Congress vs. the pres, part gazillion

Members of the House Judiciary Committee today--from both parties--asked President Obama to let that committee review administration documents giving the legal justification for drone strikes on Americans overseas. The committee asked Obama to direct the Justice Department to provide its members with all legal opinions it used pertaining to the use of drones to kill Americans overseas.

Earlier this week the administration authorized the release of such documents to the House and Senate Intelligence committees, which are authorized to receive classified information, but has yet to provide them to the House Judiciary Committee, which is charged with overseeing the Department of Justice.

They asked that the requested documents be provided to the panel by close of business on Tuesday.

Obama has ignored three previous requests by the House Judiciary Committee to review these memoranda.

If you think this is trivial, murky, inside-baseball stuff, think again: Congress is supposed to oversee the operation of the executive, if only to ensure the president is complying with U.S. law. When Obozo tells congress to piss off, no such oversight is possible.

Yes, I realize Obozo supposedly authorized the release of these memos to the Intel committees, but since the question of targeted assassination of Americans overseas would seem to be at least somewhat related to U.S. law, it's hard to see why they wouldn't send a copy to the Judiciary committee.

Oh, yeah, dat's it: Judiciary isn't pre-cleared to receive sensitive classified info. And we know how fastidious the Obozo brigade is about ensuring that no one leaks classified information, eh?