What if They Held a Contempt Party and Nobody Came?
Leadership of the Stupid Party has intentionally scheduled the vote on holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress — he’ll be the first cabinet official in history ever so rebuked — on the only day when no one will be paying any attention. By the time the vote comes later today, the media will be abuzz with the Supreme Court’s monumental Obamacare ruling, regardless of what the justices decide.
The oversight committee headed by Chairman Darrell Issa (R, CA) has meticulously pursued the Fast & Furious investigation for well over a year. Rep. Issa has been extraordinarily careful to pursue information doggedly. He has periodically produced extensive reports (see, e.g., here and here) to keep the public fully informed about the astonishing extent of Justice Department stonewalling, to show that the committee did not conduct a partisan witch hunt.
Plainly, we have reached this historic point because the Justice Department and the administration refuse to explain to the country how and why they came to employ a depravedly indifferent “gunwalking” scheme that routed at least 1400 firearms in the direction of violent Mexican drug gangs, foreseeably resulting in scores of shootings, including the murders of at least one and likely two federal agents — Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and, it appears, Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata. The president of the United States — whose national security apparatus cannot shovel enough classified information about national defense secrets to the New York Times when the objective is to help the Obama reelection campaign — has bogusly invoked executive privilege in a brass-knuckles effort to shield Justice Department deliberations from Congress … as well as, perhaps, communications about Fast & Furious exchanged in other corners of the administration.
Who are these “independents” and “moderates” who would be anything other than appalled at the idea of handing firearms to drug gangs? I cannot for the life of me see how anyone would see this as anything but the most extreme, separated from reality idea possible.
The gun rights folks think that guns should be in the hands of law-abiding citizens. The drug legalization folks believe that legalization will reduce drug related violence. The problem for the Republicans is getting the details of this case before the American people, particularly those who don’t pay as much attention to politics as those who might read this. It is only because people don’t know what is going on that it is possible to spin this as “just politics”. This isn’t David Ricardo explaining why some jobs should be done somewhere else.
It may not be as central to the concerns of the Republic as the economy and it may not require the full attention of the Congress all the time. But anyone who screws up this badly should expect to be called to account for it.
Dear Republican politicians, If the media isn’t saying bad and mean things about you, we know you aren’t the job we elected you to do.
WE Are watching you.
A Republican Voter
John Boehner & Co have to be replaced. The stupid party indeed.
The GOP leadership is held in contempt by the people.
Who are these “independents” and “moderates”?
They are those who still believe NYT, WaPo, and the TV networks are non-partisan. In other words, they believe in the tooth fairy. The GOP leadership is the toothless fairy, ugly, stupid, and useless.
…But with OH! Such a nice tan! (And the nicotine baritone is oh-so-sexy)
Seriously…
“Leaders”?
Hardly.
I see the opposite here. If the Court strikes down Obamacare today as unconstitutional, then all the Dems in the house can see some very loud handwriting on the wall. “You guys went over the cliff for me on healthcare and now it’s been ruled Unconstitutional. Now I want you to vote to cover up my AG’s illegal actions as the truth is about to come out.” It sounds to me like today could be D-Day for the Democrat party. They are under seige by the truth on two fronts and I suspect a swarm of them are about to change sides under the onslaught.
Well that didn’t happen, but on the other hand, the coverage will be determined by the actions of the other Stupid Party. The Congressional Black Caucus has already threatened a walkout. That is going to be really hard to resist no putting on TV.
“Party of Stupid”? I’m not sure why you insist on being so generous in your assessment.
Quislings is a word which isn’t used enough, let’s bring it back.
Everyone please look at the calendar. Note that July 4th is next Wednesday — so that entire next week and much of the one after is vaporized as Congress skips out of DC. The vote-scheduling for today Thursday is therefore a momentum play on the part of the GOP leadership — as well as an effort to ensure maximum voting participation in the House, instead of risking out-of-town absences on a Friday. Timing vis-a-vis the SCOTUS release on Obamacare is/was something wholly out of GOP control obviously, so in the larger (and calmer) view, there is nothing in the least bit stupid about the how & when of scheduling this contempt vote.
Hmmmm, y’know Danny, that actually makes sense. IF Congress starts their vacation early tomorrow. Right now everybody’s still in town. I don’t know how long Congress takes off for the 4th.
Politics and beanbag but it sure as hell ain’t rocket science. I think there are quite a few professions out there that go to great lengths to have us peasants believe their jobs are incredibly difficult. As far as I have learned in my years on this planet, politics is a brutally simple game–using the logic and reasoning dynamics of the schoolyard. International relations seem even simpler–especially when you’re dealing with bad actors.
What I’ve been seeing continuously over several decades is how Republicans on the Hill go around in a permanent defensive cringe in continual terror of the MSM. Furthermore, (and/or)when they achieve the presidency they immediately prostrate themselves to try and buy the love of their sword enemies (Newt and Reagan would be obvious exceptions).
Why these Old Bulls can’t get it through their thick heads that the MSM and the Dems are out to get them no matter what they do, even after years and years in politics is quite simply beyond me. I have read the theory that many more Republicans come from a hail-fellow-well-met business background where negotiating-in-good-faith and good relations with co-workers are valued whereas most Dems come from the activist/advocacy professions where the ends justify any means and everything is a fight till you win.
The most you can expect to win from the Dems is their fear and grudging respect. And you only get that by kicking them in the ‘nads at every opportunity.
Because Boner has no balls?
Between the cowardly idiocy of the GOP and the anti-Constitutional nature of the SCOTUS it is clear that any notion of a government of enumerated powers is long past. To succeed in this world one must be another crony of whomever is in power.
We are all Greeks now in this country. So if I am going to be a Greek then I will be a successful Greek. Donations to only Democrats from now on. Republicans and conservatives are utter wastes of time.
The success of spinning this as “just politics” is assured by pointing to the fact of the cowardly scheduling/timing of the vote. This is the lamest sort of “own goal” one could execute.
It’s daily becoming clearer that Iconoclast’s thinking is probably correct. The guys in the GOP have no idea how to play this game, and certainly can’t handle the wins they achieve, if the past 20 years in Congress were any indication. Seriously, how is it that these guys pretty much only managed the idiocy of Medicare Part D as their signature “health reform” from Hillarycare to now? Was there really nothing else they could’ve done to get in front of this issue in the past 20 years? And only when Obamacare is before Congress or already passed do they come forth with their proposals? What an embarrassment: they don’t deserve to win.
Now, to sit back and await the Argentina-style crash. Give it 10 years, it’ll happen.
Voorst, I think it’s at least partly generational. I would not trust an Republican congresscritter who predates the ’94 Revolution (or at least the Reagan Revolution) For fifty years Capitol Hill was Happy Times On The Old (Democrat) Plantation and Republicans were happy to bow and scrape for crumbs.
It really seemed to me after the first few heady years of Newt’s revolution He simply allowed the Dems to file endless ethics charges against him, without hitting back. Finally he was neutered and deposed after about two years then his colleagues quickly went back to passive mode and for the next decade they gradually lost their vision and drive and eventually were handed a massive defeat by an electorate that had grown fed up with their shenanigans and pocket-lining. Of course the MSM had everything to do with amplifying this but let’s admit that the rules are different for each side. Conservative voters don’t accept pandering and corruption.
GWB may have had his heart more-or-less in the right place but he proved a terrible naif and actually took a great personal pride in his refusal to get his knuckles bloody, allowing the usual suspects to spend years taking endless potshots at him. He may not have cared, but his allies and the general public were not so resilient and eventually started to believe the endless accusations. In the second half of his administration he started picking fights with his own side (Harriet Miers, Immigration “Reform”). Just as Rush once expressed his despair at the man’s passivity and refusal to defend himself and his own cabinet members from scurrilous charges, I grew royally sick of him.
If you choose to still believe, I would suggest no trusting anyone who has been in DC for more than 10 years. Power is addictive and DC is where all the power in this country reside. The provincial governments–no longer sovereign states–exist merely to implement the mandates of the solons in DC. All three branches of the federal government are part of this concentration of power. Short of violent revolution, DC will never give up their power though. The best you can do is voting for go-slow Republicans like the Bush’s or Romney who will appoint useful tools like Souter, Brewer, and Roberts to the SCOTUS. The end game is the same, it just will take 20 years longer.
As for the next 10 years before the inevitable crash(es), the answer is to grab everything you can with as cynical an attitude as possible until that point. Donate at least $500 (better even more) to Obama–you know they keep track of who donated–as well as to the DNC. Don’t bother much with state Dems–they are pretty irrelevant. Find some huge boondoggle to sell services/expertise into–green is over, but the takeover of healthcare will provide endless opportunities for graft, extortion, and crony capitalism for the clever and cynical. I am thinking of promoting a public/private partnership of big data analytics/recommender/cluster identification for mining health care data anonymously–a steaming pile of crap, but one that can generate millions in revenue. Millions that can be converted into currency like a German Mark, or Swiss Franc and safely stored offshore for the inevitable crash.
Cynical? Yes. But at this point all I care about is my family. Everyone else can go to h*ll.
The real question is what if they pass a law and no one complies?
Andrew:
“Boehner should … leave the strategizing to Issa.”
Sheesh! That’s exactly what Beohner has been doing throughout this process.
You, of all people, should recognize that the contempt citation is not the endgame here. Issa, himself, has been scrupulously trying to avoid precipitating a full blown political circus, because he knows that it could, in fact, derail his investigation. His approach has been methodical and incremental, because he is determined to lay DoJ’s smoking gun out on the table, so that the actual evidence cannot be spun away.
So, I’d suggest that you leave the strategizing to Issa too.
Conservatives’ feel-good, knee-jerk, righteous indignation over Boehner’s putative cowardice fully qualifies them for membership in the stupid party too. It’s like watching a bragging rights competition over who has the worst tin ear for politics, in a game called… Politics. Boehner is no Tea Party Republican, but he’s given his Freshmen Members more influential seats at the table than any Speaker in the history of the House. I’m all for keeping the fires lit, but give him a little credit. We’re fighting a long war, and he is not the enemy.
As Rush says, “Democrats know how to win, Republicans know how to lose”. IF Republicans take the House, Senate and Whitehouse they must find the courage of the 56 men who Pledged their Lives, their Fortunes, and their Sacred Honors.
Many of those 56 men felt the wrath of King George III and lost lives, fortunes, but not honor.
Republicans, if they undertake to reconstruct governemnt, will face the wrath of power-hungry leftists and those living on public dole at the expense of taxpayers. They will be vilified by the Liberal media, and many will not servive their first term in office. But they may save the nation.
July 4th, our nation’s birthday is a few days away, take this time to read the entire Declaration of Independence and focus on the complaints against King George’s government and see the parallels between then and now.
Understand why we fought to free ourselves from England, and understand the difference between being a citizen and a subject.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the contempt proceeding is just a mere step.
Whether or not they get media coverage won’t really change anything.
Anybody who peeked in at MSNBC last night knows that the lies about “Fast and Furious” are as thick as duck pluckers wick. Madcow was selling the line, from the Fortune magazine story, that no guns walked and the whistleblower lied. Even the DOJ gave up on that back in November when they backed away from the February ’11 letter to Issa.
Worse is that virtually nobody on either side of the argument knows the focus what the contempt citation is intended.
“… These key documents would help the Committee understand how and why the Justice Department moved from denying whistleblower allegations to understanding they were true …”
Giving it a low profile might be in order.
Well, I would like to say that the GOMP (Grand Old Moron Party) is completely at fault here, however, when the Tea Party runs absolute nut jobs against people like Boehner, what do you expect?
I can see the contempt charge getting more Democrat votes on the day of the SCOTUS Obamacare decision.
Anyway, the vote was scheduled and the SCOTUS decision was not.
Tough noggies.
Long past time to “Primary” Boehner, and his cohorts.
I’m sure his pension will keep him in tanning lotion.
“Leadership of the Stupid Party has intentionally scheduled the vote on holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress — he’ll be the first cabinet official in history ever so rebuked — on the only day when no one will be paying any attention. By the time the vote comes later today, the media will be abuzz with the Supreme Court’s monumental Obamacare ruling, regardless of what the justices decide.”
I don’t pretend to know what the expectations of the GOP leadership was in the runup to the ObamaCare decision today but the concensus here at PJM seemed to be that ObamaCare would be struck down today. (That was apparently based on the questions the Supreme Court justices asked a few months back when they heard the arguments of the two sides in the dispute.) If Issa and Boehner had the same expectations, then scheduling the contempt vote for today made a lot of sense. Imagine if ObamaCare were found unconstitutional AND Holder was found in contempt on the same day! That could have given the Republicans some serious momentum.
As it happens, the ObamaCare decision went against us, probably unexpectedly if the GOP leaders thought along the same line as PJM writers. Isn’t criticizing the GOP for this a case of “20/20 Hindsight”?
Of course, we can’t know for sure what they’re hiding, but we can take some good guesses.
Yes — there’s the who knew what and when … which will probably reveal the lies told to Congress …
But, the most damaging would be correspondence relating to promoting the program for the sole purpose of blaming U.S. gun laws for the unconscionable sale of 2,000 guns – sales made by the U.S. government. In other words, a major scam on Americans in order to assault the 2nd Amendment (which cost hundreds of lives.)
If this abysmal deception is what comes out — it will be major to American people. But, if it’s after the election, the MSM will cover for it, and nothing will be done about it.
We’ll do the contempt vote to satisfy the right-wing knuckle-draggers, but we’ll do it while nobody’s looking so the left-wing press will have to go easier on us. Profiles in Courage!
Precisely. And I have yet to encounter an independent or moderate who loses sleep at the thought of frying Holder’s sorry ass. Who are these mythical creatures?
The Stupid Party is desperate for votes to keep Romney plodding forward. A nudge’n'wink session in one of Boehner’s smoke-filled rooms won’t do it. The price to be paid for our votes is very, very high, as will become clear.
Jun 22, 2012 by Pajamasmedia President Obama personally inserted himself into the Fast Furious gun walking scandal after he extended executive privilege over certain DOJ documentation. Was the Fast & Furious a botched scandal, or a deliberate effort to undermine the Second Amendment? Find out as Bill Whittle explores the ideological motives behind the Fast & Furious scandal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFIpoL3jrfo&feature=player_embedded#!