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The Spectacle Blog
President Barack Obama intervened today in an attempt to avert a House Oversight Committee vote on contempt action against Attornery General Eric Holder. Obama asserted executive privilege over the documents related to Fast and Furious. Previously, the Justice Department really gave no legal rationale for not handing them over.
While this may suceed in keeping the documents in legal limbo, there are two problems with this approach. The first is that this hasn’t stopped Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa from pressing ahead with the contempt vote. The second problem is that this has gotten the mainstream media to cover Operation Fast and Furious, at least in passing.
One of the administration’s best assets in managing this story has been that Fast and Furious was effectively ghetto-ized in the conservative media. Townhall’s Katie Pavlich, the Daily Caller’s Matthew Boyle, and just a few others were doing most of the reporting on Fast and Furious. The mainstream media hasn’t come close to catching up, but Obama’s action has compelled them to recognize that the scandal at least exists.
So a Republican-controlled House could in theory still vote to find Holder in contempt of Congress. And more news outlets are paying attention to the story. So this move may backfire.
View all comments (7) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/06/20/obamas-fast-and-furious-blunde
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Jackson | 6.20.12 @ 11:53AM
A third, and perhaps the biggest blunder: Up to now Holder has insisted Obama new nothing about F&F. Executive privilege applies only to the President and his office. By invoking E.P. Obama has implicated himself in F&F and by extension gives evidence that Holder has been lying.
Lullabys Legends and Lies| 6.20.12 @ 12:34PM
This guy's a Thug, his Administration is full of Thugs, so this comes as no surprise to anybody, because Thugs act this way!! Obama knew about this all along, hell it was probably his idea to begin with!! Will the MSM go nuts by the President invoking Executive Privilege on this, like they would if a Republican was in office? Probably not!! They're in the bag for him, but the good news is, they're more of us, then there are of them!! And we're going to vote him out!! Now all we've got to do is, we've got to survive until November/January!!
CJW| 6.20.12 @ 4:53PM
It is good he invoked EP. This means the issue will be in court, and it will be in the news--another campaign issue.
sotto voce| 6.20.12 @ 7:10PM
I agree the MSM has been predictably derelict in its silence over F&F, but Sharyl Attkisson at CBS did do a terrific investigative reporting job on the scandal. To borrow Rush Limbaugh's phrase, her work may have been a "random act of journalism" and it was pretty much ignored by other outlets, but she deserves credit for covering something the rest of the MSM has doggedly ignored for over two years.
Quartermaster| 6.20.12 @ 8:52PM
Issa should not worry about a "backlash" on this matter. There are things that should be pursued and F&F is one of them. Holder, and anyone else that touched it, should go to jail for it. For a very long time.
Thom| 6.20.12 @ 8:53PM
"So this move may backfire."
This only matters if there are legal consequences for this. The Democrat Media will continue to ignore this, call it political maneuvering by the Republocrats or continue to refer to this as a “botched sting operation” which it was not. Everyone knows what this operation was about and the who, what and when is what is being hidden. This was criminal in nature and such operations don’t happen without a log of signatures and approvals. You can’t lone wolf this kind of scam.
spike59| 6.21.12 @ 6:22AM
Barack Milhous Obama