harriet meyers and josh bolton. >> and the democrats got the documents they wanted. >> it is kind of a charade on all sides. is it a charade? >> it is election year politics. >> if you look in the dictionary under election year stunts, you'll find a picture of darrell issa. >> what makes you believe that issa is capable honorable guy. >> he is the chair of a committee that has the capability of doing this. in an election year. >> historically they have gone after the opposite party. >> this is what he does. and actually nance plows, -- nancy pelosi, last week, a lot of people called darrell issa a loose cannon and she said that is -- that he is actually an explosive device. >> a lot of damage for democrats but [ male announcer ] are you paying more and more and more for cable -- and enjoying it less? upgrade to verizon fios internet, tv and phone for just $99.99 a month, guaranteed for a year with no annual contract. or choose a two-year contract and get $200 back and a two-year price guarantee. fios is a 100% fiber-optic network that delivers america's fastest, most consistent, most

harriet meyers and josh bolton. >> and the democrats got the documents they wanted. >> it is kind of a charade on all sides. is it a charade? >> it is election year politics. >> if you look in the dictionary under election year stunts, you'll find a picture of darrell issa. >> what makes you believe that issa is capable honorable guy. >> he is the chair of a committee that has the capability of doing this. in an election year. >> historically they have gone after the opposite party. >> this is what he does. and actually nance plows, -- nancy pelosi, last week, a lot of people called darrell issa a loose cannon and she said that is -- that he is actually an explosive device. >> a lot of damage for democrats but >>> out of time. bye bye [ male announcer ] it would be easy for u.s. olympian meb keflezighi to deposit checks at the nearest citibank branch. ♪ like this one. ♪ or this one. ♪ or, maybe this one. ♪ but when it's this easy to use citibank mobile check deposit at home...why would he? ♪ woooo! [ male announcer ] citibank mobile check deposit. easier banking. every step of the wa

harriet meyers and josh bolton. >> and the democrats got the documents they wanted. >> it is kind of a charade on all sides. is it a charade? >> it is election year politics. >> if you look in the dictionary under election year stunts, you'll find a picture of darrell issa. >> what makes you believe that issa is capable honorable guy. >> he is the chair of a committee that has the capability of doing this. in an election year. >> historically they have gone after the opposite party. >> this is what he does. and actually nance plows, -- nancy pelosi, last week, a lot of people called darrell issa a loose cannon and she said that is -- that he is actually an issue three. rubio tells all. florida republican senator marco rubio is often named as a possible vice president running mate for mitt romney. the senator is a cuban american, born in miami, and popular with hispanics. previous to the u.s. senate, mr. rubio served in the florida house of representatives for eight years. so, senator rubio appeals to floridians, a crucial swing state which mitt romney must win if he is to become pres

of congress was addressed to josh bolton. i can't speak to the other cases. they never came to a vote on the senate floor. in the house, however, we did take a vote on the floor and the circumstances are quite different. we were talking about political intervention in the hiring of u.s. attorneys or having them retain their positions, the political intervention from the white house & in a very political manner. i think far be it from me to speak about this issue because our elija cummings was so very, very proud of him and the way he had conducted his role in the hearing yesterday, in a very fair way, in a very fair way, but the particulars of the cases are very different and as you know, we won our case and the court ruled in our favor, and i can only speak to our own experience in the house. >> the ranking member yesterday said that if speaker boehner were to bring up the vote to hold it in contempt in the house that he would become one of the most extreme speakers that has ever watched over the house. do you agree? >> well, i -- i defer to the superior kno

josh bolton and harriet meyers. for over 200 years -- excuse me, 200 days we tried to get information from the white house. they stonewalled it, nothing. month in and month out, chairman of the commit, mr. conyers and our leadership said keep trying, keep trying so we don't have to bring the contempt to the floor because we want to exhaust every remedy, but that is not what is being done here. this is something that makes the witchhunt look like a day at the beach. it is a railroading of a resolution that is unsubstantiated by the fact, based on a false premise, coming to the floor of the house in a manner of less than two weeks when we spent over 200 days trying to get word one from the bush administration and these people have gotten thousands and thousands of pages of documentation. that documentation is exculpatory of the attorney general. huh? they're saying that there's an attitude in our caucus that we should not honor the process, but it's coming to the floor. i, myself, intend to stay long enough to vote no

administration if you want to make a comparison, president bush asked for executive privilege for josh bolton and harriet meyers in the u.s. attorney issue. they never had to go to contempt vote because they reached accommodation. they worked for the president. at the justice department, those people don't work in the executive office of the president. that's why i say it's more complicated than saying they don't have a right to it. they do. >> andrea: why don't you say it won't happen, though? >> bob: first of all, i have to go against you about the historic vote. world war ii is historic vote. my birthday was an historic vote. this is not historic. it happened ten times in the bush administration, 14 times in the clinton administration. >> dana: a criminal contempt -- >> bob: no, vote for executive privilege. this went to criminal contempt because darrell issa who knows a lot about criminal contempt decided they wanted to play politics. what they asked for here is internal communication. eric holder does work for the president of the united states. he went to the president because they were

it got really close with harriet meyers and josh bolton with the firings of attorneys when bush was readyleave office. that got as far as the dc circuit court. bush left office and the case was never decided. it looked as though the jim was going to rule that there was no way that the two sides could not work it out. there was no legal precedent to determine who was going to be the winner there. >> what joe said is true, in the case of the u.s. attorneys they've got meyers and bolton in trouble, the same thing happened. and people on the democratic side said wait a second we need transparency. you know why congress is frustrated. >> cenk: quick guys michael steele, former rnc chief this morning saying it might be worse for republicans. any sense that might be the case? i don't know if i believe that. >> well, i don't--i mean, it would mean that michael steele is right for the first time in his life. [ laughing ] i don't see how in the world this is bad for republicans. >> cenk: joe, is this an advantage to the republicans politically? >> there is probably a wash. i would say ultimately it

precedent dictates that this was used in 2007 when it was josh bolton who was at the time the chief of staff to the president of the united states. and it was the same type of -- and harriet miers. >> correct. and a similar situation in terms of the contempt vote and now the sanctions and the prosecution thereafter. and basically the united states attorney's office department of justice is saying look, under precedent that goes back a long time. >> to 1984. >> okay. >> ted olson wrote -- okay. >> ted olson wrote the decision. >> correct. >> highly regarded among conservatives, right? >> and he was a democrat, correct? >> no, no, no, ted olson was a republican highly regarded among conservatives. >> highly regarded period in the legal profession and a scholar so to speak of the legal profession. >> but he was the legal counsel. >> if you are acting under the president's orders and cece telling you i'm invoking my privilege the individual is just following the directive of the president he. >> citing the bolton myers precedent basically the attorney general at the time wrote to nancy pel

former house advise council harriet miers and josh bolton in '07. how much of an impact do you think the vote has for eric holder and the wider implications of the obama administration? >> at this point, it doesn't seem like much. i think that the bigger issue is here for house republicans who look like they have an ax to find with the white house and taking the eye off the ball in terms of the economy and jobs which is what voters are talking about. thomas, i was just on the romney bus tour over the weekend and talking to voters and they really are only talking about jobs and the economy and debt. and this is not something that's resonating with voters throughout in the country at all. >> i want to ask you all to stand by right now. we were going to dip in when congre congresswoman holmes norton was speaking. elijah cummings now has the floor. but richard, either way this goes, is holder now potentially a political liability for the president, especially when we talk about the fact that this is the first time that president obama ever had to use an

issa in the last administration when they were pushing for the contempt vote on harriet miers and josh boltone committee wasn't entitled to that information because it wasn't essential to their legislative function. there is no real theory there has been any serious coverup. most of the theories i think bored on outlandish. i think there is almost a zero chance the committee will win this in court. i will point out as a matter of record. i'm 2-0 on where the courts were going to go. >> i didn't give a showed yesterday on where the supreme court was going to go. by the way, section 2b of the immigration act was declared constitutional. here is the problem. you have got a situation where the reaction by the republicans in the house is legitimate my view because a letter was delivered to the senate and copies to the house that was incorrect as a matter of law and incorrect as a matter of fact. there were false statement in that. it took 7 months for that letter, 9 months for that to be removed. what the house wants is what happened, what was going on and a coverup is never going to be protected.