The U.S. House is in recess but some Representatives have been busy. On Monday, we highlighted letters by members of Congress to President Obama on the debt crisis and to AG Eric Holder on Investigating Swatting and Threats to Bloggers.
Today, we note the House Oversight Committee intent to vote next week on whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his failure to comply with a congressional subpoena over Operation Fast and Furious. The Daily Caller identified that House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa said in a press release that "the committee will vote to hold Holder in contempt next Wednesday, June 20." Rep. Issa said, “For over a year and a half, the House Oversight Committee, with Senator Chuck Grassley, has conducted a joint investigation of reckless conduct in Operation Fast and Furious. With the support of House leadership, the Republican Conference, and even some Democratic Members who have expressed concern to the White House over the Justice Department’s failure to cooperate, this investigation has yielded significant results. The Attorney General has acknowledged that the operation was fundamentally flawed and he has committed to take steps to ensure that it does not occur again. Evidence found in applications for wiretaps shows that although senior officials were given information about reckless tactics, they still signed affirmations that they had reviewed the investigation and determined that electronic surveillance of phones was necessary.”
There is a significant difference between a Committee holding a person in Contempt and The House of Representatives doing so. On Monday, Speaker John Boehner also identified that he would push for contempt proceedings as well in the House. He said, “The Justice Department is out of excuses. Congress has given Attorney General Holder more than enough time to fully cooperate with its investigation into ‘Fast and Furious,’ and to help uncover the circumstances regarding the death of Border Agent Brian Terry. Agent Terry’s family, the whistle blowers who brought this issue to light, and the American people deserve answers. Either the Justice Department turns over the information requested, or Congress will have no choice but to move forward with holding the Attorney General in contempt for obstructing an ongoing investigation.”
It is most disturbing that DOJ sanctioned the Fast and Furious running / walking of guns into Mexico occurred especially when coupled with claims that they did so with the ultimate intent to use the effort to promote limiting gun ownership by Americans. While the seriousness of the situation is highlighted by the loss of the lives in Mexico and the death of US Boarder Patrol Agent Brian Terry, the dismissive and uncooperative attitude and actions shown by the leading law enforcement person in America, AG Eric Holder, erode the trust of Americans in our Government, the Obama Administration and law enforcement.
Is thuggery and abuse to be historical hallmarks of the Obama administration? President Obama has said the "buck stops at his desk." If so, it is time for the President to demand that AG Eric Holder fully disclose his and his agencies involvement and to take responsibility for the DOJ's actions. President Bill Clinton and former AG Janet Reno survived the botched Waco incident by appropriately taking responsibility. So far, taking responsibility is not an evidenced hallmark of The Obama administration.
The Senate resumed consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 1940, the flood insurance bill. and is expected to resumed consideration of the farm bill, S. 3240 and to began voting on amendments to the bill today.
Yesterday, a "Trouble Ahead" image and question was asked: Will The Senate Confirm Progressive Constructionist To The Appeals Court? Well, the answer proved to be yes. But it was done under the cloak of an unanimous consent requested by Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona). President Obama's nomination of Arizona Supreme Court Judge Andrew Hurwitz to be a judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was confirmed. Barring Judge Hurwitz's values and beliefs being supernaturally changed, we now have another revisionist judge is in the pipeline for the US Supreme Court and has presently joined other revisionist judges on the 9th Circuit Court.of Appeals.
The above Senate confirmation process proved one again that politics over substantive values reigns at present in the US Senate. It also depicts disappointingly that the Republicans advanced a poor candidate for president in 2008 thus giving us the current president and his administration. How Sarah Palin even stood with John McCain is beyond comprehension? It evidences her willing to do anything to save America even lowering herself to support a candidate who is nominally a Republican in all areas except potentially national defense. Proving once again that if the bar is lowered low enough, we are eventually are overrun by progressive socialists and worse.
In the news we continue to hear more about attacks by the left on the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.
According to Talking Points Memo, “Activists hoping to stanch the flow of outside cash into political campaigns are bypassing Congress and making a new appeal: to donors’ bottom lines. Resigned to the fact that legislative checks on spending are a pipe dream so long as the House is under GOP control, open-government advocates are pressing on with a campaign to pressure corporations — freed up to spend unlimited money on election ads by the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling — into bringing company discussions on political spending to light, or do away with it entirely. On Wednesday, labor and activist groups are gathering outside retail giant Target’s shareholder meeting in Chicago to demand the company adopt a resolution to renounce any spending on campaigns ads.”
And a Los Angeles Times story complains, “When the Supreme Court ruled that corporations had the right to political free speech, it set loose a tidal wave of campaign money that helped elect a new Congress in 2010 and is now reshaping the presidential race. . . . The rise of ‘super PACs,’ which may raise and spend unlimited amounts so long as they do so independently of a candidate, has allowed close aides to candidates to set up supposedly independent committees that have raised huge amounts, primarily from wealthy individuals. The PACs have spent most of their money on negative ads attacking the opposition. That unlimited fundraising was set in motion by Citizens United, but came to full flower after the subsequent Court of Appeals decision. . . . Exasperated defenders of the campaign funding laws see the Citizens United decision as a historic blunder that has all but destroyed not just the 1940s limits on campaign spending by corporations and unions, but the post-Watergate reforms as well. This week . . . they are asking the justices to reconsider the Citizens United ruling by taking up a case from Montana that raises some of the same issues.”
With so much controversy surrounding Citizens United and with so many threats to the political speech the First Amendment has protected since our Founders ratified it, on Friday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch will address these issues in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute
Tags: Washington, D.C, Congress, US House, US Senate, Eric Holder, Gun Running, Contempt of Congress, Senate Confirmation, John McCain, Progressive Judge, Andrew Hurwitz. Attacks, Free Speech, God Save Us Form Idiots To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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