Opinion: Barr is just the latest sacrificial lamb on Congress’s political altar
Attorney General William P. Barr sits down to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 1. By Henry Olsen Henry Olsen Columnist focusing on politics, populism, and American conservative thought Email Bio Follow Columnist May 7 at 4:23 PM The move by House Democrats to hold Attorney General William P. Barr in contempt of Congress seems like big news. It’s not.
Somehow the republic managed to survive nearly 200 years before what is believed to be the first instance of Congress holding a Cabinet secretary in contempt: Republican Commerce Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were held in contempt by a Democratic-controlled House in 1975. In 1982, a Democratic-controlled House upset with the Reagan administration’s environmental policies launched hearings. Interior Secretary James G.
President George W. Bush’s attorney general, Alberto Gonzalez, wasn’t held in contempt, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of conflict with Congress. Disputes over the administration’s conduct regarding the Iraq War flowed into attacks on Gonzalez’s conduct in a number of areas.
President Barack Obama’s attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. was next in line for such partisan rancor. Republicans retook control of the House after the 2010 elections and immediately began their own investigations into alleged misdeeds and wrongdoing.
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