Posted on 06/17/2018 8:12:01 AM PDT by bitt
In the war over documents between the House and Senate committees investigating the FBI and other intelligence abuses and the FBI/Department of Justice, you might wonder why Congress keeps whining. After all, they say “We asked for these documents a year ago and still don’t have them!” “Why weren’t these sections included in what we requested?” And so on.
You have probably heard that Congress has “oversight” powers over these executive departments and agencies. In a sense that’s true, although there was no Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1789. Indeed, there is no Department of Justice mentioned in the Constitution (and it didn’t appear until 1870—interestingly, recent scholarship suggests, not so much as to handle all the leftover Civil War cases but to streamline and reduce the size of government). The first Attorney General, Edmund Randolph, took office in September 1789 after Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789 that created the Office of the Attorney General. It is tenuously through that Act that Congress maintains any control at all over the AG’s office, the staff of which is appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate.
(Excerpt) Read more at bigleaguepolitics.com ...
Appreciate your comments. And I do see the validity of your points.
My concern, however, is that the the politicization and weaponization of federal agencies like DOJ, FBI and IRS is of the utmost gravity in that this undermines people’s confidence in the rule of law and erodes the very foundation of our democratic principles.
This is like having termites in your home and doing nothing about it. Eventually, the entire structure will crumble.
Trump really needs to clean out the infestation and shore up the house to make it stronger. While there are some political advantages to giving these people the rope to hang themselves, there is a risk of destroying confidence in our governmental institutions and processes. I trust you can see the seriousness of that.
They also now have just been given the criminal oversight of the use/misuse of Federal Information. As of this past Monday was briefed on Wednesday.
He is correct and the fix by Trump has been in the works since Dec 2017.
Thank you, Bert.
Perhaps THAT IS his strategy.
“The logical and rational conclusion is that the Prsident does not want the unredacted documents released......... yet
The battles will be actually faught and won at a time and place of the President’s choosing
Do you think he is stupid?”
~~~~~~~~~~
I LIKE YOU, BERT!
“The logical and rational conclusion is that the Prsident does not want the unredacted documents released......... yet
The battles will be actually faught and won at a time and place of the President’s choosing
Do you think he is stupid?”
~~~~~~~~~~
I LIKE YOU, BERT!
Congress has the power of the purse and should cut their budget, or at least make some large chunk of their budget contingent on compliance with Congressional oversight.
1. (a) Judicial vs (b) military
2. (a) Success vs (b) failure
Right now, Trump is clearly allowing 1a to proceed. As long as he continues to gradually increase his approval ratings with each new MAGA success, along with each new swamp revelation, then Nov 2018 is looking pretty good. However, the military option should be assumed to be in play for the simple reason that they are charged with defense against enemies, foreign and domestic.
The second axis is simply a measure of success or failure. I'm sure everyone is familiar with Churchill's famous quote: “If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”
So, in this situation, Trump has to assess the proper timing. There's also the issue that he may not have the confidence to act. In that case, the republic is already lost. I assume he went through all this effort to be effective; it makes little sense to balk at the moment of truth.
Lastly, consider this: was the USA going to last forever? If not, when would it fail, and what would be the precipitating cause(s)? I find a lot of emotional reactions are probably due to a lack of historical knowledge. These types of power plays between competing interests are the very currency of human government. It's not odd, surprising, evil or whatever label one wishes to ascribe - it's called human nature, or the power of will. The ones who prevail are the ones armed with the greatest discipline, skill, ability and desire.
I’ve thought for a long time that he has a strategy.
Yup. That's what it has come to.
Exactly. The title is off.
I absolutely agree!
Thanks to popularly elected Senators.
This what I am talking about.
Can you give me a citation, because now I am not sure if we are talking about the same thing.
Reelection.
I am familiar with this policy on background checks. Came out about 7 days ago. What I am talking about is different (information distribution, release, security etc) and deals with the chicanery we are witnessing. Came out this past Monday. If you are not in the government employ you will not see this yet but likely will soon.
Congress has power because they can impeach the leaders of those departments. The president has power because he can fire them.
The problem is that congress won’t have enough votes thanks to crooked democrats who don’t care about what is right, and the president would be lambasted by the MSM.
I guess I haven’t seen it yet.
Sure he can. You'll have to pick a reason why he isn't doing that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.