Posted on 06/25/2012 2:52:56 AM PDT by Libloather
Hill Poll: Voters: Obama over-reached blocking Fast and Furious docs
By Niall Stanage - 06/25/12 05:00 AM ET
A clear majority of likely voters believes President Obama has exercised his executive power inappropriately — particularly in blocking the release of documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious, according to a new poll for The Hill.
But in a sign that the electorate’s frustration extends to Capitol Hill, voters by a significant margin also feel Congress has behaved in an obstructionist manner toward the president.
Amid the discontent over the behavior of both Obama and members of Congress, the poll found a strong preference among voters for a return to one-party rule in Washington.
Obama last week invoked executive privilege to stop certain Justice Department documents relating to the botched “gun-walking” operation from being disclosed to the House Oversight and Government Reform committee.
The same panel, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), voted along party lines to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.
The Hill Poll found that likely voters disapproved by an almost 2-to-1 margin of Obama’s assertion of presidential power in the case. Overall, 56 percent of voters disapproved of his action, while only 29 percent approved.
Democrats have accused Issa of waging a partisan campaign that has no real purpose save for embarrassing Obama and Holder.
Issa has always denied his pursuit of Holder is politically driven.
“Our purpose has never been to hold the attorney general in contempt,” he said last week. “Our purpose has always been to get the information the committee needs to complete its work — that it is not only entitled to do, but obligated to do.”
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that “the assertion of privilege has to do with the absolute necessity of retaining the executive branch’s independence.”
The defense is not proving an easy sell with voters, particularly independents.
Sixty-one percent of independents said they disapproved of the president’s actions, and just 25 percent approved. Among Republicans, opposition to the president’s use of executive privilege was more entrenched at 78 percent.
Even 28 percent of Democrats, and 30 percent of self-identified liberals disapproved of Obama’s position.
The margins were slimmer, but still significant, when voters were asked whether they believed Obama had, in general, used executive power appropriately or inappropriately.
Fifty-two percent said Obama had used his executive authority inappropriately, while 43 percent backed the president.
Last month, Obama issued an executive order that will allow up to 800,000 illegal immigrants brought to the country as children to remain in the United States and obtain work authorization.
Even as voters have doubts about the president’s actions on executive privilege, they empathize with him in his struggles with Congress.
By a 7-point margin — 48 percent to 41 percent — likely voters said Congress had been obstructionist toward the president. Independents sided with Obama by a margin of 13 points, 51 percent to 38 percent.
Giving added succor to the Obama reelection campaign, voters said, albeit by a narrow 43 percent to 38 percent margin, that he has been better than Congress at addressing the challenges facing the nation. While conservatives and liberals split in predictable ways, moderates favored Obama by a full 15 points.
Whether out of frustration with the political system in general, or Congress in particular, voters are currently displaying little appetite for divided government.
By a double-digit margin (44 percent to 31 percent), voters said they would prefer a single party to control both Congress and the White House. Voters who identified as Republican and Democratic agreed on this point by almost identical margins.
The poll also reinforces the sense of a gender split in the nation’s politics.
Across the board, female voters were much more supportive of Obama than were male voters.
For example, women asserted by a 17-point margin that Congress has been obstructive of the president rather than acting as an appropriate check on the White House.
Men leaned the opposite way, by a 5-point margin.
The Hill Poll was conducted among 1,000 likely voters on June 21 by Pulse Opinion Research and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Click here to view data from The Hill Poll.
Here is the “Cliff Notes” version I prepared yesterday and a brief video on F&F:
The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFIpoL3jrfo
*The date that one must remember: February 4th, 2011. That is when Eric Holder’s Justice Department (DOJ) released a letter to congress that denied any knowledge of F&F.
This was false.
The DOJ on Dec 2, 2011 sent a letter saying that they did know about F&F.
Also, there is testimony from ATF agents that they told the DOJ not to do F&F.
*In May of 2011, AG Holder told congress that he only knew about F&F for a “few weeks.”
This was a lie.
Eric Holder knew about this program as early as December 2010 (this is when the White House stated Eric Holder stopped the program).
Also, a Deputy Attorney General stated in 2009 that BOTH President Obama and AG Eric Holder knew about the “gun running” program of the ATFs. If they knew about gun running program, they had to know about F&F.
On Thursday June 21, 2012. The White House stated “every document has been turned over” that involved the “F&F operation.”
This is a lie.
Fact: Over 7000 documents have been turned over but many are completely marked out so congress cannot read what is in them.
Fact: Congress has requested 70,000 documents.
Fact: No documents that date after February 4th, 2011 have been given to congress.
Why is it so important for congress to see these documents dated after February 4th, 2011?
These documents could reveal when Obama and Holder knew about this operation and if they authorized it. (President Obama is on record stating he did not authorize F&F)
These documents could explain why the DOJ gave false information to congress.
These documents could explain who authorized F&F and when- if it was not Obama nor Holder.
These documents could reveal how the staffers were going to cover-up this operation.
Fact: Border Patrol officer Brian Terry and, likely, Special Agent Jaime Zapata of ICE were killed by guns from F&F. It is estimated that as many as 300 Mexicans have also been killed from these guns as well.
This is bigger than Watergate. Why in the world did our government give guns to known murderers, drug dealers and kidnappers? Who authorized this completely insane operation?
Overturning this is key to a new tsunami.
Tthe pollsters should go out to a gun range and poll those women...the results would be completely different.
Probably the same people that thought it was a good idea for non-taxpayers or non-property owners to vote.
The franchise should be limited to tax payers, veterans, and property owners.
If you want to vote, become one.
Look up “Article the First.” At this point in our country, we should have over 6,000 Representatives, but in the early part of the 20th Century, they just decided to arbitrarily stop adding Representatives during Census years, pegging the number at 435.
I would agree with your assertion if we had equal representation, but at this point, our system of government is so far stretched beyond the vision of the Founders that they’d be wondering what happened to us over these 230+ years.
If you want to know if you are a clear cut leftist lemming, then this one is easy. Do you back Obama on fast and furious?
Ah, the journ-o-list that was so impressed by a crease in Obama’s pant’s in ‘08 is not impressed with his judgement in ‘12...
David Brooks: Obama’s use of executive privilege politically ‘stupid,’ ‘a winner’ for the GOP
Across the board, female voters were much more supportive of Obama than were male voters.This is the logical result of women getting all their news from Oprah the Orca Whale and the nitwits on The View. From that select group of Einstein's, women get the idea that 'Congress' is that evil, 'women hating' Repub run House of Reps. But they are never informed that Harry 'Casino Union Cash' Reid and his RAT pack control the Senate, that other part of that congress thingy. And that good old Harry will not allow one Bill out of the scores that the House has passed -- most with Dem support -- to come up for a vote in 'his senate'.
For example, women asserted by a 17-point margin that Congress has been obstructive of the president rather than acting as an appropriate check on the White House.
So ladies, you want to really see whose been 'obstructive of the president in Congress', look no further than Dingy Harry and his democrat toadies. Naturally after The View, and you're done watching 'Your Soaps' on the Soap Network. Wouldn't want you to miss all that real important stuff.
” - - - Not looking good for the won.”
Not so.
Obama knows that the esteemed Sobber-of-the-House Boehner will NOT start Articles of Impeachment against him, so Obama does what ever he want to.
49 % of adult Americans pay NO personal Federal Income Taxes, and most of them will vote their pocketbooks for Obama.
Obama as the incumbent has a baselevel support of 40 %.
The Liberal Agenda Media is knock down any idea that harms their Dictator Obama.
The Regulate-Control-Destroy America Express roars on through Obamanation.
Congress at addressing the challenges facing the nation
Sadder still that some peeps believe Congress ‘can fix’ ANYTHING that afflicts this Republic (that they didn’t start).
IBD Editorials
Fast And Furious Did Not Begin Under President Bush
Posted 06/22/2012 06:23 PM ET
Scandal: The president’s spokesman confuses a “controlled delivery” operation known as Wide Receiver with the quite different Fast and Furious and couldn’t even remember the name of the Border Patrol agent killed by it.
When a Border Patrol agent is murdered in the service of his country as a result of a program run by his own government, one would think the White House press secretary would know his name. Jay Carney, his name was Brian Terry.
During a contentious press conference where even the White House press corps seemed to have had enough with the administration’s tap dancing about an operation that began on its watch and got two federal agents killed, ABC’s Jake Tapper had to feed a stumbling Carney the name of the Border Patrol agent killed by it.
To refresh Mr. Carney’s memory, and perhaps that of the president, who never called the family, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010 at the hands of an illegal immigrant working for the Sinaloa Cartel just 10 miles from the Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz. Two AK-47 assault rifles found at the site of the Terry shooting were traced back to a straw buyer allowed to smuggle guns into Mexico with the blessing of the ATF and Eric Holder’s Department of Justice.
In addition to Agent Terry, Immigration Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata was also killed in a separate incident by a weapon allowed to “walk” into Mexico from the U.S. as part of the administration’s third-rate alleged attempt to track and catch gun traffickers. Let us not forget the hundreds of Mexican nationals who have been killed by Fast and Furious weapons.
Like the administration he serves, Carney was perhaps too focused on the party line that gun-walking into Mexico was something begun under President George W. Bush and Fast and Furious was merely an extension of this policy.
Dubbed “Operation Wide Receiver,” the Bush-era operation was run out of Tucson between 2006 and 2007, ending before Bush left office and before Fast and Furious began under Obama in 2009. The differences between it and Fast and Furious are vast, starting with the fact that Wide Receiver produced no dead bodies....
Monday, June 25, 2012
The Truth About Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal, Fast and Furious
By Teri O’Brien -
While faux network “news” reports waste the 22 or so minutes they have between commercials for incontinence products and prescription meds for ailments that afflict those old enough to remember the first Carter administration on foolishness like abusive brats berating a monitor on a school bus, Jerry Sandusky, battling bears, and the world’s ugliest dog, there is actual news out there. Try as the Lame Stream Media might to avoid reporting it, it’s still happening.
The Obama administration is engaging in a coverup that would make Nixon’s crowd blush, complete with a a last-minute assertion of executive privilege. Watergate was about political power, and destroying Richard Nixon, who would never be forgiven by the Left for outing Alger Hiss. It caused a lot of turmoil and media hysteria, but no one actually died.
Fast and Furious was about undermining our constitutional rights, and two American agents, as well as several hundred Mexicans, have been murdered as a result of this boneheaded Obama administration operation. Katie Pavlich has written the definitive book on this unraveling scandal, Fast and Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Coverup....
You must be a tax-payer, a veteran, AND a property owner? You’ve just left out a lot of good conservatives with that requirement!
I have a deep admiration for those who serve. My dad was a veteran of 3 wars and never voted for a dem.
However, I have a brother who is a veteran - who voted for, supports every policy, and will vote for o-scam-US in November.
I also know a VERY, VERY liberal chaplain in the US Army. Same thing, he supports and absolutely agrees with everything o-scam-US does ... no exceptions.
They are also both property owners who pay taxes (the chaplain owns property in GA and in California).
On the other hand, I only qualify for being a taxpayer and landowner of 2 properties in GA ..... but I would NEVER vote for o-scam-US and I’ve done my best to help elect conservatives locally and nationally.
So - for the love of this nation - I have to disagree with your requirements.
OR...
I assumed everyone understood what OR meant.
A lot of people on here are calling out for “property owners only”.
I was expanding on the franchise, not reducing it.
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.