Lois Lerner Held In Contempt... Big Deal

Yesterday the House of Representatives voted to hold Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer any questions asked of her by the House Oversight Committee. Although she opened her testimony period by asserting she did nothing wrong, she immediately began invoking her Fifth Amendment rights when questioning began. House Republicans say if she asserts her innocence at the beginning she waives her those Fifth Amendment rights.

The decision to hold Lerner in contempt will most likely be a waste of time and money. Unlike a judge, the House has no authority to immediately jail someone when they're found in contempt. The contempt charge is referred to the Justice Department for possible action. Gee - guess who gets to make the decision whether or not to prosecute Lerner....  the only other person currently held in contempt of Congress.

That same person, Eric Holder, has been held in contempt of Congress for nearly two years for refusing to cooperate with the Fast and Furious investigation. Holding him in contempt was purely symbolic since his department is the one that decides whether or not to prosecute him. I'm sure there are some AUSAs out there who would be happy to do it but the decision would come from his Assistant Attorney General. And who believes that's going to happen?

In other news, last night I listened to an exchange by Megyn Kelly and Chris Kofinis, a Democrat strategist. They were discussion the new select committee on the Benghazi incident and Kofinis said "The State Department already did an independent investigation" along with the other hearings that had taken place so there is no reason for the select committee to find out what really happened.

Here is the problem with that logic. First - does anyone expect that an internal investigation of the Benghazi fiasco, in which former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is implicated as being a participant in the cover-up, is going to accomplish anything positive? That's how the current administration operates.

An internal investigator (an IRS attorney and Obama supporter) was appointed to investigate the IRS targeting of conservative groups. After about two weeks the President declared on national television there is "not a smidgen of corruption" in the IRS. That investigation is supposedly still ongoing even as evidence shows the targeting is still occurring.

The Justice Department did an internal investigation of the Fast and Furious gun walking incident, during which 1 Border Patrol agent and hundred of Mexican citizens were killed, and found that while some people in the field needed "criticism and possible disciplinary action". Two people left after the report was released. One retired and one resigned. The report further stated that top Justice Department officials knew nothing about the Fast and Furious operation while it was ongoing.

So apparently we are simply supposed to accept reports from internal investigations that continuously, without fail, find that there is nothing to report. We shouldn't worry that the Obama administration might not be telling the truth.

After all - everyone knows you can keep your health insurance and your doctor.