The Fast and Furious scandal is turning into President Obama's Watergate
By Tim Stanley US politics Last updated: June 21st, 2012
Fast and furious hasnât been discussed a lot in the mainstream media, which is why the facts can seem so preposterous when you read them for the first time.
Itâs estimated that the US government effectively supplied 1,608 weapons to criminals. Aside from putting American citizens in danger, the AFT also supplied what now amounts to a civil war within Mexico.
On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt over his decision to withhold documents related to the âgun walkingâ operation â documents that President Obama tried to keep secret by invoking executive privilege.
The question of why the Prez intervened in this way will surely hang over the investigation and the White House for many months to come.Executive privilege is usually associated with protecting information that passes through the Oval Office. What did the documents reveal about Obamaâs association with the operation?
It took nearly eight months for the Watergate break in to become a national news story. But when it finally did, it toppled a President.
A lot of conservatives are writing at the moment that not only is Obama turning into Nixon Mark II, but Obama is worse because no one actually got killed during Watergate. The comparison is based on the myth that Nixon ordered the Watergate break in and thatâs what he eventually had to resign over.
But thatâs not true. Nixonâs guilt was in trying to pervert the course of justice by persuading the FBI to drop its investigation of the crime.
Mistake number one, then, was to involve the White House in covering up the errors of a separate, autonomous political department.
Mistake number two was that when Congress discovered that evidence about the scandal might be recorded on the White House bugging system, Nixon invoked executive privilege to protect the tapes. In both cases, it was the cover up that destroyed Tricky Dick â not the original crime.
And, forty years later almost to the day, here we have Obama making the same mistake.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/t...l-is-turning-into-president-obamas-watergate/
What are you trying to hide, OBAMA.
By Tim Stanley US politics Last updated: June 21st, 2012
Fast and furious hasnât been discussed a lot in the mainstream media, which is why the facts can seem so preposterous when you read them for the first time.
Itâs estimated that the US government effectively supplied 1,608 weapons to criminals. Aside from putting American citizens in danger, the AFT also supplied what now amounts to a civil war within Mexico.
On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt over his decision to withhold documents related to the âgun walkingâ operation â documents that President Obama tried to keep secret by invoking executive privilege.
The question of why the Prez intervened in this way will surely hang over the investigation and the White House for many months to come.Executive privilege is usually associated with protecting information that passes through the Oval Office. What did the documents reveal about Obamaâs association with the operation?
It took nearly eight months for the Watergate break in to become a national news story. But when it finally did, it toppled a President.
A lot of conservatives are writing at the moment that not only is Obama turning into Nixon Mark II, but Obama is worse because no one actually got killed during Watergate. The comparison is based on the myth that Nixon ordered the Watergate break in and thatâs what he eventually had to resign over.
But thatâs not true. Nixonâs guilt was in trying to pervert the course of justice by persuading the FBI to drop its investigation of the crime.
Mistake number one, then, was to involve the White House in covering up the errors of a separate, autonomous political department.
Mistake number two was that when Congress discovered that evidence about the scandal might be recorded on the White House bugging system, Nixon invoked executive privilege to protect the tapes. In both cases, it was the cover up that destroyed Tricky Dick â not the original crime.
And, forty years later almost to the day, here we have Obama making the same mistake.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/t...l-is-turning-into-president-obamas-watergate/
What are you trying to hide, OBAMA.
