Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Why should we expect that ANY "Independent" Counsel selected by Eric Holder will be anything other than another instrument of cover-up?

Lamar Smith has written President Obama a letter.

The "reasonable" New York Times, which has largely ignored the Gunwalker Scandal, reports:

Representative Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to President Obama asking him to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether Mr. Holder committed perjury in testimony about the investigation, known as Operation Fast and Furious, at a hearing in May.


Now Lamar knows, as does Congressman Issa and Senator Grassley, that any DOJ-centered "independent" investigation of Gunwalker is going to do three things:

1. Delay the search for the truth. The DOJ Office of Inspector General's "investigation" is a poorly disguised delaying tactic of the cover-up. Why should we expect that any other DOJ-centered investigation would be anything other than the black hole that the OIG "investigation" is? And, mindful of the truism that personnel is policy, where will such an "independent counsel" get his or her staffers? Why from the DOJ "professional" staff of course, who are supposed by "non-political." I've got some ocean-front condos in Winston County, Alabama, to sell you if you believe that one.

2. Hamstring any further Congressional investigations by his own or other committees looking into the foreign policy or other executive branch issues raised by the Gunwalker Plot. The "independent" counsel will insist upon it.

3. Get Lamar and other reluctant GOP "leadership" old bulls off the hook politically, especially as it applies to the White House and State Department links to the Gunwalker Scandal. Recall that the Issa Committee has been reluctant to take on either the White House or the State Department in their investigations so far. One argument is made that this is necessary to slowly build a DOJ-centered case because White House spinmeisters will leap on any over-reach, decrying it as a politically inspired "rush to judgment." Another is that they are being too cute by half, dragging the investigation out long enough to cause maximum damage to the re-election chances of Barack Obama. The introduction of a DOJ-centered "independent" counsel, however, could wreck their timing and put off any reckoning with the Gunwalker conspirators until after the election -- if there IS any reckoning to be expected from such a hopelessly compromised effort.

One clue that the GOP leadership lacks the taste for aggressive investigation of this scandal is the fact that, long after there has been evidence that this was a much larger program involving other agencies (and therefore requiring a "guiding hand" from the White House) THERE HAVE BEEN NO OTHER COMMITTEES LOOKING INTO THIS SCANDAL. No dragging Janet Napolitano before them under oath and demanding answers, no Hillary Clinton, no heads of the FBI, DEA, ICE or Border Patrol. Nothing.

If they had, one might excuse them the standard request for a DOJ-centered special prosecutor. Then the move would look less like just another maneuver by one party of the permanent governing class to give the other a little breather so as not to upset the whole apple-cart.

As then Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson once famously told a Senator who was trying to amend one of his carely-crafted bills, "Don't spit in the soup, we've all got to eat."

There is a mechanism by which the House can conduct its own special investigation utilizing the House Sergeant at Arms office. Gun Owners of America has suggested this to congressional leaders and they have, to date, ignored it.

Absent any other aggressive committee investigations on the gamut of issues raised by Gunwalker and other agencies, and absent a House-centered special investigation, this letter from Lamar Smith looks like exactly what it is: an invitation to Barack Obama to get a little breathing room on the Gunwalker Scandal and to prolong the cover-up.

Before Smith and the GOP leadership hands over responsibility for investigating this scandal to the same people who perpetrated it, they ought to make a little bigger show of using the power that they have. That they haven't is a measure of how much contempt they have for the folks who put them in the majority in the House.

They don't think you're smart enough to spot the ruse, and they surely don't think they'll pay a political price for it.

12 comments:

Ashrak said...

This is exactly why I have been hammering on John Boehner.

I believe the front that needs to be opened up is the one focusing on his silence that can only truly be viewed as participation in the cover up - or at the very least the slow playing of it in order to run out the clock on the One Termer.

The plan being, keep as much locked up for as long as possible, hoping beyond hope that a change come 2012 election's cycle saves the day so that they can all walk away scott free.

I agree that the GOP is showing huge disrespect for, and to, the people who sent them to Majority in the House. John Boehner is leading that effort with his silence and refusal to use the tools that were so clearly put in his hands in 2010.

I warned prior to the 2010 election that putting eggs in the Establishment GOP basket was a mistake and that statement is being vindicated by the actions of the GOP Majority in that body daily. From continued debt creating deficit spending to protecting Barry on a number of fronts, the American people are being gamed.

And the GOP is just as guilty of it as the Democrats. Defenders of the republic, of Liberty itself, the GOP Establishment party membership are not.

John Boehner should be the focus, along with Issa and Grassley. If they want to run interference for Barry then they should have to pay the price for doing so. If they want to continue to be his protector, so be it, they can go down with him - and by their own choice.

John Boehner, your Speakership is proving to be just as,m if not more, corrupt than Nancy Pelosi's!
For shame! Shame Shame Shame!

WarriorClass III said...

Lamar Smith and Darrel Issa had better wake up. This country is burning and they will burn with it. In fact the entire Republican Party had better wake up - this is no longer business as usual. Put a RINO up for President and all hell will break loose. Count on it. Continue the Cover Up and all hell will break loose. This is no time to tiptoe around, Republitards, or you will burn with the guilty.

WarriorClass
III

Bad Cyborg said...

"They don't think you're smart enough to spot the ruse,"

OK, so now yo are beginning to realize what I've known all along. I coulda told you this was likely to happen.

"and they surely don't think they'll pay a political price for it."

Spot on! 100% correctamundo!!! They could not care less what we the lilliputians think/want. As long as the majority in Smith's district don't know/care about GunWalker he's happy.

Now, somebody show me me how the system ISN'T well and truly and irrevocably Futzed Up Beyond Any/All Repair.

Metaphorically, the operating system is totally corrupted. Only thing to do now is wipe the hard disk and reload the operating system. On a computer it takes hours of patient work to do that. For the republic it will require years and an ocean of blood - most of it innocent.

Mangus Colorados said...

On the inside the Republican Party talk show this moring, "Bill Bennett" talks to elites only show.

Inside Republican Party Senate leader John Cornyn of Texas.
"We will need to work with Democrat Senator Lehey (aka leakey of security info) for a Senate Judicary Committee hearing. aka
Let the Democrats put the fix in and that will keep our Republican hands clean.

Cornyn went on the say, "My good buddy from my home town Lamar Smith of the House Judicary Committee will get together and seek to find a solution.

The only way Holder, Obama, etal are going to get away with this is with the help of the Republican leadership.

The Republican Leadership is brain dead and full on to the slave labor the cartels are running the drugs with.

As Hank Jr. said the Democrats are on the other side full. We have to change the leadership of the Republican Party if possible and fast.

The next step will be the long road of a third party large enough to have the 1/3 or so needed to block the worst the R's and D's come up with.

If it was easy Harry Reid would do it.

Anonymous said...

talk about a dirty rat guarding the cheese, jimminie christmas Lamar is either real, real stupid or putting on a dog and pony show for the electorate.

Anonymous said...

[T]his letter from Lamar Smith looks like exactly what it is: an invitation to Barack Obama to get a little breathing room on the Gunwalker Scandal and to prolong the cover-up.--Mike

There is an alternative explanation to be considered.

From the http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/10/transcript-of-darrell-issa-on-anderson.html link:

So as this cover-up and this game of spin-and-delay continues, the problem is IT'S ONLY CREATING PROBLEMS THAT DIDN'T INITIALLY EXIST. Initially, this was a dumb program that led to very adverse consequences. Now it’s about a cover-up, about deception, about slow-rolling discovery of this and other committees.--Darrell Issa

Perhaps this is a deliberate strategy of delay so as to allow the "problems that did not initially exist" to grow worse.

Revolutionary defeatism posits, "Worse is better." I may be giving Republican strategists too much credit, but it is possible that Issa is playing his cards better than his critics realize.

MALTHUS

Anonymous said...

Yup.

You called it the way I'm starting to see it.

Oh, Oh, Oh! I'm on your side.. Vote for me! Vote for us! If you just put us back in power, we'll fix everything! (that we want to)

It sure looks like the constitution hasn't got a prayer, or a friend, in DC.

bondmen said...

Mike,

This is so very well written I couldn't help myself and I hit your tip jar one more time. I'm beginning to believe the more I give the deeper the investigation and better the revelatory prose becomes.

Why have the Democrats become known as the evil party and the Republicans as the stupid party? Because when they get together to do something bi-partisan, it results in legislation that's both evil and stupid. Could it be simply, properly analyzed historical evidence?

Anonymous said...

The letter from the Hon Lamar Smith does not appear to be requesting a special counsel to to take over the investigation of operation "Gunwalker", but rather it appears to be asking for the President to appoint a special counsel to look at whether or not Holder committed perjury, or permitted perjury to occur...

Dedicated_Dad said...

Excuse me, Mister Fox?
I was wondering....
Someone's been raiding my henhouse.
Would you please help me find the miscreant and punish him?
Here are the keys to the henhouse - will you be needing anything else?

redhawk said...

It's high time these RINOs learn that we are disgusted with their stupidity and failure to uphold the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Holder clearly commited perjury and others clearly participated in this program, specifically Clinton, Napalitano, Obama and Holder, plus a substantial of other "figureheads". These people MUST be held acountable and if the Republicans refuse to demand and acheive accountability, we the people should demand their heads!! I for one would LOVE to lead and/or participate in abundant civil "unrest" so as to remove these people by any means we have available. I haven't forgotten about Holders participation in the deaths of 85 women and children just because he didn't like their religion. He must go or else.

rexxhead said...

"...a measure of how much contempt they have for the folks who put them in the majority in the House."

But suggest to any of those who voted GOP back then that the GOP is not as "on your side" as they would like you to believe, and out come all the "wasted vote" arguments. I hereby toss a yellow "BS" flag onto the field.

When the GOP starts losing elections because some 3rd-party crank sucked away four times, six times, nine times the margin of victory, the GOP will get religion.

Not until.

Worried what kind of SCOTUS judge BHO might appoint? Let me give you heartburn: imagine what kind of SCOTUS judge Mitt Romney might appoint. For an example of how that works, see Kelo v New London, or read http://nisus.home.mindspring.com/politics/TheOldOrderChangeth.html (and weep).

All you "Repubs are the guys in white hats" cats better figure it out pretty quick. You're running out of lives.