The letter indicating as much can be found here. John Richardson has the excerpt.
UPDATE: Joe has a few words about Eric Holder’s “Extraordinary offer.”
UPDATE: The Belmont Club on Obama invoking Executive Privilege:
Invoking executive privilege was probably a bad move. It won’t be evident right away. But it will be as time goes on. The President has taken the political combat into very expensive territory in energy management terms. He has neither the altitude nor the fuel to protect either Holder or himself in the long run.
Here’s hoping this backfires. His invoking of Executive Privilege seems to be making Fast and Furious a bigger story, which will get more eyeballs on the scandal. A real good question is what the White House is hiding. If this really was just a botched operation hatched by a field office, why the stonewalling?
Obama’s invocation of executive privilege is the top story on CNN.com right now. I’m sure many people are now reading about F&F for the first time.
Also, doesn’t invoking EP admit that F&F goes all the way to the top?
Basically, yes. This could be a definite win-win for Congressmen Issa and Grassley. EP is there to protect confidential communications between Department staff and the White-House-slash-President. Invoking it has two distinct implications I can immediately see:
– Either he has no involvement in F&F and is just trying to protect AG Holder, in which case he’s aiding and abetting the stonewalling of a Congressional investigation and is just as guilty of obstruction and contempt (among other things) as Holder, or
– He’s just effectively admitted that he HAS had communications about F&F, after telling Congress (repeatedly) that he’s only heard of it through the media, in which case he’s just as guilty of obstruction and perjury (among other things) as Holder.
If there’s anything else, I’m excited to hear it. If I’m wrong, let me know.
For as long as we have been paying attention to this story, the one element that has been missing as far as the greater public is concerned, is the suspicion that F&F was very deliberate and with a nefarious motive — to create a pretext for gun control — and not just a stupid blunder. People are accustomed to and expect stupid government blunders, which is why (IMO) this story has had no traction with anyone except gun rights advocates.
As I’m watching and listening to the current coverage (networks, NPR) I am still not hearing the fundamental fault presented as anything more than a stupid blunder. If there is an increase in public interest, I’m afraid all it will amount to is puzzlement over why what appears to be a dog-bites-man story is being made such a big deal. Absent the appearances of nefarious motives for the entire program, most people will return to disinterest.
This is probably a bad analogy, but this is somewhat like Clinton’s impeachment involving the Lewinsky affair. That perjury was the key question interested no one but Clinton-haters; most people saw him being impeached for getting an illicit BJ, but thought that was no big deal.
I suspect you’re right about this. I still thing Obama is mistaken to draw more attention to the scandal, but it is pretty easy to dismiss it as incompetence rather than malice.
I agree. If they’d gotten several low-level people to take the fall early, it would be blown over by now.
Too many yes-men, maybe?
Since the NRA said this vote counted, I wondered if any of the Dems would care… well, turns out some aren’t/weren’t rated F.
Rep. Edolphus Towns (NY-10) F
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14) F
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.)
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (OH-10) F
Rep. John Tierney (MA-6) F
Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (MO-1) F
Rep. Stephen Lynch (MA-9) F
Rep. Jim Cooper (TN-5) C
Rep. Gerald Connolly (VA-11) F
Rep. Mike Quigley (IL-5) F
Rep. Danny Davis (IL-7) F
Rep. Bruce Braley (IA-1) D
Rep. Peter Welch (VT-At-Large) A
Rep. John Yarmuth (KY-3) F
Rep. Christopher Murphy (CT-5) F
Rep. Jackie Speier (CA-12) F