(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.” The feisty response appears to set up a clash between congressional investigators and the White House over the sprawling probe into Solyndra’s finances and the administration’s involvement in the decision to provide the struggling company a $528 million loan with taxpayer money. 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.”
They could have used any excuse but this: “unreasonable burden on the president’s ability to meet his constitutional duties.” When I think of Obama and his relationship with the Constitution, I recall the manager Lou in Major League taking Roger Dorn's contract, throwing it on the ground and pissing all over it. I would have considered " My dog ate my Solyndra notes " before this!
Obama should be getting pretty good by now with all the practice he gets. Does he claim a handicap? Does he play by like Clinton? Some of Clinton's ex-playing partners said he was a notorious stroke shaver, sometimes as many as 20-25 per round. He played by "Smales" rules
(US News) — President Obama’s slow ride down Gallup’s daily presidential job approval index has finally passed below Jimmy Carter, earning Obama the worst job approval rating of any president at this stage of his term in modern political history. Since March, Obama’s job approval rating has hovered above Carter’s, considered among the 20th century’s worst presidents, but today Obama’s punctured Carter’s dismal job approval line. On their comparison chart, Gallup put Obama’s job approval rating at 43 percent compared to Carter’s 51 percent. Back in 1979, Carter was far below Obama until the Iran hostage crisis, eerily being duplicated in Tehran today with Iranian protesters storming the British embassy. The early days of the crisis helped Carter’s ratings, though his failure to win the release of captured Americans, coupled with a bad economy, led to his defeat by Ronald Reagan in 1980.
On Wednesday, President Obama zipped up to New York City to attend three different fundraising events. Occupy Wall Street protesters greeted the president outside the Sheraton New York, the site of one of Obama’s fundraisers, though New York police officers kept the demonstrators penned in what NYPD called “frozen zones.” [...] Sixty-nine fundraisers this year by December 1. That’s an average of more than one fundraiser every five days. (Though, as Obama’s latest New York trip shows, these events are often clustered together on a single day.) This is a blistering pace of rainmaking for the 44th president in 2011. Obama’s fundraising activity surpasses that of predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. According to Brendan Doherty, a political scientist at the US Naval Academy, Bush attended 41 fundraisers between January 1, 2003 and November 30, 2003. Clinton attended 23 fundraisers from January 1 1995 and November 30, 1995.
Does this make us “Second Americans”? Via DC Examiner: President Obama repeated the central line of his “This Was the Moment” speech during the 2011 Tribal Nations Conference on Friday, assuring American Indians attending the event that they will remember, one day, that “this was the moment when we began to build a strong middle class in Indian Country.” “I proposed the American Jobs Act,” Obama said, “to help all Americans, including First Americans, make it through these tough times.” [...] Obama concluded his speech by promising the Tribal Nations that “you’ve got a President who’s got your back.”
Imagine the reaction to a white candidate pitching his agenda for “white America”? Via Politico: Stung by summertime allegations that they neglected their bedrock African-American constituency, the White House and President Barack Obama’s reelection team have cranked up their outreach to black voters, selling the president’s first-term achievements as accomplishments that will pay long-term dividends for the black community. Top administration aides and Cabinet officials have fanned out to black communities, touting those accomplishments — including health care reform, unemployment insurance extensions, public-education overhauls and programs encouraging minority entrepreneurship — and last month, they hosted a summit on African-American issues. As part of making its case, the White House prepared a 44-page report summarizing the president’s agenda for black America and has launched an electronic newsletter aimed at black lawmakers and staff in Congress, along with a companion link on the White House Web page. “We’ve been working so hard on our accomplishments,” senior adviser Valerie Jarrett told POLITICO in an interview last week. “Now is the time to tell our story.”