For the first time in his administration, President Obama this week exercised executive privilege (1) (2) . This move was an eleventh-hour move brought on by the pending vote in Congress to sanction Attorney General Holder. The sanction of contempt was due to his failure to turn over to Congress documents regarding the botched “fast and furious” operation.
Fast and furious began in September 2009 and was finally shut down in January 2011. The operation allowed the purchase of weapons from Arizona gun shows and then taking them across the border into Mexico. The weapons then ended up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. (3) The only logical reasons for such an operation would be to either hoping the drug cartels would use the weapons to take each other out, or, as some suspect, using this operation to create an uproar by citizens in the U.S. and Mexico calling for stricter gun control laws. However, before either of these reasons could occur, one of the weapons killed U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry (3) bringing media attention to the program, al be it not the lame stream media which only started paying attention to the issue this week because of the hearings in Congress.
Executive privilege is constitutional but also has limits as do other constitutional items (i.e. the Supreme Court ruling that you cannot yell fire in a crowded theater limiting free speech in the interest of public safety). The legitimate purpose of executive privilege is in “ reinforcing the separation of powers and protecting sensitive deliberations within the executive branch, and it is especially strong when the president or his closest advisers in the White House are involved in the communication.” (4) An example of a legitimate use of executive privilege is President George W. Bush's use of it in 2007 regarding the request of Congress for White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten’s testimony regarding the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys. (5) Since the executive branch hired these U.S. attorneys, this is a legitimate use of executive privilege because it involves confidential conversations between the executive branch and the termination of some of its employees. I am sure these U.S. attorneys did not want the reason for their firings aired publically because it would hinder, if not make it impossible, for them to get another job in the legal profession.
However, Executive privilege is illegitimate when it used “to protect the president from political embarrassment stemming from grievous errors in judgment by members of his cabinet or officers of the departments over which they preside.” (4) It is also illegitimate for the President to use executive privilege to cover up illegal acts (6) . I believe Obama’s use of executive privilege falls under the illegitimate category for the following reasons:
1. The motivation of this eleventh-hour move appears to be the administration’s desire to cover up errors in judgment by its Attorney General regarding the fast and furious operation.
2. It appears that even though President Obama said he "had no involvement" in Fast and Furious, the use of executive privilege implies that the President is wanting to shield sensitive communications he may have had with members of the Attorney General’s office and therefore, President Obama was involved.
3. The fact that a U.S. Border agent was killed (3) along with many innocent Mexican citizens means a crime is involved and the administration may be trying to cover up the crime.
4. Even though the administration will claim its use of executive privilege falls under “deliberative process” (7) , the fact that a crime or crimes may have occurred takes this out of the realm of “pre-decisional communications” (7) and into the realm of covering up involvement in a crime.
This is no different from when President Nixon attempted to use executive privilege during the Watergate hearings to cover up the break-in. The only difference here is that the crime is murder, not breaking and entering.
We as conservative political avengers must hold President Obama accountable for his, and his administration’s actions in the November election. As conservatives, we may not agree completely with Mitt Romney but he is a marked improvement from the current occupant of the White House, and I believe would never authorize or be involved in an operation like fast and furious.
Please feel free to share this post via Facebook, Twitter, or email and get the truth out on this matter. As always, I have included sources in this topic and urge readers to view them and educate themselves on this topic. Armed with the truth on this issue, we can begin to implement change in our leadership and the restoring of integrity to our government.
1. Perez, Evan. Vote to sanction holder escalates gun-probe fight. online.wsj.com. [Online] Wall Street Journal, June 2012, 2012. [Cited: June 23, 2012.] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304898704577478370452447012.html.
2. Wendt, Teresa. Executive Privilege. congressionaldailynews.com. [Online] CDN, June 20, 2012. [Cited: June 23, 2012.] http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/06/executive-privilege/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=executive-privilege.
3. Spakovsky, Hans von. Fast and furious: Covering up the death of a U.S. agent. blog.heritage.org. [Online] The Heritage Foundation, June 20, 2012. [Cited: June 23, 2012.] http://blog.heritage.org/2012/06/20/fast-and-furious-covering-up-the-death-of-a-u-s-agent/.
4. National Review Online. Hiding behind executive privilege. freerepublic.com. [Online] Free Republic, June 21, 2012. [Cited: June 23, 2012.] http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2898062/posts.
5. Mears, Mariano Castillo and Bill. Executive privilege: A rocky legal and political road in U.S. history. articles.cnn.com. [Online] CNN, June 20, 2012. [Cited: June 23, 2012.] http://articles.cnn.com/2012-06-20/politics/politics_executive-privilege-history_1_miers-and-bolten-executive-privilege-contempt-citation?_s=PM:POLITICS.
6. Gaziano, Todd. Fast And Furious: Executive Privilege Is Illegitimate to Shield Wrongdoing. blog.heritage.org. [Online] The Heritage Foundation, June 20, 2012. [Cited: June 23, 2012.] http://blog.heritage.org/2012/06/20/fast-and-furious-executive-privilege-is-illegitimate-to-shield-wrongdoing/.
7. Sheffield, Matthew. Open Thread: Behind the Executive Privilege Claim. m.newsbusters.org. [Online] Newsbusters, June 21, 2012. [Cited: June 23, 2012.] http://m.newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-sheffield/2012/06/21/open-thread-behind-executive-privilege-claim?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter.
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