Red Alert Politics:
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton played down the importance of government transparency during a House hearing Friday, speaking out against Republican-led attempts to compel a White House official to appear before the Government and Oversight Committee.
“You don’t have a right to know everything in a separation-of-powers government, my friend,” Holmes Norton, the nonvoting delegate that represents Washington, D.C., said. “That is the difference between a parliamentary government and a separation-of-powers government.”
The White House official in question, David Simas, leads the White House Office of Political Strategy and Outreach. The committee subpoenaed Simas on July 11 to testify July 16, but the White House counsel’s office informed the committee one day prior to the hearing that he would not appear, citing immunity from providing congressional testimony. The committee responded July 18 that the White House’s position was contrary to judicial precedent, and that it expected Simas to appear before it Friday, when the hearing was reconvened.
Simas failed to appear Friday, prompting the committee majority to approve a resolution that “rejects the claim made by the White House that Mr. Simas is immune from congressional compulsion to testify on matters relating to his official duties.”
Hitler said the same thing. So did Stalin.