Judiciary Chairman Unleashes on Holder for ‘Partisan’ Ignorance of Constitution
The report asserts that since the DoJ has not brought a single court action to block sanctuary city policies or tuition breaks for illegal immigrants, the choice to focus limited resources on strained, weaker arguments shows the department’s bias.
“The glaring inconsistency can best be explained by highly partisan decision making influencing which cases to pursue,” it says.
“The Justice Department claims to be acting to protect the interests of Congress, arguing that except in narrow circumstances only Congress can legislate immigration enforcement. In truth, the Department ignores Congress except when it can help the Administration achieve its partisan goals, in this case its fiercely anti-enforcement immigration agenda.”
Smith then goes after Holder & Co. for challenging voter ID laws, asserting that it’s due to partisan bias that the Justice Department puts taxpayer dollars to “waste” with its challenges.
“The Justice Department claims that in South Carolina minorities are 20 percent more likely than whites to lack photo ID,” the report states. “This sounds significant until you examine the original data. 90% of minorities have photo IDs compared with 91.6% of whites. The Department’s presentation is mathematically true (because 10% is technically 20 percent more than 8.4%) but it masks that in reality, the Department is battling over a difference of less than 2%.”
The report faults the DoJ for blocking congressional inquiries, including oversight requests — five from the Judiciary Committee alone since July 2011 — probing just how deep of a role Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan had in shaping ObamaCare before her appointment to the court.
The Justice Department has claimed that the Judiciary Committee — studying her background to ensure that federal law governing recusals is adequate — “has no legitimate legislative interest in the material,” according to the chairman’s report.
“The Administration’s lack of cooperation only heightens concerns that they have something to hide,” the report states. “Unfortunately, the Administration’s stonewalling of Congress could result in an unconstitutional law being upheld.”
Smith proceeds to take on the DoJ for refusing to stand behind the Defense of Marriage Act. Holder informed Congress on Feb. 23, 2011, that his department would no longer defend DOMA in court, arguing that it violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection.
“The unprecedented nature of the Attorney General’s arguments and the evasion of accountability represented by continuing to enforce the law while not defending it combine to support the inference that the Administration’s stance is based on its partisan agenda rather than on a sincere analysis of the Constitution and, as such, the Administration’s non-defense of the Defense of Marriage Act is a usurpation of Congress’s legislative function,” the report states.
Finally, the chairman goes after Justice for turning a blind eye to constitutional limits of President Obama’s recess appointment power.
Obama sparked fury in Congress with three recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and another to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Jan. 4. The Senate was not technically in recess at the time, but in pro forma sessions with no business to be conducted — which could be reversed if senators were asked to conduct any business — as agreed by both parties.
Smith linked the appointment to bad advice given to Obama by Justice Department counsel, who found that the President “has discretion to conclude that the Senate is unavailable to perform its advise-and-consent function and to exercise his power to make recess appointments.”
“The invocation by the President of the recess appointment power when the Senate was not in recess was an unconstitutional evasion of the Senate’s power of advice and consent,” the report said. “It encroached upon the Senate’s constitutional prerogatives and aggrandized power to the President.”
After a roll call of Justice Department sins, the chairman concludes that “the Constitution has not been guarded with care.”
“[Holder] promised that under his leadership, the Department of Justice would be free from partisanship,” Smith’s report states. “He testified that in his tenure ‘law enforcement decisions must be untainted by partisanship.’”
“The reality has been different from the promise.”
All of that, and not a peep about the Black Panther’s voter intimidation cases? If you’re going to recite the tally, might as well include the full count.
Listing the tally, why would we exclude the Marc Rich pardon at the end of Clinton’s term? How does one pardon a tax evader and gun runner before he is convicted and while he is a fugitive? Let him cite equal protection all the way to his resignation under duress.
You are right Lucky Lazarus, they might just as well go for all the gold. Why not ask Eric Holder why he isn’t down in Phoenix, AZ and investigating Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his entire Cold Case Posse for attempting to unseat a sitting President and preventing him from running for a second term. This is treasonous by any lawful standard and it becomes our nation’s top security danger. Hell the Secret Service visited Ted Nugent for much, much less.
Could it be that Eric Holder knows that the Sheriff and his Posse have the goods on his man and their evidence would lead to his boss getting called on the carpet for treasonous activity? That would be my guess knowing Holder would take the Sheriff out if he though they were all lying. The Sheriff’s investigation has moved from “probable cause” to a “criminal” investigation. This is the story of the century and everyone is avoiding it. Are the all sick. Many of these conservatives bitch and moan about this President 24/7. They could take him out in a week for crying out loud.
The GOP is developing this nasally, grate-on-your nerves whine!!! They need to take action or shut up!
They are starting to annoy the general public, who are going to be annoyed enough real soon-with a billion dollars to spend on campaigning.
So Holder will be called to testify on June 7. Is there any possible material outcome to this appearance?
I just want Boehner to unleash Darryl Issa on Operation Fast and Furious, and there’s no indication that will happen.
I believe he is the worst, the most partisan, the most prejudiced attorney general we have ever had. Thank goodness he will go out with obama in November.
Please, everyone, let’s get behind Romney and put this country back in the honorable column.
Then he’ll be on the college lecture circuit, getting big bucks, while the tax payers indirectly foot his speaking fees. He might even get a spot on MSNBC as commentator.
He’s got it made no matter what. The only justice would be a felony conviction for his role in F & F and a little time in some country club prison.
Instead of doing the lecture circuit, this scum should be doing hard time. I pray the next AG digs up everything Holder did while in office and rakes him over the coals.
Make that a Mexican prison.
Fast & Furious, Black Panth. voter intim., AZ law suit etc. etc.. Please let me know when Obama pardons Holder as his last task as potus, that the US will scream to the heavens, and zimmerman the man.
My understanding is that one cannot pardon unindicted offenses — which would argue that Holder should only be indicted for half of what he has done, in order to ensure he can do jail time for the other half once his chief leaves office..
If Ford could pardon Nixon, Obama can pardon Holder. Just watch.
Obama won’t be in office when Holder is indicted. I truly believe they thought he would be so they went ahead and did illegal things. They truly screwed the pouch this time, couldn’t happen to a better bunch. Can’t wait for the race riots when these scum get their due.
You left out the most important investigation of the century, the one going on in Phoenix, AZ. Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his investigative team has moved from a “probable cause” investigation to a “criminal” investigation for crying out loud. Eric Holder should be all over this sheriff and his investigators. They are attempting to unseat a sitting President, is that not treasonous activity? It doesn’t get much worse than this. Fast and Furious/Black Panters have nothing on this Sheriff in Arizona.
Could it be that Eric Holder knows these folks have the goods on his boss and doesn’t what to touch this with a ten foot pole? That would be my take on this knowing how much Eric Holder hates Arizona and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. This should be very upsetting to anyone following this investigation.
When are the Conservative and our new Presidential Candidate going to do about this usurpation of the office of the POTUS?
Let’s hope the Mitt campaign will not allow itself to be sidetracked by distractions such as the economy, energy, employment, national security, etc… while the planet has got a fever, and the Delta Smelt is going to get fried (delicious, by the way).
These are perilous times. America is under attack. The enemy is in our midst. What is to be done?
What is to be done?
For starters, how about the not so subtle threat of Race Riots if Dear Leader is not re-elected?
How about the media declaring not so subtly we shouldnt risk such a thing?
That all “partisan resistance” to the President is simply dangerous?
How about this entire report being ignored, and/or called “simply racist” and “devisive” by the same media,
and it goes nowhere outside the Blogosphere?
That my dear is “what is to be done”
… how about the not so subtle threat of Race Riots if Dear Leader is not re-elected?
AKA a target rich environment.
Didn’t President Obama recently scold SCOTUS for even considering overturning a law passed by a “strong majority” (ha ha) of duly elected representatives implying that its constitutionality was beside the point? Wasn’t DOMA passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress and signed into law by a Democratic president? As is usual with liberals, this administration’s principles, ethics and morals are situational and relative to the needs of the moment.
Holder thinks the American people are cowards for not talking about race. He is lying, perjuring coward for not telling the truth about his own partisan motives for breaching his oath to uphold the US Constitution, including those parts the socialists he supports would rather not pay attention to. There is only one word for Holder and that is dishonorable to the very essence of his being, every pore, every hair follicle, every synapse and every cell. Dishonorable to the core and incapable of testifying truthfully to anyone. How can such scum be regarded as a lawyer? He obviously lied when he took his oath of office.
Generally speaking, every word “they” say is a lie
Including “and” and “the”
Holder The Affirmative Attorney Action General
Begin impeachment proceedings immediately after the hearing. Let Obama either toss him under the bus or defend him.
Following this to it’s logical conclusion, can a convicted felon pardon a convicted felon? While we are at it, can Obambi pardon himself when he leaves office?
Wouldn’t it be a hoot for Holder to walk to the table in front of the Judiciary Committee and, instead of sitting down, spread his arms expansively and intone in his best immitation of a Sunday Morning Voice: “Open up your hearts and minds to the ideas of Professor Derrick Bell.”
A bigger hoot would be being a fly on the wall in the Oval Office at that moment, at Barack stares at the CSPAN broadcast.
It’s too bad Holderwon’t take a cue from his Crucifixion Chief and fall on his sword (metaphorically speaking). It would save us all time, energy and pain.
“The Obama administration has ignored the constitutional balance of power between co-equal branches of government and blocked investigations of its actions. When the Administration doesn’t like a law, they refuse to enforce it. And if the Senate’s constitutional authority to approve political appointees gets in their way, the Administration ignores the Constitution,” Smith said.
This is news? It’s a pity the mainstream media doesn’t see it this way. If this was a Republican administration doing this, you would see reports every day on the nightly news calling for the president’s impeachment. The mainstream media would be screaming that this was Nixon all over again and would be demanding that at the very least the Attorney General be removed. And what do you hear from the mainstream media now? Nothing but crickets chirping. This is why many people today have no trust in the mainstream media. And this is why it is doomed to failure in the very near future.
Though he’s not very bright, in Eric Holder’s case, it feels more like willful disregard for the Constitution than ignorance.
As is true for the entire Obama coterie and hangers on.
Example, Ruth Bader Ginsburg advising any country looking to write a new Copnstitution to not look to our antiquated old thing, that old parchment that doesn’t guarantee free lunches (of any kind imaginable) to each and every citizen.
Yes, I agree.
They, Obama and ilk, hate the Constitution. And they probably hate it in large part because it was written by European Christian patriarchs. That’s an irrational reason, but they, Obama and ilk, are not rational people, devious and cunning yes, but not rational.
I don’t care what you say about Eric Holder. He must be a nice man. Just look at all the people who like him, such as:
the National Black Panther Party, Black Muslims, White Muslims, illegal aliens, foreign nacro gangs, enemies of the USA like the Gitmo detainees…. I can’t think of any others; but, I’m sure that all of you will help me.
I WOULD LOVE TO SEE AG HOLDER AT LEAST , FORCED TO RESIGN !!!!
I’ve posted this humorous cartoon on Holder at http://drawfortruth.com/2012/04/20/fast-and-furious-justice-in-america-2012/ a couple weeks ago, but I thought I would post it again.
We need to reigned him in. He is a loose cannon with no regards for the Constitution. I will be glad when he and Obama get booted out of office.
The porn-stash leader of the DOJ is the best example of a petulant, smart-assed teenager I have ever seen. The kid who is very intelligent, but not as intelligent as he thinks.
His mastery of lying, deflection, and grabbing s*** out of thin air is exemplary and would be of great use in a p*ssing contest but not much else.
He has a warped logic to things but of the gravest import is the impeachment process. In order for impeachment to commence, a person in one of the three branches of government has to complain. That is, formally file a protest to his actions and that of his department. Naturally, this will be met with cries of racism and bigotry which are the fall-back as well as the primary defense weapons used by these types of people.
“Whenever they bitch about you breaking the law, just cry racism, that will shame them and shut them up. Then go about breaking the law as you had planned. Better still, do it WHILE they complain while calling them racists. Nothing works better than stirring up that pot and having them defend themselves while you do your thing, man.”
Problem is, for them, most of us are really sick of that “argument” and have ways to make it stick. It’s quite simple really and possibly one of the reasons Gingrich was left behind by the republican establishment that thinks the duty of all white people is to kiss the asses of blacks.
But Newt spelled it out plainly, simply and directly. By citing the facts in any given situation, race never comes up unless the defender brings it up and when they do, the prosecution just doesn’t respond to it but hammers the defense with another fact.
Naturally, this frustrates the defense. “Why aren’t they going along with the racist theme? They are supposed to defend themselves here and I get to wiggle free while they go all apoplectic trying to out-do each other in apologizing for being racists.” I have seen it in court for real. A good prosecutor will not get side-tracked with such BS but stick to the issue(s) at hand.
If The esteemed representative from Texas does this, so much the good. If the conservatives could find a black representative to put Holder’s feet to the fire, so much the better. (Pipe-dream)
But still, truth must win the day. Remember, OJ eventually ended up in Prison. Not because he was black but because he’s a sick, deranged man who thought he was above the law. Holder isn’t much different. OJ got acquitted for murder by playing the race card. There will be no such “until now undisclosed tapes” of anyone saying “ni**er this and that”.
So the racist defense won’t wash. They will then be forced to defend their position on all of the subjects Bridget has outlined above. What will follow will be something similar to that idiot trying to explain to the supreme court what Obamacare is good for and what’s wrong with Arizona’s immigration laws.
(Picture Ralph Kramden going “homina-homina-homina”)
But, with a formal complaint against Holder, the door is now open for impeachment….though it will still take a great amount of support from both parties. That’s the real sticky-wicket.
What is the link to the report? You give the link to the rebuttal, but not the report.
holder is like the rest of those liberal democrats and occupy also unions their all not scared of work they’ll lay down right beside it and go to sleep , their not it , just don’t like doing any of it , they are all owned by obama and what obama says that’s what goes , they are a bunch of followers and can’t think for them selves , all need to go their not doing the jobs we the people hired them to do , and obama for not doing the job we hired him to do , he needs to be impeached now not later
Blah, blah, blah. So what will be the end result of all these hearings? Holder will deny everything and the committee will do absolutely NOTHING.
How many times has the Obama administration thumbed its collective nose at the Constitution and the laws of the land and then gone ahead with its agenda? I admire Smith, Grassley and Issa for raising the issues and examining the corruption but then what?
What happens when those that are supposed to enforce the laws decide not to? Or even worse, decide to break them? How many members of congress have been arrested and sent to prison for insider trading? How many have been jailed for election fraud? Why are Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Franklin Raines and Maxine Watters still walking around free?
Why do I get the feeling the whole bunch goes out for drinks together after the hearings?
Spot on!!!
The Problem is The Republican Leadership, repeat, The Problem is The Republican Leadership, repeat. A ‘scathing report’ is just so much hot air. When action occurs, wake me. This is the partisan game at work: you give me hell, I’ll give you hell and then let’s go carve the pig….this is one fat fascist government and needs to be thrown in the street and one term limits begun. Get that done in the next few years, and then their game is over.
Glad to see we have some representation in Congress. Kudos to Lamar Smith of Texas. And thanks to Bridget Johnson for posting this.
Obozo, Moochelle, and Eric Holder, I have never been more ashamed of my country, and with the ignorance of those that voted for these people, and for the black population that were so enamored of a White black boy being elected that they failed to see the harm that would be done to them, while they celebrate something that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would never have condoned.
It is not the color of their skin but the content of their heart.
And as long as we have race hustlers we will never get past the racial issue.
so failing schools, being supported with your money dooming your children to a second class life and you are happy with this White black boy, that sends his kids to private schools and prevents you from school choice.
What more do you need to know to not vote for this man, if you love your children and want the best for them.
Exploding the budget and leaving the debt to your children and grandchildren, What more do you need to know to not vote for this man, than to realize that all that you have worked for at your death may be confiscated to pay the bills he incurred, while calling the formed president unpatriotic for running up the debt.
Judge arrow, my feelings even to the choice of words. I don’t know what’s stopping the Rs from bringing suit against Holder for their alleged grievances. Haranguing from a committee chair isn’t the designed check against executive error. The courts do that job. For instance, who decides when the senate is in recess? Also, read the text of the recess appointment. “The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies THAT MAY HAPPEN DURING the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.” The vacancy must occur during the recess. The recess is not a time when any previous vacancy can be filled. Can’t they read?
Holder, and then Obama, need to be dancing at the end of a rope
Holder and Obama know Republicans are too gutless to files charges, so why not ignore the Constitution and run the nation like a dictatorship!
Unfortunately, I fear this proceeding will amount to little more than tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, – “Like a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury yet signifying nothing.”- I pray I’m wrong and perhaps this inquiry might just gain some traction in the (LOL) media nonetheless. Wouldn’t that be nice.
Did Boehner finally get out of the way of the contempt citation for Holder? Maybe he finally understood it’s in his best interest. Issa first threatened Holder with contempt of Congress months ago but rumor had it the leadership, which means Boehner, wouldn’t go along. Do Issa and Smith and Grassley have more to come? I hope we’ll find out.
Guys, guys: ‘ignoring the Constitution!’; ‘not following the Constitution!’, etc, etc. C’mon, you can’t blame the pols for ignoring the Constitution when 99% of the Sovereign of this nation, We the People, are in gross willfully ignorant treasonous denial of the document. Good grief, you’ve got 5 out of 4 SCOTUS justices who claim that the Constitution forces every state to allow any mother to have her unborn baby killed at will, 1 of 2 major political parties who are cool with that, the other party who wishes the topic would go away, and practically no one cares. 95% of the Fed bureaucrazies are grossly unConstitutional, and no one cares. What more do you need to know? We are a wicked people, and we get the gov’t that we deserve.
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We have never had a president who openly expressed contempt for the Constitution. All previous presidents have followed the Supreme Law of the Land; FDR even backed off some policies when the Federal courts ruled against them. The president and attorney general are both lawyers and should understand the oaths they took to uphold the Constitution.
What do we do when they refuse to do so? Impeachment?
May the God Who has been so Beneficial to our nation prevent Obma’s re-election!
May the American people have the wisdom and will to see Obama and Holder for what they are.
re 33., do you believe that? The departments of Education, Energy, Transportation and much of the burocracy E.g. the EPA stand in open, brazen violation of the US Constitution. Nobody in Washington follows their oath at all, nor have they for a long time. We have a counterfeit government, with sham elections and parties. It’s a big lie. Welcome to the Soviet Union.
The congress needs to stop talking and start doing something about Holder. Impeach the guy or shut up.