Contempt Vote Tomorrow

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Last week the Congressional Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted 23 to 17 (down party lines) to hold to hold US Attorney General Eric Holder in Contempt of Congress for attempting to Obstruct thier ivestigation into the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry who was killed by a rifle registered to the US Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATFE).

It has since been revealed that BATFE Agents along the Arizona/Mexico Border had been providing weapons to the Signolla Drug Cartel. I posted about the story when initially broke here.

Holder initially denied any knowledge of of the policy, and later defended it as simply the continuation of a Bush-era program called "Operation Wide Reciever". He has since withdrawn those statements. Holder has not yet been formally held in contempt of Congress. The full House still needs to approve the resolution in order for that to happen. But President Obama has elected to support Holder by asserting executive privilege over the documents subpoenaed by the Oversight Committee.

This raises some interesting questions...

Actual lawyers feel free to corrct me, but as I understand it executive privilege allows the president to withhold documents and other materials that would reveal advisory opinions and recommendations by which governmental policies are formulated. By invoking executive privilege Obama and Holder are essentially admitting that "allowing" guns into Mexico was a policy descision.

Cynics have theorized that this was an effort to justify increased Gun-Control and Federal intervention in southern states. Others see it as simply stupidity and negligence. But what the question I find truly fascinating is "Why has the Obama adminisration chosen to make a stand here?"

I've been expecting Holder to get the boot for a couple of years now but it still hasn't happened. Historically Obama has been willing to sever ties with people who's association has become a liability. Holder is becoming a massive target for the Right and seems to rate an indifferent shrug from the left, so why protect him?

I have a few theories which (in order of increasing cynicism) are...

1: Holder and Obama are friends and Obama is genuinely prepared to risk his own reputation to protect him.

2: Obama doesn't think the charges will stick and sees this as an opprotunity to fuck over a Republican-lead investigation.

3: In relation to #3 Obama and Holder have bought into thier own hype and actually believe that nobody cares about violence in Mexico, they just hate black people.

4: The subpoenaed documents include information that could implicate Obama in wrong doing.

5: Holder has dirt on Obama and is blackmailing him.

Anyone else have any ideas?

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Calling me a partisan hack Democrat is rather hilarious. To me this is all like the "But Bush/Obama didn't declare war, illegal, unconstitutional, sure to summon the Elder Gods from the depths of the sea to eat our souls" comments made whenever the other party occupies the executive branch. To apply this principle fully, every military operation since Korea would be called into effect in a giant trial culminating in the largest mass execution in US history. Hence, it will never fully apply and it's all sound and fury, signifying nothing.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Wait, how did you recognize yourself in that description?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Actually I didn't recognize myself at all, and was explaining that things are much simpler than a twofold dichotomy. Sometimes there are as many as 14 options, of which at least 5 will contradict another 5.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

To make absolutely sure I'm clear, this is more "Er, no, not everybody in this discussion even cares about Democrats or Republicans, you should always look for third options, and I'm going to explain one of those options" in intent, albeit phrased relatively poorly for this being the intent.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

But you said, "Calling me a partisan hack Democrat is rather hilarious." So you must have seen something in there.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

To make absolutely sure I'm clear, this is more "Er, no, not everybody in this discussion even cares about Democrats or Republicans, you should always look for third options, and I'm going to explain one of those options" in intent, albeit phrased relatively poorly for this being the intent.

^From the comment above this one. I worded this poorly, but what I meant was something different from what was written. Specifically I *meant* something more on the lines of "To say everyone in this discussion, especially someone like me who's stated before and will state again that I don't care about either US political party is a partisan hack Democrat is rather hilarious." What I wrote, however, was different and a bit more defensive than what was actually meant.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Shrug, it made me curious, is all. You had said many times that you're neither liberal nor conservative.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

HAHA LOL HURR !

[foreverbeach.livejournal.com]

I get it, dude, I do. Your team commits murder and you have to give it a pass, because the other team could profit from your team's being held accountable. Can't have that!

Democrats love to claim that it's a false equivalency to compare them to Republicans. The truth is you'e trapped in a false dichotomy.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The bigger truth is that the GOP, which treats Oliver North as a real hero, has no room to target Holder for the same actions they hold North as a hero for. It seems that selling guns to bad people to break the law is not an evil thing so long as the bad people in question are sold those guns by Republicans. If people died from those same weapons, again no big deal. Just like how Donald Rumsfeld removing Saddam from the terrorist sponsors list so he could build his illegal chemical weapons arsenal has no relevance to the Iraq WMD issue and the seriousness of the threat an Iraq with those weapons would have been.

[404.livejournal.com]

Ollie North has been old news for 25 years. You need some new schtick.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

He's regularly treated as a conservative hero in the 21st Century by modern conservatives. This isn't an old schtick. *That* would be bringing up the GOP's fetish for McCarthy and rehabilitating the Internments, struck down by the Supreme Court in 1944.

[404.livejournal.com]

Having a crappy show on Fox News and the occasional guest spot on some radio shows =/= sainthood. Your schtick is old.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

Old news is underlankers forte. Have you not been paying attention?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Why yes, it's totally irrelevant as far as the GOP's concerned if it's going to pull another Clinton and engage in a purely political distortion of justice hiding behind a legal veil. I mean it's not like Republicans have either the maturity or the memory to remember what they did five minutes ago, what with their whining, crying, and appealing to every bad act done by Democrats to make their own justifiable.

[foreverbeach.livejournal.com]

OK, so that's it, then. Because the Republicans are corrupt, the Democrats can't be prosecuted.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Did you post this to someone else's comment by accident? Because it's pretty clear you weren't in fact responding to anything I said.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

How's sunny Italy?

[foreverbeach.livejournal.com]

Our recent trip to Giardini-Naxos on the other side of the island:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.753657158055.2143011.20406041&type=3&l=e226d496a7

[telemann.livejournal.com]

I want to see Rome and the Saint Mary Major basilica. Palestrina got his start there, and the acoustics are just astonishing for singers. I'd like to hear that in person.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Your team commits murder

Guns were sold to criminals under our teams watch.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

who, exactly, is defending what Holder did? Please be specific.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

All of us, because we're Democrats! I love the generalizations used to criticize generalizations. The cognitive dissonance is stunning.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

I find that people who like to call others "useful idiots" are usually the other kind.