Because nothing says “I have nothing to hide” like an executive power grab to block investigators from looking at government documents:
President Barack Obama has asserted executive privilege over documents sought by a House committee investigating the botched Fast and Furious gun-running sting, according to a letter to the panel Wednesday from Deputy Attorney Gen. James Cole.
The move means the Department of Justice can withhold the documents from the House Oversight Committee, which was scheduled to consider a contempt measure Wednesday against [Attorney General Eric] Holder.
The immediate question raised by this sudden assertion of executive people is whether President Obama was involved in the scandal. Why would he put himself at risk of serious political backlash if this was all about simply protecting Holder — who is about to be charged with contempt of Congress anyway? And if there is something damaging about Obama or top White House officials in those papers, maybe that explains why Holder still has a job despite the growing calls for his resignation.
The Department of Justice and the Obama administration is going to try to defend this as a necessary response to a baldly political witch hunt by House Republicans. But will the public buy that at this point? Not only are there numerous signs of behind-the-scenes shadiness that we already know about — the timing inconsistencies, Holder’s misstatements — there’s also the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent at the top of the story. Is the Obama administration actually going to argue that the family of Agent Brian Terry doesn’t deserve to know the full circumstances surrounding his death?
Obama’s assertion of executive privilege turned this from a political back-and-forth between the DOJ and a congressional committee into a full-blown scandal ensnaring the president. What exactly is hiding in those papers that pushed Obama to take this risk?
This move by President Obama illustrates the need to appoint an independent special prosecutor to investigate F&F as well as leaks of classified information. Congress needs to act since the DOJ is hopelessly compromised.
Except that would then mean it was a member of the Justice department (Independent means independent of Congress, all prosecutors report to the justice department) nQuick quiz, What Department is Eric Holder in charge of?
They certainly could appoint a non-DOJ investigator and vest in that person investigatory authority.
If only the President would assert “executive privilege” over the national security leaks that pour from his administration. Why should our enemies know more about the behind the scenes activities of our government than does Congress?
Two dead Federal agents. One ATF, one Border. n nLOTS of dead Mexicans, including Mexican law enforcement, and the Mexican government is not happy about this.
Can you blame them? Can you imagine the outcry that would result here if the attorney general of Mexico, with the president of Mexico's knowledge and consent, oversaw a botched sting operation here in the US that resulted in hundreds of automatic weapons winding up in the hands of US drug gangs and resulting in the deaths of dozens of Americans, including law enforcement officers? n nThe whole thing stinks to high heaven and the truth … the WHOLE truth … about what happens needs to come out.
they were semi-automatic weapons. Automatic weapons are NOT cheap in the U.S. and are tightly regulated. It's much easer to get them from abroad.
Wow… You are right. AK-47 rifles aren't even made in the US — the M-16/AR-16 are but the AKs are all imported from places like China or the former Soviet Block — that is why the now-expired 1994 Clinton ban had any effect, banning the importation because all were imported. n nSo why would a drug lord not buy wholesale? Why not import directly from Bulgaria? n nThe drugs aren't being produced in Mexico — Cocaine comes from further south, Heroin from the Orient — why buy traceable guns from the USA when you can get them by the case (with serial numbers that the ATF knows nothing about) directly from the manufacturer? n nHmmm……
You make the errors. The murder weapons have been directly traced to ATF walked guns. (It is normal for Mexican killers to abandon their weapons at the kill site, to avoid any tracing.) There are many laws which forbid gun walking. Thus whoever ordered the gun walking is liable for prosecution. This is the contested issue. Holder says it was local agents, others, with first hand knowledge, state it came from him, or his direct subordinates. Now there is a new issue. For the first time, in years, the President claims Executive Privilege. This requires that he had first hand knowledge of the gun walking. Or somebody is lying.
You make two errors here. First, you buy into the liberal notion that it is guns, not people, that kill people. This is a strategic error for a tactical advantage. Second, there is no reason to believe that the crimes you mention would not have been committed with other guns if the particular guns supplied by the Feds had not entered the market.
This is a political issue, not a factual causation issue. Of course guns don't kill people, people kill people – but when the country next door is knowingly selling guns to drug cartels who are filling the streets of Mexican cities with dead bodies, your little mental exercise comes off as rather trite.
A business law case that I use to explain negligence — a clearly drunk driver stumbles into convenience store (this was before "pay at the pump" when you had to pay first and then go back for your change), and asks to purchase gasoline. He is the only person/car anywhere around, it is clear that he had just driven the car in and that he is quite drunk. (Back in the 1970's and early 1980's, we had a quite different attitude toward such things.) n nThey sell him gas, he drives down the road and causes a horrific/tragic multiple-fatal accident. The amount of gas he had prior to the purchase would not have gotten him to the accident scene — and the store refused to sell gasoline to a drunk driver, there wouldn't have been an accident because he wouldn't have been there. n nHence under the theory of "negligence", the deep-pocket convenience store chain wound up paying the damages to the families of those killed in the accident, even though it is drunk drivers and not gasoline that causes OUI fatalities. And had they instead sold beer to him, with a statute precluding the sale of alcohol to intoxicated persons, they would have been facing criminal negligence liability as well. n nOK, this is Red America where there is something known as "Deer Season" and what if they had instead sold him ammunition. Not the gun but the bullets, and he had gone down the road and killed someone in some stupid hunting mistake. n nNow what if the clerk had a grudge against the drunk guy's wife — the gun comes in, drunk out of his mind and raving about how he wants to kill his wife and the clerk sells him bullets. Or just gives him a gun free of charge and says "go kill the b****." n nIn all of these cases, it isn't a case of knowing that the crimes would have happened otherwise — the guy could have gone the 10 miles or so that he had enough gas for and found someone ELSE to sell him gas — but that is a moot point. And even though he is the one who *did* it — you tell me you want to kill your wife and I hand you a gun, I am liable too…
…but the Mexican President just thanked Obama for his dream act edict……go figure…..
So The Friend Of The Latinos was involved in a policy that got hundreds of Latinos murdered by Mexican drug cartels? Shmoe-Bama cant catch a break, can he? Every campaign gambit he tries lasts about 48 hours until something pops out of the woodwork and squashes it. Mitt Romney is lucky in his opponent.
Let's see now …. Invoking "executive privilege" in an attempt to prevent the release of politically embarassing information? Maintaining an "enemies list" of prominent Americans who dare to contribute money to the political opposition? Simply ignoring laws that he doesn't like? n nWhere have we seen all this before? Ahhh, yes …. the Nixon White House in the early 70s!!! n n"Hope" & "Change" indeed. You liberals must be SO proud!
My guess is that Obama knew about F&F from get go. He probably came up with the idea to try and pander to his anti-gun base after the Gabby Giffords shooting. That's the thing with Obama. He doesn't have enough guts to confront his perceived enemies head on. He always tries to pull an "end run" or have others do his dirty work.
Nixon's back?
What does it say about the Democratic Party that this President still has support? Are they really willing to let Obama carry on with a platform that is eerily familiar to the cpusa website and damage the brand for a decade or longer?
"Are they really willing to let Obama carry on with a platform that is eerily familiar to the cpusa website and damage the brand for a decade or longer? " nLet's all hope so.
I was a Dem all my life until I saw this inexperienced guy put up for nomination over Hillary. And knowing his background filled with Marxists, communists, socialists and how mysterious he was about his past, his 20 years in Rev Wright's church ("God D— America!) ……….. I just couldn't vote for him. n nAnd his presidency has been far far worse than I thought it would be. The Democratic Party has changed, and until it changes back I can't be a part of it. n nMittRomney.com for the truth.
History shows (Nixon) this does not generally work out.
Obama is hiding complicity at the exective level. I wouldn't be surprised if Jarrett has her hand in it, but more importantly the MSM is completely out of the loop on this story… n n..and they will look complicit for ignoring it unlike when the media went after Nixon with everything they had. The old MSM is very cose to losing ALL credibility just ahead of the election !
What's hiding in that documentation? n nSame thing that hiding in all the other documentation Obama has sealed since 20 Jan 2009: Occidental transcripts, Occidental financial aid requests, Columbia transcripts, Harvard Law transcripts, Michelle;s disbarment proceedings, etc., etc., ad nauseum: Full and complete evidence of his incompetence, radicallness, anti-American-ness…. who knows? maybe even un-American-ness…
This illustrates the urgent need for a wholesale reset on our government. Return to complete Constitutional order… impeach Obama and Holder and work your way back to the federal reserve mob. Clearly we have been conned into total stupidity.. Aint it a surprise? Amarika can also crumble just like the soviet union did… that is unless FREEDOM WINS THE DAY.
Good stuff! Ive already sent it to Hannity!
Obama should have dumped this clown a long time ago; now he has handcuffed himself to Holder and thrown away the key. Now that the media has no choice but to cover this scandal, some of the less-informed voters that rely on network news should be interested to see how unconvincing Eric Holder's lies are. This administration is not a serious administration, nor is the Democrat party a serious political party at this point. n
Eric Holder's new nickname should be "Anchor" because he's dragging them all down with him.
This in addition to the leaks, put Prez Zero in a worse position than Nixon
It couldn't have happened to a more arrogant, thin-skinned, incompetent guy.
Better pass it along fast before Youtube removes it.
We have learned that part of the contingency plan by the White House was to have Holder hide documents under the cloaking device otherwise known as Executive Privilege. But wait, Holder's not part of that group. EP only holds for the White House and staff. Holder is head of his own department. That would be like Clinton hiding under Obama's desk. (sorry about the visual there….)Now Obama, the Smartest Man in the World accordling to liberals, could have let Holder twist in the wind, but Holder is a loyal soldier and is hiding emails for some good reason….now what could that be? Then Obama clumsily issued EP orders with a letter that had to take a couple of lawyers three hours to write, five minutes after Issa called the meeting to order. Connecting the dots this means not only did Obama know about F&F, he is INVOLVED. And since his own staff members say he's hands on and micromanaging things, I think we can assume that he made this decision with Holder and like so many of his other decisions, this is a Big Old Fail. What's hilarious is that rather than distancing himself and letting Holder take the fall now Obama is in the crosshairs. Watch as they-namely Jarrett and Axelrod-set up Biden to take the fall.
How delusional and narcissistic Obama must be to think his autobiography would never be revealed as a total pack of lies. He's even less of a nothing than he pretended to be.
The job of the AG is loyalty and the willingness to take a bullet for the president: Bobby Kennedy, John Mitchell, Dick Kleindienst, Ed Meese, (NOT Janet Reno), Al Gonzales, Eric Holder. An old and honorable tradition.
Now if we can get the MainStreamMedia (MSM) to cover the story, there may still be some Justice for Agent Terry, although my own moral is slipping. n nAmerica's slip into the abyss of government corruption and poor governance is not exclusive to either party. BUT….the present Regime is accelerating that deterioration like no other before it. n nLet us try a new idea. Equality! Government CANNOT make anyone equal. Government can treat all citizens equally. What a concept. I want government to take less AND give less. Take care of the sick and infirmed. (not drug and alcohol addicts. Or folks that will not work) Stop the dramatic histrionic hyperbole about folks who could/should be working. Stop it! n nGo figure. n n"One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary." –Ayn Rand
Correct spelling is Darrell Issa. Please everyone send that info to him, Boehner, Hannity, Greta@FoxNews.com, BretBaier@FoxNews.com – n nthey get so many emails that mine might have slipped through the cracks so if more people send the link and what I wrote above, they are sure to see it at some point. n nAnd we're ALL Breitbart now.
I get it. GWB was an executive privilege genius and Obama is an executive privilege idiot. GWB established gitmo and black sites refused to acknowledge water boarding to protect us from islamofascists (luv that word) while Obama withholds details about the war on narcofascists. Why can't Obama be GWB, oh why?