Posted on 11/14/2013 5:52:41 AM PST by Sub-Driver
November 14, 2013, 08:08 am GOP members seek to impeach Holder
By Mario Trujillo
A group of Republican Congressman led by Rep. Pete Olson (Texas) is slated to introduce articles of impeachment against Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday.
Olson argued that Holder has continued to disregard the rule of law after the House voted to hold him in contempt last year.
“This was not a decision that I made lightly,” Olson said in a statement. “Since the House voted in 2012 to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, the pattern of disregard for the rule of law and refusal to be forthright has only continued.”
Olson’s office said 10 other lawmakers are slated to sign on to the proposal. His office predicted it could have more by the time it is formally introduced at noon.
In June, 2012 The Republican-led House voted overwhelmingly to hold Holder in criminal contempt for not complying with congressional subpoena’s related to the botched fast and furious gun-running campaign.
Olson’s office provided a white paper, detailing the four articles of impeachment that will be formally introduced — including a rehash of the Fast and Furious charges.
The first charge relates to Holder’s failure to comply with subpoenas regarding the fast and furious campaign.
Holder “engaged in a pattern of conduct incompatible with the trust and confidence placed in him in that position by refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on October 12, 2011,” according to the summary.
The second article charges Holder with failure to enforce laws including the Defense of Marriage Act — which has since been invalidated by the Supreme Court — as well as the Justice Department’s decision this year to relax mandatory minimum sentencing for low-level drug offenders.
The third article charges that Holder has failed to prosecute anyone in the Internal Revenue Scandal earlier this year in which certain conservative groups were targeted for extra scrutiny while applying for tax-exempt status.
The final article accuses Holder of perjury by saying he had no knowledge of any potential prosecution of the media for disclosure of classified material earlier this year.
However, it was subsequently revealed that Fox News reporter James Rosen was classified as a co-conspirator in a national security leak case in order to seize his phone records and emails.
Holder has maintained the designation was used as a tool to find the source of the leak to Rosen, and the Justice Department never had any intention of persecuting him.
Don’t let’s be impetuous, GOP.
Impeach Holder = racism
Obama = racism
Any black dem = racism
Any black/white/latino/Asian/eskimo/Mormon/Indian pubbie = go for it
I guess they’re holding Benghazi and F&F in reserve...
Yeah we’re tired of hearing you cry wolf and posturing for the public for votes. Put your money where mouth is and let’s see you remove Holder. And Pelosi and Reid next. Especially Reid.
If they wanted to approach this chronologically, they should have started with the New Black Panthers case.
I'll believe this Holder impeachment talk only when the House votes in favor of it.
Hope the house impeaches this lying, arrogant, racist hoodlum, but I aint holding my breath.
I think that case sets the stage for all the others.
Holder refuses to prosecute any violation of the rights of anyone but “his people”.
Now’s the time.
Benghazi was a pin-prick and Obamacare, a paper-cut. But blood is in the water. Obamacare especially has sufficient momentum for now.
I doubt the Republicans will succeed, but they will draw more blood. It’s a war of attrition that we’re in. Repeated blows will eventually tell, and in the meantime keep our opponent on the defensive and incapable of further offending.
House can’t impeach Reid. Only the Senate can remove him, via Expulsion. Impeaching a Senator has been tried and that Senate ruled the lowly House has no power to impeach an elite Senator, even when that Senate thinks he’s guilty as sin and has already expelled him. Thus protected from impeachment and removal’s possible ban on ever holding public office (the reason the House wanted to act) said crook ran for the Tennessee State Senate and subsequently became its Speaker. Thus the standards established by Tennessee’s first US Senator protect not only his current successors, but Senator Reid as well.
The important thing will be *why* they plan to impeach him. The articles of impeachment would have to include many things that would appeal to Democrat senators, as reasons for impeachment, as well.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WVa) has already suggested he should resign over tapping the phone lines of the AP and FOX news.
Other Democrat senators in Red states could have pressure applied to them over Holder’s Fast and Furious and other BATF&E scandals.
Five senate Democrats were upset by “a secretive DEA unit passing NSA information to agents in the field, including those from the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI and Homeland Security, with instructions to never disclose the original source, even in court. In most cases, the NSA tips involve drugs, money laundering and organized crime, not terrorism.”
Granted, Democrats in the house walked out during the vote just to censure Holder. But if house Republicans agree, just a simple majority vote would impeach him. The hard part is reaching the 2/3rds vote in the senate to remove him from office.
Republicans would need to get 22 Democrat and independent votes (total 67) to remove Holder from office.
The GOP House can impeach anyone for any valid reason, but Bill Clinton made impeachment into a national joke for his Democrat base. The American people will stick with their liberal members. Or they can find “conservatives” who soon betray them.
As you said,
“...The hard part is reaching the 2/3rds vote in the senate to remove him from office...”
Indeed!
Do we want to waste time, money and reputation on an admittedly FUTILE gesture — or do we want to actually take control of the Senate? And THEN, actually remove Holder from office?
Has onyone looked into whether this so-called “impeachment” is a Democrat dirty trick, designed to SAVE Holder’s job?
Won’t happen. He shares the same protective pigmentation as his boss.
Agreed, but hope springs eternal.
The purpose of the exercise is not to remove Holder from office. The odds are too great for that. However, the Republicans want to tie the corrupt millstone around the Democrats’ collective necks heading into the mid-terms.
As I suggested before, the real art form here will be in designing the articles of impeachment, to in effect make Holder out to be such a reprehensible character that for the Democrats to embrace him makes them look very bad.
Yes, strategically it makes sense to get him out of there, although with the current administration still in power, replacing him with someone who actually gives a damn about the law will be difficult, if not impossible. Unfortunately, we need a full takedown of Holder, Obama and Biden in order to see any justice done. Otherwise, it’ll eventually be pardons all around.
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