Holder in peril as Dems break ranks on contempt resolution
Published June 27, 2012
The congressional contempt vote against Attorney General Eric Holder is looking more and more like a fait accompli, as House Speaker John Boehner presses ahead with a Thursday floor vote and conservative Democrats one-by-one announce they will side with Republicans.
At least four Democrats so far have said they plan to vote to hold Holder in contempt over his refusal to turn over Operation Fast and Furious documents. Sources told Fox News that roughly 20 are likely to break ranks.
Those Democrats are largely conservative-leaning lawmakers facing perilous political circumstances in their home districts. But regardless of motive, their support only increases the odds that the nation's top law enforcement official will be held in contempt of Congress come Thursday.
Should this happen, the vote would touch off a whole new legal process -- in which a U.S. attorney would be called upon to convene a grand jury to consider the allegations and whether to indict, though with Holder at the helm it's unclear how that would play out.
The two sides also will likely continue to battle over the documents at the heart of the dispute as President Obama tries to lock them down by claiming executive privilege.
Several Democrats indicated Wednesday they don't buy that argument.
"While Republicans and Democrats argue over the scope of the people's right to know what happened, the attorney general has decided to withhold relevant documents," Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., said in a statement announcing he would support the contempt resolution. "The only way to get to the bottom of what happened is for the Department of Justice to turn over the remaining documents, so that we can work together to ensure this tragedy never happens again."
Other Democrats to announce an anti-Holder stance include Reps. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.; Collin Peterson, D-Minn.; and Jim Matheson, D-Utah.
Matheson said the public, Congress and the family of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry -- whose murder scene included weapons from the botched anti-gunrunning operation -- "deserve answers."
The White House, though, slammed Republican leaders for pressing ahead, accusing them of engaging in "political gamesmanship" with a vote they claim could have been avoided.
"(Republicans) have shown very little interest in reaching a resolution. Instead, they've chosen a path of political confrontation and theater," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday. "It is politics."
Carney said Democrats are "hopeful" a last-minute arrangement can be reached, but expressed doubt that would happen.
Boehner said Thursday that "we are going to proceed." The House Rules Committee was set to tee up a Thursday floor vote on contempt by taking up two related contempt resolutions Wednesday afternoon.
The vote is proceeding despite a last-ditch attempt by Obama administration officials on Tuesday to work out a deal.
A source familiar with those talks told Fox News that the Republicans met with administration officials twice Tuesday -- at the Justice Department and at the White House. The Justice Department showed GOP staff 14 documents on the failed anti-gunrunning operation, totaling about 30 pages.
Republicans apparently thought the offer was not good enough.
But the move prompted criticism from the White House.
"This was a good faith effort to resolve this while still protecting the institutional prerogatives of the Executive Branch, often championed by these same Republicans criticizing us right now," said White House spokesman Eric Schultz.
Republicans have accused the Justice Department of stonewalling all along, and claim the contempt vote is a last-resort move to extract documents about the operation -- specifically documents from February 2011 and beyond that speak to why the administration might have initially claimed it did not allow guns to "walk" across the U.S.-Mexico border. The administration later retracted that claim.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/27/house-democrat-breaks-ranks-to-back-holder-contempt-as-vote-looms/print#ixzz1z1BUF5qu |
