The GOP Is Unbelievably Full of Shit on Executive Privilege [View all]

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http://www.gawker.com/5920526/the-gop-is-unbelievably-full-of-shit-on-executive-privilege

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The GOP Is Unbelievably Full of Shit on Executive Privilege

By John Cook, Jun 22, 2012 3:35 PM
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The Fox News wing of the Republican Party (which is to say, the Republican Party), has concluded that Barack Obama is a 21st Century Richard Nixon because he conjured a dreaded, wicked trick called executive privilege to cover up his manifest crimes. Hey, only Republicans are allowed to do that!

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Sure, Bush Invoked Executive Privilege, But Never to Cover Up Crimes

"As a conservative, I support the idea of executive privilege," Hannity said. "[T]here has been court precedent on this that there is no legitimate claim to executive privilege if this is about covering up any type of wrongdoing."

Bullshit. No on has articulated precisely what crime Obama is covering up here. Plenty of people are talking about lying to Congress, but the February 4, 2012 lie isn't covered by the privilege being asserted. But whatever. Let's look at when Bush invoked it: Twice to keep his aides from testifying about why he fired seven U.S. Attorneys and whether political considerations played a role—a scandal that resulted in the resignations of nine DOJ officials including the attorney general himself. And once to keep from handing over documents about a criminal investigation into the Valerie Plame leak.

Those cases had abundant evidence—or at least enough to raise a reasonable suspicion—of potential wrongdoing. There's nothing that even remotely rises to the same level in Fast and Furious.

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