Obama Cover-up?
The Washington Examiner is reporting on the Obama administration’s rejection of a House Energy and Commerce Committee Subpoena for additional documents related to the Solyndra scandal. Apparently, this president is above the rule of law. Congress is carrying out its duty to investigate why tax-payers were effectively robbed of a half-billion dollars under the auspices of a “green energy” initiative. The Obama administration is keen on hiding this entire fiasco, and now that the committee has looked at all the documents from other federal agencies, they need to look at documents related to the case from the White House, but as the administration’s response makes clear, there will be no further cooperation. Clearly, his lawyers don’t believe they must respond to legitimate subpoenas for documents pursuant to the oversight role of Congress. The lawyer is claiming executive privilege on behalf of Obama because the committee vote was along partisan lines, there is no need to answer it:
(read complete response here)
I want my fellow Americans to remember this. Essentially, what you should understand is that you don’t need to worry about Obamacare, because it was passed by a party-line vote. You needn’t sweat it. Just ignore it. When the federal revenuers come to collect money from you pursuant to Obamacare, you just go ahead and tell them “Hey, I’m sorry, but that was passed by a party-line vote, so no thanks.” See what that gets you. Enjoy your jail cell.
The most important claim made by the Obama’s attorney, Kathryn Ruemmler, is that the committee’s subpoena was “overbroad” and thus interferes with the confidentiality interests of the executive branch. This, from an administration that continues to make claims about its transparency. The problem is that this letter suggests that the party-line nature of the vote is what makes the subpoena invalid, but my question is: Would the intrusions on the executive privileges of the Obama administration be less if this subpoena had been issued by a unanimous vote of the committee? No. They’d still make the same claim. Don’t be fooled by this partisan-ship claim of the president’s attorney. This is all about hiding the truth.
For his part, Committee Chairman Fred Upton responded to this rejection in scathing language:
“We have been reasonable every step of the way in this investigation, and it is a shame that the Obama Administration and House Democrats continue to put up partisan roadblocks to hide the truth from taxpayers. Solyndra was a jobs program gone bad, and we must learn the lessons of Solyndra as we work to turn our economy around and put folks back to work. Our judicious and methodical work over the last eight months has garnered tens of thousands of pages of documents from DOE and OMB that have proven we are on the right track. Now, we need to know the White House’s role in the Solyndra debacle in order to learn the full truth about why taxpayers now find themselves a half billion dollars in the hole. The White House could have avoided the need for subpoena authorizations if they had simply chosen to cooperate. That would have been the route we preferred, and frankly, it would have been better for the White House to get the information out now, rather than continue to drag this out. Our request for documents is reasonable – we are not demanding the President’s blackberry messages as we are respectful of Executive Privilege. What is the West Wing trying to hide? We owe it to American taxpayers to find out.”
This is setting the stage for a conflict between House Republicans and the Obama administration on an unprecedented scale. As usual, the Obama administration is obfuscating, obstructing, and otherwise attempting to thwart this investigation into the scandal arising from their approval of loan guarantees to the now bankrupt Solyndra, because this would likely reveal the depths of the crony capitalism inherent in the green energy initiative.
So what will Congress do if the Obama administration ultimately tells them to pound sand, as it now seems certain to be the case? I suspect with Speaker Boehner’s tepid leadership, nothing will happen, which is why the Obama administration is responding in this manner. They know that Boehner simply won’t call for an impeachment, in part because Boehner will consider it pointless since the Senate will never take action on it, and in part because Boehner is afraid of controversy, and instead simply wishes to get along.
Enough is enough. It’s time that Congress demands the President and his administration comply with the subpoena. As usual, the response to the subpoena came late Friday after most Americans check out on news. The Obama administration is betting that the House of Representatives is a toothless paper tiger. Sadly, with leaders like Boehner and Cantor, they’re likely to have been right in that assessment. Meanwhile, the American people are taking a beating at the hands of this administration, and its corrupt crony capitalism, which hands out favors to friends and big-money donors while stiffing the American people with the bill.
Very good analysis Mark. Would have been great if Upton had started, "Dear Most Transparent Administration in History"
Those who are trying very hard to get to the truth just can not stop. It is the future that hangs in knowledge this administration is doing. WE talk, WE try to give support, WE give money, WE give our voice and efforts. They must not stop.