe that may find themselves without a job in a year or so. There seem to be one heckuva lot more Democratic voters who have "moved on" from incoherent fury to steely determination. Even Schultz seemed a little surprised...

Democracy for New Mexico:

If the precedents being set by this bunch are allowed to stand unchallenged, what hope can we possibly have for the survival of our democracy, constitution or civil liberties?

Contempt for our intelligence Rocky Mountain Report has a splendid list of quotations from the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee, back in the happy, happy days when Civility reigned and everything was all about The Clenis:

Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) offered his rationale for opposing holding White House officials in contempt for their actions:

"The real argument here is not over the audacity of the White House, but over the strength of our legal argument."

Ironically, Cannon is one of six current members of the same Judiciary Committee that voted, in a straight 21-17 party-line vote, to impeach President Clinton in 1998. Those six members currently rank first, second, third, fourth, fifth and seventh in seniority among committee Republicans.

A backdrop of contempt It hasn't taken long for Pony Blow to start using the new, digital backdrops in the new White House Press Room. Oh, for the happy, happy days of "Mission Accomplished"... From an AP news blog, of all places:

Look closely, and you'll see a handy graphic at the bottom of the screen. It shows that the Bush administration has provided documents related to the firings that, if stacked up, would be twice as high as the White House.

[Honestly. Can they imagine we don't know what a document dump looks like, or what it is design to do?--Lambert]

Contemptuous snorts of derision A staffer at the Houston Chronicle, of all places, brings the snark in her blog. Along with the picture AP blogged above, the headline:

White House to Congress: You're pathetic

and the subhead:

Drop this investigation and pass more bills we can veto, please

[Rimshot. Laughter.] "Verily I say unto you, They have their reward." (Matthew 6:2) The Fruitfly imagines a history class twenty years from now. The professor sums up:

In the end, by the time Bush was succeeded in 2009, the political fallout from his presidency lasted for almost twenty years. Meanwhile, the Republican Party, embroiled in sex scandals, charged for taking bribes, voter fraud and child molestation charges, marginalized themselves to become a third tier political party. The downside to all of President Bush's atrocities was the fact that it took the United States all of these years to patch up their image world wide and to restore those basic constitutional rights to its citizens.

Well, at least Bush stepped down... Democrats and the news cycle I love it that Nancy has a blog, but what's there tonight is this morning's news, and this morning's news is old news. Surely there's some Democratic intern on The Hill itching to sharpen their blogging skills by keeping what should be a critical resource fresh? Remember Iraq? Texas Blue points out the today the House passed an important Iraq bill banning permanent bases, and are taking up a Murtha amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill that would offers gutless Republicans a compromise by forcing an "orderly redeployment" of U.S. troops to begin by December, but without setting a date for completion. Contempt for the customer Things I'm just too weary to blog about: "Apple has applied for a patent on what's basically DRM for gadget chargers, detailing a system that would ensure gadgets can only be charged by certain approved chargers." Corporations. Why arefas they persons, anyhow? If I did some of the shit they pull, I'd be in jail or at least exposed to, well, serious contempt from my neighbors.

Notes on linkage: Since I've made it my mission this week to link to the long tail blogs, tonight I searched Technorati on "Contempt Congress," sorted for newest first, and took my candidates for the Roundup from the hits, throwing out the blogs with rankings that were anywhere near our own. Then I took the ones where I thought the writing was best. If what I found is a representative sampling, I'd say the Beltway Dems are behind the curve; they don't understand just how many people have connected the dots, or how many dots they've connected. (Hat tip to Tiny Little Dots for sending me the Pony Blow link just as I was about to zip this for Nicole.) Interestingly, Constitutional issues are key for the long tail; but if a single Democrat on the Hill put the case for what's really wrong with the Bush administration as succinctly as Prairie Weather or Democracy for New Mexico, I've missed it. (Readers?)

Guest Bloggerage: Be sure to visit the Ornamental and Vegetable Gardens of The Mighty Corrente Building; tickets are free (except to The Cornerites; the bill for the damages is in the mail).Blogosphere classic: The Political and the Personal. This post is the answer to all the nonsense you hear from Our Betters about "division," and being "partisan," and the need for "unity," et cetera et cetera ad nauseum. We didn't start this fight, but we are going to have to finish it.

Comment at the link above, or send answers, tips, bouquets, brickbats to lambert_strether1 AT yahoo DOT com.--Lambert