Texas GOP Vote

It is disturbing that this Administration continues to do anything necessary to keep the truth about Fast and Furious from the American people. It seems the Administration has something to hide. Congress has the obligation to pursue the truth because the Department of Justice refuses to tell the truth. The Legislative Branch should not have to sue the Executive Branch for documents it is entitled to see in the first place. This Administration, the self-proclaimed “most transparent” in history, has gone to great lengths (even invoking Executive Privilege) to make sure

Texas Congressman Ted Poe speaks on the House Floor regarding Fast and Furious and Obama's use of executive privilege:

Mr. Speaker, the government continues to hide the evidence of the Fast and Furious gun running scheme.

The attorney general says he doesn’t know who authorized this reckless and deadly operation, but he still conceals documents to show what occurred.

Historian Kevin Gutzman discusses “executive privilege.” A few snippets:

The Executive Branch was intended by the Constitution’s authors and ratifiers to be precisely that – the executor of policies made by Congress, not a competing power center empowered to thwart Congress’s attempts to gain information.

If the Executive can simply refuse to allow Executive Branch personnel to testify before Congress and refuse to pursue congressional contempt referrals, Congress will be altogether unable to perform its legislative functions. It will be subordinate to the Presidency in the way that Parliament was subordinate to English kings before the establishment of Parliament’s unlimited power to investigate in the 17th century….

The House Oversight Committee has just passed a Resolution 23 to 17 holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for not releasing Fast and Furious documents.

The contempt charge now goes to the entire House for a vote on holding Holder in contempt before it is sent to prosecution.

The committee even passed an amendment with many reasons why Obama's executive privilege is not valid.

The Committee hearing was very interesting. The Democrats, like Reps Towns and Rep Norton, tried to say that the Committee should give more time to Eric Holder because Holder is willing to work with the committee to release some documents.   Read more »

It has been eighteen months since the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and the Attorney General claims he still doesn’t know who authorized the reckless and deadly Operation Fast and Furious. He maintains that it wasn’t him. But he still won’t produce the documents to Congress to prove it.

President Obama, noticeably silent about Operation Fast and Furious all along has claimed that he was never aware or involved. But in an eleventh hour maneuver just minutes before Congress began the process to hold the Attorney General in Contempt of Congress, President Obama, leader of the self-proclaimed “most transparent Administration in history”, asserted his Executive Privilege to withhold documents from Congress.   Read more »