Curmudgeon's Corner

The Executive Privilege Gambit

Posted by Al Campbell on June 20, 2012

U.S., Political, Quality of Life

Well, there is obviously some thing or maybe even many things that President Obama does not want revealed concerning Fast and Furious.  His asserting Executive Privilege this morning to prevent Eric Holder from being forced to testify before Congress makes one draw the obvious conclusion.  Something is contained in the papers requested that make someone look bad.

We can speculate about who would be politically harmed by these documents, and we can speculate about why that person or those people would suffer damage.

I suspect this goes to the very top of the Obama Administration, otherwise Eric Holder would’ve been told to fall on his sword and resign.  Holder serves at the pleasure of the President as do all appointees whether confirmed by Congress or not.

If this didn’t go to the top, with this being high political season, the President would not have hesitated to tell Holder to jump ship and take the blame; and Holder would’ve done so since he has been a ‘good soldier’ taking any number of wounds for his President.

Given that this use of Executive Privilege just begs the Republicans to make use of it over and over during the remaining months of the campaign tells us much about the damage full disclosure would’ve been likely to cause.  That the President didn’t think he could overcome disclosure and took the route he knew was going to be problematic for him during the campaign tells us that there is really a smoking gun in the documents, and that it probably has the President’s finger prints all over it.

I will be very surprised if the Republicans in Congress don’t begin to demand that the President release the documents in their entirety.  I will be very surprised if the Republicans in Congress do not greatly expand their demands for Holder’s resignation.

This has all the earmarks of a gift that will keep on giving during the race to the Whitehouse and may yet result in information being found out that will amplify the story.

The Imperial Presidency is going to take significant hits for this use of Executive Privilege, and rightfully so given the seriousness of the original decision that permitted the guns to ‘walk’ and then to be brought back over our border and used to kill a Border agent.

If the President thought that his use of Executive Privilege would damp down the criticism and speculation, he will likely learn that he was sorely wrong; and, it might be that straw that at least makes the camel stumble along that path back to the Whitehouse.  The loss of Border agents is more than a Democrat or a Republican thing.  It is an American thing and rightfully so.