Rep. Watt on Harriet Miers refusal to comply with subpoenas in July 2007:
". . . last shoe that dropped yesterday, the refusal to allow Ms. Miers to appear here today even to assert her claimed privilege or the President's claimed privilege is kind of the last insult. Rep. Scott and I sat through the last impeachment process and in the middle of that impeachment process, we made a pact that we would always apply the same standards to Democratic and Republican presidents alike because we have a Constitutional responsibility as members of this committee. I take seriously the presumptive privilege that the President has, but i think this President has abused that presumptive privilege and the American people now recognize that they don't presume that his privilege extends nearly as far as the President asserts that it extends. I don't believe that he is entitled to that continuing presumption without question. I can't give him that presumption anymore because this is the same President who told me that he was going to be a different kind of President and renegged on that promise. This is the same preident that relied on Cheney, the stealth Vice President on whose behalf I presume he is claiming this privilege also, but who has now taken the position that he is not part of the executive branch. He is the same President who lied to the Congress and the American people about the reasons for going to war. The President who has jailed and put people in jail without even bringing any charges against them and rendered them to other countries for questioning. He is the same President who exposed the CIA agents by revealing their identity and then turned around and pardoned the person who lied about whether he had justification for doing that or his reasons for doing that. He is the same President who declared victory on an airfract carrier five years ago still in the middle of a war. This is a President whom I have trouble giving any presumptions to anymore and I believe the American people are having trouble giving him any presumptions anymore. I cannot accept the standards that prevailed for the last six years of oversight of this President. We have a responsibility to oversee the conduct of this President and the President is sticking his thumb in our eye and saying I have some privilege or (interrupted by Rep. Cannon for 'unparliamentary' language, asked words to be taken down, Watt allowed to proceed in the manner befitting of the decorum of the committee). I think I will just yield back the balance of my time. I think the American people know what we are dealing with here - an imperial President who thinks he is above the law and we have a responsibility to say to the American people and to this President that he is not above the law (Rep. Cannon interrupts again claiming 'unparliamentary' words. Watt responds "These are not unparliamentary words." Cannon asks words to be taken down. Chair says words, harsh, but not unparliamentary).
On November 6, 2007, Rep. Watt voted to table Kucinich's privileged resolution on impeachment. He then voted to send it to Judiciary.