Jed Babbin: Obama's Watergate
Jed Babbin served as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies.
Presidential claims of executive privilege are the haute cuisine of politics. Served in a covered dish, they are mysteries that tantalize, the aromas evoking everything that the mind can conjure. What is the president trying to hide? In Watergate terms, what did the president know and when did he know it?
Obama's assertion of executive privilege to prevent the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee from gaining access to Justice Department documents on the "Fast and Furious" gun walking operation has already served the president's main purpose. By asserting executive privilege, Obama has blocked criminal consequences for Attorney General Eric Holder from any contempt of Congress resolution that may be passed. More importantly (at least to him), Obama has successfully blocked the disclosure of the documents at least until the November election. It is barely within the realm of possibilities that the courts will resolve the executive privilege claim to the F&F papers before then.
Others have analyzed the nature of Obama's privilege assertion but one very important aspect hasn't drawn the attention it deserves: the breadth of Obama's assertion which, quite evidently, goes beyond what previous presidents have done and what the courts have decided is within a president's power...