Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Most. Transparent. Administration. Evah.

Or not.

A long-simmering fight between Republican lawmakers and the Obama administration sharply escalated on Wednesday, as a Congressional panel recommended that the House of Representatives cite Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. for contempt and President Obama asserted executive privilege to shield Justice Department documents from disclosure.

Immediately after the House oversight committee voted along party lines to approve the contempt recommendation, Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, said the full chamber would vote on the request next week unless Mr. Holder turned over more documents related to the botched gun-trafficking investigation known as “Fast and Furious.”

The president’s move to invoke executive privilege was the first time that he had asserted his secrecy powers in response to a Congressional inquiry. It elevated a fight over whether Mr. Holder must turn over additional documents about the gun case into a constitutional struggle over the separation of powers.

Hey, I think we oughta recycle some of those vapid phrases lefists used ad nauseum during the Bush administration.

Bush Obama lied, kids border patrol agents died.

Or how about the timeless "What did he know and when did he know it?"

Thankfully Judge Andrew Napolitano asks the question that mainstream media members likely won't: Is "executive privilege" relevant here?

Executive privilege, in its definition, provides protection over communications with the president himself, according to the judge. The letter sent by Eric Holder requesting executive privilege does not detail a discussion with the president, but Judge Napolitano said, “The implication is there.”

“If the attorney general sat down and discussed it with the president, he probably doesn’t want the Congress and the public to know that,” Napolitano said.

Napolitano also said that executive privilege only pertains to “military, diplomatic and sensitive national security matters.”

“Now, was fighting the drug gangs at the border a sensitive national security matter? And, if so was the President of the United States of America personally involved in making decisions as to how to conduct that fight? If that’s the case, this has reached a different level and we now know why the attorney general has ferociously defended these documents,” Napolitano said.

Truth is, we may never fully surmise the President's knowledge or involvement in this whole operation. But one takeaway to which we can fully cling? AG Holder is an utter disgrace to his office. -----------------------------------------

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