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Upon entering high school, every well-educated teenager knows that the federal government of the United States is designed to operate according to an elaborate system of power balanced between three branches, the Executive, the Judicial, and the Legislative, as established by the Constitution itself. The trouble is that most teenagers are not especially well-educated about how American government works. Neither are their adult elders. Most Americans, if they paid attention during social studies classes, promptly forgot whatever they learned there upon leaving school.

American popular culture disregards civic education and participation as boring, and seeks out more immediate pleasures, like watching movie stars in dance competitions, or dogs on skateboards, instead. George W. Bush is counting on that as he ignores the first congressional contempt citations issued against White House officials in 25 years.

The contempt citations (House Roll Call Vote 60) were issued yesterday by the U.S. House of Representatives against White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former chief White House legal counsel Harriet Miers, after Bolten and Miers obeyed an order from President Bush to ignore subpoenas to testify before Congress about their involvement in alleged crimes by the White House. Congress has, in order balance out the executive power of the White House, the power to demand that executive officials testify before Congress. That’s what a subpoena is for. Congress also has the power to check executive power by holding in contempt executive officials who refuse to respond to subpoenas.

Without these powers, Congress would be powerless to conduct meaningful oversight of the Executive Branch, something else established by the Constitution. That’s exactly what George W. Bush had in mind yesterday, when he responded to the contempt citations merely by calling them “absurd”, and directing Attorney General Michael Mukasey to ignore them, and not prosecute Bolten and Miers.

By not obeying the congressional subpoenas, Joshua Bolten and Harriet Miers have broken the law. By directing them to do so, George W. Bush has taken part in that lawbreaking. By refusing to prosecute these clear crimes by White House officials, Attorney General Michael Mukasey has failed to do his duty.

You see, it is not the job of the Attorney General of the United States to follow the orders of the President of the United States. It is the job of the Attorney General of the United States to follow the law, and serve as the top law enforcement official in the United States, even when to do so is in direct conflict with the wishes of the President of the United States. When the President of the United States or other White House officials openly violate the law as established by Congress, it is the job of the Attorney General to prosecute.

George W. Bush, Joshua Bolten, Harriet Miers and Michael Mukasey are all counting on Americans to be ignorant about how American government is supposed to work. They are counting on Americans to revert to some sort of vague monarchical belief that the President is the “leader” of the United States, and can do whatever he wants, regardless of the law.

So, Congress has the law on its side. President Bush, on the other hand, has the ignorance of the American people on his side.

Given the history of the last seven years, I’ve got a good idea which side will win. It’s the side that’s been watching Dancing With The Stars. That, and not the attempt to have the President and his aides obey the law, is what’s absurd.