Thread: WHITE HOUSE FACES INVESTIGATIONS...

Memo to White House: Lawyer up

253 Comments
By JOSH GERSTEIN
11/4/10 2:41 PM EDT
Updated: 11/4/10 4:38 PM EDT

Democratic strategists say President Barack Obama needs to act fast to make sure that one of the most tangible consequences of the Republican takeover of the House — an army of GOP committee chairman seeking confidential executive branch deliberations — doesn’t swamp the day-to-day work of the White House.

Veterans of the contentious battles of the Clinton administration warn that the Obama White House is entirely unprepared for the level of scrutiny it is about to experience. “They’ve already been complaining that they’re beleaguered by Congress,â€

New House Judiciary Chairman to Obama: Prepare for Investigations

Veteran Congressman will head influential House Judiciary Committee

By Jim Forsyth
Thursday, November 4, 2010

The San Antonio Congressman who is in line to become chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee is promising 'a number of investigations and oversight committee actions' which he vows will 'hold the administration accountable,’ 1200 WOAI news reports.

Veteran Republican Lamar Smith, a Yale graduate and social conservative who grew up in the brush country of south Texas which is now transit point for illegal immigrants and drugs, said in a news conference that a number of issues will come into the sights of his committee when he takes the chairmanship in January, from cracking down on child pornography to taking the Obama Administration to task for failing to do enough to protect the southern border.

Smith says it is his Constitutional duty.

"Part of that checks and balances is in fact holding the administration accountable, is in fact insisting on more transparency, is insisting on more honesty, and getting the facts," Smith said. "Right now, because of the one party monopoly, the Administration has been able to dodge any kind of supervision, any kind of oversight committee action, and they refuse to testify, and that is no longer acceptable."

Smith, 63, says he says he has spoken to Speaker-designate John Boehner and has been told that he will move to the chairmanship of the committee. He has been ranking Republican on the committee for four years, and also headed the House Ethics Committee during the previous Republican majority.

Smith repeatedly attacked what he called the 'one party control' which has allowed the Administration and majority Democrats to ramrod their position on key issues like health care and border security through Congress.

"Right now, we've had one party control all aspects of our government, and the result of that is that the American people have only gotten one side of a lot of issues," he said.

One thing that Democrats openly expressed their concern about is the ability of Republicans like Smith, chairmen of key House committees, to use the Majority's subpoena power to compel testimony on a whole host of issues. Smith says their concerns were justified.

"There are going to be a number of investigations or oversight committee actions, trying to get to the facts," he promised.

Smith cited national security and the threat of terrorism will be a key area that the Judiciary Committee plans to take action quickly, and said border security, an issue always close to Smith's heart, will also take top billing.

"We need to have better national security and border security. We need to know who is coming across the border, why they are coming across illegally. We need to reduce the huge amount of drug smuggling and immigrant smuggling."

Smith said that reform of the 14th Amendment, which grants automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants who are born in the U.S., is also an issue his committee may take up under his chairmanship. The 14th Amendment is a hot button issue for conservatives who call for restricting immigration.

He said adding 'meaningful' lawsuit reform will also be a top priority.

"I think we are going to be able to reform and amend the health care bill," he said. "We are not going to be able to repeal it, because the president would veto any repeal. But we can go back and make some changes and improvements. We need to reduce health care costs, and we need medical liability reform, and make sure we can stop the number of frivolous lawsuits."

Smith promised to 'use subpoena power if necessary' to 'call on Administration officials to get to the truth and get to the facts.'

http://radio.woai.com/cc-common/news/se ... le=7797170

GOP likely to urge Obama officials not to shred documents

By Jordy Yager and Bob Cusack
11/03/10 10:32 AM ET
Comments 378

Republicans are likely to urge the Obama administration not to shred documents as they transition to the House majority. 



Before the election, GOP officials on Capitol Hill privately discussed the issue but refrained from publicly tackling it, not wanting to assume what would happen on Election Day.

 Now that Republicans will control the House, the shredding matter will move front and center. 




No one is accusing the Obama administration of destroying documents, but Republicans are expected to try to ensure that all records — on a range of issues — are kept intact.



Darrell West, a political scientist and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, said Republicans likely will formally ask the administration not to shred or delete any relevant documents that could be requested in a congressional probe.



“That’ll happen right away, because they want to make sure that the documentary record is preserved so that they have something to investigate,â€

Smith said that reform of the 14th Amendment, which grants automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants who are born in the U.S., is also an issue his committee may take up under his chairmanship.

Woo hoooooooo! This would do a lot to end illegal immigration. They come here to drop their jackpot babies and start collecting benefits. I wonder just how many illegal mothers are here, not working and living off the benefits due their citizen babies.

Next on the ticket should be a thorough investigation of the DOJ. The department is corrupt and racially motivated.

Issa plans to 'go after a lot of things,' 'do a lot of investigating' as chairman

By Bridget Johnson - 11/07/10 10:08 AM ET

The ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee promised Sunday that he would launch a number of investigations as chairman in the next Congress, but that he would do so in a "less partisan way."

"The most important thing my committee can do is seek the truth," Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said on "Fox News Sunday."

"I'm going to go after a lot of things and I'm going to do a lot of investigating," he said.


Issa said that one issue to be tackled would be administration earmarks in the form of competitive grants. He was asked if the Justice Department would be probed in the New Black Panthers voter intimidation case, but said that would fall under the purview of Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) at the Judiciary Committee.

The case of the White House allegedly offering Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) a job in exchange for dropping out of the Senate primary would fall under Issa's scope, though.

"I'm going to do what President Eisenhower suggested: I'm going to take a complicated problem and expand in order to solve it," he said, adding that the same dealing had gone on in the Bush administration and he wanted to find ways to expose the greater problem "to bring it to an end."

When asked what his first priority would be, Issa said that probing the Countrywide case, "where it created the financial meltdown in no small part."

"I think we need to bring that to a successful conclusion and make sure it doesn't happen again," he said.

Issa brushed off assertions that his panel would specifically target the White House. "We're going to look for the person most knowledgable about the problem and have them before our committee," he said. "...I think we need to do investigations in a less partisan way."

http://thehill.com

To:GOP
"Hey! Transparency is my middle name"
From: Obama