Topic: House subpoenas White House for Solyndra documents

[Libertas]

About time!

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/3/house-subpoenas-white-house-solyndra-documents/

“Apparently what the committee really wants is a confrontation with the president,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman, the top Democrat on the full Energy and Commerce Committee.

Effin'-A, dillhole, he's asking for it!

[IronDioPriest]

Does anyone know what kind of documentation requirements there are in government, and what safeguards there are against destruction of them?

I've wondered that often. If I was a corrupt politician, I would simply either fail to document things I wanted to do that were illegal, or I would make sure that in anticipation of incriminating evidence, that I destroyed any documentation that did indeed exist. What is there to prevent the White House from having destroyed all Solyndra documentation weeks ago?

[Pandora]

IIRC, there are already laws mandating all WH documents -- and emails -- be collected and stored.  Part of the reason, I suspect, why Duh Wun is not supposed to have a private Crackberry.

[IronDioPriest]

Right, laws. But If I was a government official who intended to break the law in a big way, is there some other compelling mechanism that ensures documents are created and/or not destroyed?

I guess what I'm getting at - is there some kind of foolproof protocol for the documentation of government activities that either ensures documentation, or reveals efforts to subvert the protocol? Or is it just a law. because if It's just a law, then these documents are long-gone. This is a lawless administration.

[Pandora]

Right, laws. But If I was a government official who intended to break the law in a big way, is there some other compelling mechanism that ensures documents are created and/or not destroyed?

I guess what I'm getting at - is there some kind of foolproof protocol for the documentation of government activities that either ensures documentation, or reveals efforts to subvert the protocol? Or is it just a law. because if It's just a law, then these documents are long-gone. This is a lawless administration.

Ohhhhhhhh.  You want magic.   

I see what you're getting at; some sort of off-site automation/monitoring system.

Don't know; shouldn't have to need it, but, as you said, lawless.

[Alphabet Soup]

Sarbanes-Oxley compels private industry to retain documents (including email) for years. Naturally it doesn't apply to the gubmint.

[IronDioPriest]

No link yet - just happened to see the report on CNN in passing, But they are outright refusing to comply with the House subpoena. I'm not sure what their legal obligation is to submit to such a subpoena, but CNN is presenting it as a two-sided partisan issue.

[charlesoakwood]

Pubbies will be on the 6 O'clock news deriding the WH
and asking 'where is the justice'; what is he hiding and
'why is he hiding it'.

[Pandora]

No link yet - just happened to see the report on CNN in passing, But they are outright refusing to comply with the House subpoena. I'm not sure what their legal obligation is to submit to such a subpoena, but CNN is presenting it as a two-sided partisan issue.

Fox News:

The White House on Friday all but refused to turn over the documents House Republicans have subpoenaed on bankrupt solar firm Solyndra, firing off a letter saying the request would put an "unreasonable burden on the president's ability to meet his constitutional duties."

Er ... what?  Are we expected to believe he'll have to put his jet-setting on hold to personally collect and assemble documents?  I thought he had peons for that ........

White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, in her letter, scolded GOP lawmakers for demanding more documents, noting the Obama administration has already turned over 85,000 pages of documents in the course of their investigation. Without explicitly refusing to comply with the subpoena, Ruemmler repeatedly described the order as "overbroad."

"The Committee's extremely broad request for documents -- now a subpoena -- is a significant intrusion on Executive Branch interests," she wrote, saying she can only conclude the subpoena was "driven more by partisan politics than a legitimate effort to conduct a responsible investigation."

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, questioned what the West Wing was trying to "hide" in a response late Friday.

[jpatrickham]

The smell of cover-up in the morning


By: Hugh Hewitt | 11/06/11 8:05 PM

Examiner Columnist

"Kathryn Ruemmler is the White House counsel, President Obama's third White House counsel, in fact, following Robert Bauer and before him Greg Craig.
Ruemmler has been at her post since June 30. Bauer lasted 18 months in the job, the Siege Perilous of Team Obama, and Craig just a year.

Ruemmler is a formidable lawyer, a partner at the powerhouse law firm of Latham & Watkins before joining the Obama White House, and before that a prosecutor -- of Enron's Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, in fact.

So Ruemmler surely knows what a subpoena means and what its recipient is obliged to do when it comes to good faith compliance.

On Friday, Ruemmler sent Rep. Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Cliff Stearns, chairman of that panel's oversight and investigations subcommittee, a letter rejecting the committee's subpoena for all internal White House documents relating to Solyndra, the now-bankrupt solar panel maker with friends in high places that took a half billion in taxpayer dollars with it into insolvency.

The Ruemmler letter is a work of lawyer's art, turning an ordinary request for documents into a "significant intrusion into Executive Branch interests," one she regrets to conclude appears to have been driven by "partisan politics."

She copied Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who preceded Upton as chairman of the committee, on the letter in an obvious attempt to bring a nonpartisan peacemaker to the process, and Rep. Diana DeGette, the Colorado Democrat who went on record against the subpoena in the subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, saying "I believe White House documents should be produced," -- just not the ones Obama wants to keep private apparently."

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/11/smell-cover-morning?utm_source=11/7%20Opinion%20Digest%20-%2011/07/2011&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20Opinion%20Digest#ixzz1d2B3HtIM

[Libertas]

Push it into Federal Court, no punking out     Repub's!  Not this time!!!

[jpatrickham]

Push it into Federal Court, no punking out     Repubs!  Not this time!!!

All this crap that is going on has to be a direct result of Liberals trying to bait Conservatives. All the outlandish stuff has to be noticed by Congressional Republicans? I seems like we here are the only one's noticing what is going on. It just seems that way, I hope! Just think, we may need to put up with this Circus Olay for another year?

[Pandora]

In a related matter ...

Grassley to White House: Cough up LightSquared docs or I’ll block FCC nominees

Unless the nominees are conservative Republicans -- yeah!  fat chance! -- I want him blocking them anyway.

[warpmine]

In a related matter ...

Grassley to White House: Cough up LightSquared docs or I’ll block FCC nominees

Unless the nominees are conservative Republicans -- yeah!  fat chance! -- I want him blocking them anyway.
[/quote
Grassely should block them anyway after he get's the docs. Play at words with them the same as they do everybody else.

[IronDioPriest]

I'm sure Charles Grassley has them quaking in their boots.

Angry Chihuahua

[Libertas]

In a related matter ...

Grassley to White House: Cough up LightSquared docs or I’ll block FCC nominees

Unless the nominees are conservative Republicans -- yeah!  fat chance! -- I want him blocking them anyway.

 

[Damn_Lucky]

Grassley's a good guy he's my Senator and he was one of the first to find out found out about Fast and Furious and is still pushing for answers.

[Libertas]

The smoking gun?

"Newly obtained emails released by House investigators suggest that George Kaiser, a billionaire Obama donor and chief investor in bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, discussed the company with White House officials, directly contradicting earlier accounts."

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/emails-show-obama-donor-discussed-solyndra-wh

At the very least it could be used to go after a perjury charge and drag more butts into the fire!

Turn up the heat!!!

[BMG]

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/11/16/new-e-mails-solyndra-execs-thought-obamas-energy-dept-was-cared-more-about-appearances-than-sound-business-decisions/

Heavy on image, thin on substance. I don’t think that criticism’s ever been leveled at the Obama administration before.

Remember, OMB was busy reviewing the Solyndra loan in late August 2009 with the groundbreaking on the company’s new factory set for early September. And rather than postpone a big photo op that they wanted to use to promote The One’s green-loans agenda, the hacks in the White House reportedly chose instead to pressure OMB into speeding up their review. We’ve known that for two months, but it’s nice to find out tonight that their priorities were transparent even to Solyndra itself.

[Libertas]

feelings...

appearances...