Transparency and the Rule of Law...

[Formaldehyde]

Jon Stewart had a hilarious episode about this partisan nonsense yesterday. According to Fox News, this is now the fifth Watergate under Obama, beating the old record set by Nixon by 4:

The Wrath of Cons

Fox News Talking Head:

Watergate looks like child's play compared to what we are seeing.

Jon Stewart:

Child's play! It's child play! Fast and Furious would be like if Monica Lewinsky went down on Iran Contras during the Bay of Pigs invasion!

Rick Perry:

You got to admit. This is almost Nixonian if not absolutely Nixonian in the cover-up that's going on with Fast and Furious.

Talking Head:

What exactly are you accusing the president of here, Governor?

Rick Perry:

I don't know. That's the issue.

Jon Stewart:

I don't know. That's what's so Nixonian about it....

You've got to wonder how such a cautious governor as this ends up executing so many people. Really.

"I'm telling you this guy's Mansonian. I'm sayin' it. He's OJ Simpsonian. I don't know how I know. I can just tell!"

 

[Core Imposter]

It is possible, both, that the Republicans are simply being partisan and that there is legitimate wrong doing in the administration. Or not, how can we know?

Obama's pre-election promises were either intentionally misleading or naive. You can't have transparency and govern effectively.

You can't put people in a place where they cannot communicate. If any document or email is subject to public scrutiny people will simply cease to write anything down.

In this case it is the scrutiny of Congress but given the poisoned nature of our politics suspicion reigns on both sides of the fence.

The nation is divided. Obama promised to unite us.

Leadership isn't standing on one side of the road and chucking garbage at those on the other.

 

[Core Imposter]

The Congressional Black Caucus has called a members-only "emergency" meeting on Thursday to plot a "walkout strategy" ahead of the scheduled contempt vote of Attorney General Eric Holder later in the day.

The plans, detailed in an email from the executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus obtained by the Alley, include circulating a letter disapproving of the vote and having lawmakers walk out of the Capitol to hold a press conference during the roll call.

Does this remind anyone of Wisconsin?

 

[Formaldehyde]

Yes. Representative democracy works the same way in both places.

Republicans walk out of budget talks over taxes

Republicans Walk Out on Payroll Tax Vote, Cut Off C-SPAN Cameras

House Republicans Stage Walkout, Refuse To Vote On Contempt Charges

Wisconsin legislators aren't the first to walk out, leave town

This week's bitter budget showdown in Wisconsin isn't the first time state legislators have fled a state, left a building or refused to show when votes were called.

The "Killer Ds" and the "Texas 11," for example, skedaddled from Texas in 2003 to prevent consideration of a redistricting bill.

In 1839, a young Abraham Lincoln, serving as a Whig in the Illinois House, jumped out of the building in a futile bid to prevent Democrats from getting a quorum to vote on a banks bill.

Members of the 1891 Florida Senate went to Georgia in a bid to prevent a quorum for the election of a U.S. senator.

And in 1994, Republican members of the California Assembly refused to show up for floor sessions in an effort to prevent Democrats from electing Willie Brown as speaker with less than a majority vote.

 

[FriendlyFire]

It is possible, both, that the Republicans are simply being partisan and that there is legitimate wrong doing in the administration. Or not, how can we know?

Like certain tapes which were destoryed when congress wanted to investigate legitimate wrong doing.

Or millions of emails which suddenly were deleted, and then deleted off the server and backups.

How do we know ?
Of course we know.

 

[Core Imposter]

I could see the point if a walkout can delay a vote (see it, not neccessarily endorse it).

If you can't prevent an action, you just look pathetic.

 

[kochman]

Whatever that case... whenever a president pulls the "executive priviledge" card, as I know Bush did often, and "Mr. Transparency" Obama is doing now... it just reeks of guilt. Whether or not it is true, it makes it appear true.

It hurts whoever does it politically.

Edit: I wonder if the black republicans in the black caucus will walk out too?
I hate to see things like the "black" caucus, or the whatever race caucus...

And, Holder pulling the race card over the issue, of course...

At moments, the fight has taken on racial undertones, most notably when Holder, who is African American, told the New York Times in December 2011 that he served as a stand-in for GOP attacks on President Obama. "This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him," Holder said, "both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we're both African-American."