Saturday, May 15, 2010

WATCH: Holder Deflects Questions on Sestak Bribe Claims

 

California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa today aggressively questioned Attorney General Eric Holder over Rep. Joe Sestak's suggestion that he was offered a high-ranking Obama administration job in exchange for dropping his Pennsylvania Democratic primary challenge against Sen. Arlen Specter.

Issa has called for a special prosecutor to investigate Sestak's claim. At a Justice Department Oversight committee hearing today, he pressed Holder on why allegations Issa cast as "bribery of public officials," among other violations, were not being investigated by the Justice Department.

Issa complained that no witnesses have been questioned and expressed consternation that the White House has only addressed the matter through press secretary Robert Gibbs, who has said that any conversations between the White House and Sestak were "not problematic."

Holder told Issa that the appointment of a special prosecutor is something that is "done on a case-by-case basis," prompting Issa to interrupt and ask how this situation did not fall into that category.

Holder said "there are regulations that are in place and there are requirements that have to be met before a special prosecutor" can be appointed, noting that the matter calls to the Department's public integrity section. We need to start seeking criminal actions on this admin. And Eric Holder needs to go. He is inept at what he does and he can't answer a question. It is obvious they are trying to hide criminal actions by this admin.

16 comments:

  1. Wow, thats sounds eerily like the statement of Attorney General john Ashcroft when questioned about the Nick Smith Bribery case.

    Attorney General John Ashcroft: Well, we, obviously, frequently receive information in which individuals bring to our attention things that they think are appropriate for our attention, and we consider those very seriously.
    —Justice Department press conference, Dec. 11, 2003

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  2. Sir,

    I am only directed to your blog via your posts on the Macomb Daily. I appreciate a vibrant discussion of the issues and certainly support local bloggers in their efforts.

    I certainly don't agree with many of your premises regarding public education, but I don't begrudge you from voicing your opinion. In viewing your site, though, I would encourage you to cite your sources-as a public school teacher, we work hard to teach students how to write, both in construction and in ethics-if one lifts material from another source, you must provide that link. I think it would be a service to your readers and bring you and your opinions credibility.

    For the record, I am a right-leaning public school teacher and I would love to have the chance share some of my thoughts regarding public schools with you-an open debate/dialog on your blog would be excellent.

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  3. Hey Joe Lets Investigate Both Allegations SEE What Happens! Holder Seems To Be Doing A Waltz And The Band Is Playing A Polka!

    At The Very Least He Is Inept and At The Very Most Hes BSing Congress. SO Lets Have Investigations. But That Will Happen About As Fast As Congressional Hearings On Fanny Mae/Freddy Max.

    Your A Finger Pointer Joe And That Accomplishes Nothing. A Crime Is A Crime No Matter What Politicans Commit Them But You Progressives Just Keep Looking In That rear View Mirror Or A VERY Dark Place! Either Way Your A Hypocrite. On With Investigations!

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  4. AL, First lets have AG John Ashcroft investigate the Nick Smith case as its been languishing a few years. Wait, what do you mean that John Ashcroft isn't AG anyore? When did that happen? He resigned in 2005, so perhaps we can get the next AG to investigate. Wait he's gone too. 2009 you say?

    Damn you mean two republican AG's didn't investigate the bribery claim despite the fact that it was asked for? I guess us democrats will jump right up on this investigation with the speed and diligence of our rightwing counterparts. Which at this point is when AL?

    Never, thats it. Never. Take your hypocritical ass back home and stop with the crocodile tears brother. And yes, two wrongs are sometimes just how it gets played out. Ain't right, but neither is your hypocritical partisan bs either.

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  5. Joe I Said Investigate All Alledge Crimes By All Politicans And Still You Aint Satisfied. BYE!

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  6. I would be glade to. I will do something on Mon. Today I am busy. Please call me Chris. This is an informal and open blog. I let debate take it's course. I'm not a good writer nor speller. But I'm trying. But I don't mind if you correct me. This is that last place I should be. I'm also way out of my comfort zone when it comes to using the computer. Our government run educational system is broken. It's been broken for a very long time. We have tried to do it the unions way,Bush's way,admin. way. I think we need to look at the systems in the private school and the private learning centers that do it all and better at a lower price. We need to look at other countries. And we need to do it soon. I'd love to see great teachers get great rewards and bad teachers get fired. Those teachers get all the press and make union teachers look bad. Union should mean quality and excellence for all parties. Why should our kids suffer with a bad teacher just because the union says so?

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  7. I look forward to your post and to a lively debate. I don't disagree with you that there are systemic problems, but I do take issue with the notion that private/learning centers 'do a better job.' The number one deciding factor in the future success of a child in school is their parents and the attitude and involvement with education they have. By nature, students in private schools and students in learning centers (Sylvan? Not sure if that's what you mean) have involved parents. That is a big help. Public schools, unfortunately, deal with too many students of parents who are not there for their children, and their kids know it. That makes the public school's job extremely difficult.

    I look forward to the conversation.

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  8. Andy,

    You use the term systemic and I believe that is appropriate. I also agree that parents are essential.

    Now look into history (you may be adverse to that term?) and you will see that the parents of said children are a product of that very same systemic appartus - public unions.

    You have little ground to stand on Sir.

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  9. You nailed is Chris. Know how I can tell?

    Batman Joe immediately changed the subject and started talking about ancient history.

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  10. How do you explain those from the public school system that become successes? Just anomalies that made it despite terrible odds? How do you explain those from the private school system that fail?

    There's something more to the story here than merely public schools=bad. Private schools=good.

    I also don't understand your 'history' comment. I teach history, I know history. Historians attempting to find connections between yesterday and today need evidence to substantiate their claims. You have failed to do that, only to offer a straw man argument that fails to advance this discussion.

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  11. Andy we all know parent play a large part in educating their kids. But why is it that when our kids enter kindegaten they are at the top in the world but by the time they get to grade school and then high school they progessively get worse? What changed? It wasn't the parents? It was the school system.

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  12. Andy How do you explain the successes of the parochial schools and the failers of the public schools? That is your straw man isn't it? Not all teachers and schools are bad. In fact most teachers are good. The system is bad. There are some kids that beat the odds and there are some kids that swim against the stream. But some good kids from public school means nothing and you know it.

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  13. The success and or/failure of any school can only be anecdotal. I would put my public school against any private school-and I'm confident that we offer the best education one can find-at far lower a cost than local prestigious private schools. The canard that private schools do it better for cheaper is unsupportable. Some likely do do it better for cheaper than SOME public schools. Some do it better for more money. Some do it worse for cheaper, and some do it worse with more money.

    The Stossel piece. Really? I would love to have my students dissect it for faulty logic, poor reporting and outright bias. Stossel certainly has an agenda, and he reports only to that agenda. Even in his piece he admits that there are good public schools! So, that must not be the root of the problem, maybe there's something more (see the Wison quarterly piece below)

    See: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2894

    I also think you might be interested in seeing this regarding the international rankings: http://wilsonquarterly.com/article.cfm?AID=1176

    Your point on the US having the finest post-secondary schools in the world-I couldn't disagree, but on two fronts, you must agree. Many of the finest are publicly funded (though, allowed to run far more independently than primary and secondary schools) AND they're mostly stocked with products of the American public school system. If we are producing such drivel, how are the colleges doing so well?

    Regarding NCLB. Again, we probably agree that schools control should rest in the local communities. Leaving 'no child behind' is a lofty goal that was hard to vote against, but it's not good legislation. States are not measuring by the same yardstick. (Michigan is one of only four states that requires ALL Students to take the ACT in 11th grade- the reason Michigan students are at the bottom of the list in ACT scores-and the notion that EVERY student must pass the state test (by 2014) is ridiculous. I can tell you first hand that an unfortunately large percentage of students don't even try on their MEAP/ACT, skewing the results for the schools down. How do we combat this? The state tried to throw money at the test, that didn't work.


    (Before alerting the authorities, I had to stay home from school today with my sick children)

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  14. Andy just look at the MEAP scoars and they will tell you all you need to know. Do you really think people would be paying for a private education when you say a free one is as good or better? That is funny. Andy there are no real public funded schools that are solly publicly funded. They get public assistance but they are funded by the students and other fundraisers. What a bonus to get the government on your side paying for it all. If private universities had a doner like the fed things would look a lot better.

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  15. Andy I hope your children feel better.

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  16. AG Holder is hiding President Obama's criminal act of bribery. That is clear. However, you’d think a person with a law degree (even from Harvard Community College) would know if it’s a crime. I guess doing things the ‘Chicago way’ is so ingrained that crimes just happen as everyday business.

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Please keep it clean and nice. Thank you for taking the time to post you thought. It means a lot to me that you do this.