Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Pick One......A Request for Congressional Consistency

As is often the case, I see indefensible behaviors in Washington D.C. that are being excused or outright ignored by our friends on the left and their fellow travelers in the major media.  I have no doubt that our friends on the left and their fellow travelers in the major media felt the same way during the previous administration.

In this particular case, we have a Justice Department that is refusing to prosecute a couple members of the New Black Panther party for acts of voter intimidation on election day in 2008.  The....gentlemen.....in question are black.  They were directly outside of a polling place brandishing weapons and threatening voters that didn't agree with their point of view.

Were these.....gentlemen....white, I have no doubt that the trial would have already been completed and they would be behind bars; where they belong.

Were this a Republican administration working with a Republican Congress, I have no doubt that the wailing from the left and their fellow travelers in the major media would be sufficient to drown out Bourbon Street in New Orleans after the Saints won the Super Bowl.

But this ain't that.

Now we have the news that the Inspector General for the Justice Department has ruled that his office lacks the authority to investigate whether the decision not to prosecute was politically motivated.  John Conyers D-Michigan [regrettably] has decided to roll over an accept the decision by the office of the Inspector General and not conduct a Congressional investigation into the matter.

It was only two short years ago that Mr. Conyers had a different perspective on Congressional investigations of the administration.


"The Committee clearly has authority under the Constitution to investigate and expose possible violations of law and abuses of executive power," Mr. Conyers wrote in a 22-page memorandum less than two years ago. "The Committee also needs more complete information on the issue of the politicization of the Department of Justice." Even more to the point, the Detroit congressman wrote: "The proper course is to recognize claims of privilege only when properly asserted in response to specific questions during a particular hearing. The courts have stated that a personal assertion of Executive Privilege by the President is legally required for the privilege claim to be valid."

 
  I am unfortunately certain that the day will come when Mr. Conyers will be full of indignation over Presidential assertions of executive privilege.  The President will be a Republican.  And his indignation may well be justified.
 
His lack of current resolve only serves to undermine his position in the future when the tables have....again...been turned.

h/t to the Blogfather

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