White House refers to Issa's analysis of Fast & Furious as 'absurd'

[WillowTree]

A challenge to President Obama using executive privilege in the investigation into the federal government’s failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation was met Tuesday with a strong White House response in which a spokesman referred to the probe as “absurd.”

The challenge was made Monday in a letter from GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He suggested in part that executive privilege was invoked because high-level White House officials were perhaps involved in the Justice Department operation and that the administration has failed to provide case law supporting its decision to invoke the privilege.

“The congressman’s analysis has as much merit as his absurd contention that Operation Fast and Furious was created in order to promote gun control. Our position is consistent with executive branch legal precedent for the past three decades,” said White House spokesman Eric Schultz. “The courts have routinely … affirmed the right of the executive branch to invoke the privilege even when White House documents are not involved


Read more: White House refers to Issa's analysis of Fast & Furious as 'absurd' | Fox News








then show us the documents asswarps.

 

[kwc57]

I would too, if I had something to hide and nobody else to blame it on.

 

[waltky]

Granny wantin' to know who's runnin' dis country?...

Obama Contributor, Who Helped Enact Assault-Weapons Ban, Ran ‘Fast and Furious’
June 29, 2012 – Dennis K. Burke, who as a lawyer for the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 1990s was a key player behind the enactment of the 1994 assault-weapons ban, and who then went on to become Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano’s chief of staff, and a contributor to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential primary campaign, and then a member of Obama's transition team focusing on border-enforcement issues, ended up in the Obama administration as the U.S. attorney in Arizona responsible for overseeing Operation Fast and Furious.

When Obama nominated Burke to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, Burke told the Arizona Capitol Times he believed he understood what the president and his attorney general wanted him to do. “There’s clearly been direction provided already by President Obama and Attorney General Holder as to what they want to be doing, and this is an office that is at the center of the issues of border enforcement,” said Burke. Over the course of several days, CNSNews.com left multiple telephone messages with Burke for comment on this story. He did not respond.

Dennis K. Burke has had a long career working as an aide and political appointee to Democratic elected officials. From 1989 to 1994, he was a counsel for the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, working in that capacity for several years on an assault-weapons ban, which was finally enacted on Sept. 13, 1994 as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. That act expired on Sept. 13, 2004. (See NYT: Dennis Burke, Sen. DeConcini, Weapons Ban.pdf) From 1994-95, Burke served in the Clinton Justice Department in the Office of Legislative Affairs, and in 1997-99, he was an assistant U.S. attorney in Arizona. From 1999 to 2003, Burke was chief deputy and special assistant to Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano. In 2003, when Napolitano became governor, Burke became her chief of staff. He stayed in that job until the fall of 2008, when he left to help Democratic political campaigns, including then-Sen. Obama’s presidential campaign.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that on Jan. 9, 2008, while working as Gov. Napolitano’s chief of staff, Burke contributed $2,000 to then-Sen Obama’s presidential primary campaign. Since 1997, according to FEC records, Burke has contributed a total of $16,350 to various Democratic candidates. After Obama was elected in November 2008, Burke joined his presidential transition team, serving on the Immigration Policy Working Group. Eight days before Obama’s inauguration, on Jan. 12, 2009--while Burke was working on the transition team--Obama met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C. At that meeting, Obama “pledged” to take action to stop the flow of guns from the United States to Mexico.

Obama also decided to put Burke’s old boss, incoming Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, in a leadership role in making the gun-trafficking problem a top priority. “President-elect Obama expressed support for efforts in the border states in both the United States and Mexico to eradicate drug-related violence and stop the flow of guns and cash,” incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement at the time. “He told President Calderón that he intends to ask the Secretary of Homeland Security to lead an effort to increase information sharing to strengthen those efforts. He pledged to take more effective action from the United States to stem the flow of arms from the United States to Mexico.” When Napolitano became Homeland Security secretary, Burke moved from the Obama transition team to become her senior adviser. On Feb. 25, 2009, a little more than a month after Obama had made his “pledge” to Calderon, Napolitano testified in the House Homeland Security Committee. She stressed that stopping the flow of guns to Mexico was a top priority of the Obama administration and key focus of her work.

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Democrats demand House reprimand Issa over 'Fast and Furious'
June 28, 2012, House Democrats on Thursday sought to punish Rep. Darrell Issa, the man leading the investigation into President Obama's administration, demanding that the chamber reprimand him for the way he's operated.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas Democrat, offered a resolution that would have put the House on record as condemning the way Mr. Issa has run the House oversight committee.

The GOP, which controls the chamber, shunted the resolution aside, saying it would take the matter up later. Mr. Issa has brought a resolution holding Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress, and the House is expected to pass it later Thursday.

An earlier test vote on the rule for debating the contempt citation passed overwhelmingly, with 15 Democrats joining 239 Republicans in voting to bring the matter to the House floor.

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[CrusaderFrank]

CJ Roberts agreed with Obama's assessment and added "Issa is a mean old poopyhead"