AP Photo

Close

Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday that he is still holding out hope that his dispute with House Republicans over Fast and Furious documents can be resolved without his being held in contempt, a move he called "unwarranted."

"We put before the committee a proposal that would have allowed for the resolution of that matter consistent with the way in which these have been resolved in the past, through negotiation," he told reporters in Copenhagen, according to Reuters. "I think that the possibility still exists that it can happen in that way.... The House leadership has to consider now what they will do, so we'll see how it works out."

The House Oversight Committee voted on Wednesday to recommend that Holder be held in contempt after he declined to turn over documents it was seeking in its probe of the defunct Fast and Furious Operation. 

"The action that the committee took yesterday was unwarranted, unnecessary and unprecedented," Holder told reporters Thursday, Reuters reported.

But Republicans appear dead set on pushing forward. The full House is set to take up the contempt measure next week. 

The New York Times reports that one of President Obama's vocal allies on Wall Street is being reined in by his employer.

Robert Wolf, chairman of the Americas for UBS who has lauded Obama's policies in statements to the media, now is not talking to the media, the Times reports:

The tension within the bank boiled over after Mr. Wolf found himself profiled in a number of media reports. The Wall Street Journal in April called him “A ‘Fat Cat’ with the President’s Ear.”

A few weeks later Mr. Wolf was presented with an e-mail reminding him of the firm’s policy on media relations, which his bosses thought he had violated. That document contained specific language outlining what was expected of his relationship with the media.

“You will clear any and all communications with the press as far in advance as possible,” the directive to Mr. Wolf read. “With respect to activities outside UBS you will, on a best-efforts basis, keep corporate communications informed.”

Wolf is one of Obama's top fundraisers. He has golfed and vacationed with the president. And as the Times notes, he is "known for e-mailing friends photos of himself with the president." That may have been impressive to other bankers in 2008, but not so much now, when the president's relations with Wall Street have chilled considerably.
 

The Obama campaign released a new ad Thursday aimed at women voters, a crucial voting bloc that could make the difference in November.

The ad, "First law," touts the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill Obama signed into law when he took office. The spot will go on air in in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, and Virginia, the campaign said.

AP Photo

Close

Obama camp spends more than it raised (POLITICO || Abby Phillip)

Obama losing mega-donor race (POLITICO || Vogel & Phillip)

CIA playing a role in arming Syrian opposition (New York Times || Eric Schmitt)

Spending on ads against health care triples that on ads supporting it (New York Times || Abby Goodnough)

AP poll finds Obama leading Romney 47-44 (Associated Press || Kuhnhenn & Agiesta)

Michelle Obama sweeps through Colorado (Denver Post || Tegan Hanlon)

NEW ORLEANS — Vice President Joe Biden used a speech to a conference of journalists here Wednesday to poke fun at his own loose-lipped reputation.

"Make sure of two things," he said, recounting what he'd learned in 40 years in national politics. "Be careful — microphones are always hot, and understand that in Washington, D.C., a gaffe is when you tell the truth. So, be careful."

Speaking to the National Association of Black Journalists, which opened its annual conference here Thursday night, Biden didn't touch on the two White House issues that have been most in the news lately — Wednesday's committee vote to send a contempt vote for Attorney General Eric Holder to the floor of the full House, or last week's announcement of changes in the administration's deportation policy.

But to what organizers estimated was 2,200 journalists, media professionals and journalism educators, Biden called Romney’s social policies “throwbacks to the '50s." He said that the poor aren’t looking for a handout — just that everyone has to do their part.

AP Photo

Close

Must we respect the office of the presidency? (New York Magazine || Jonathan Chait)

Insider poll: Legal experts expect SCOTUS to strike down individual mandate (Yahoo! News || Chris Moody).

Obama’s over-the-top stats for "under the bus" (Washington Post Fact Checker || Glenn Kessler).

Hillary Clinton's travelogue: 100 countries (USA Today || Richard Wolf).

And #fastandfurious tweet of the day: Paul Walker (POLITICO Click || Caitlin McDevitt).

In the aftermath of a Wednesday vote by a House committee accusing Attorney General Eric Holder of being in contempt of Congress, the attorney general accused the panel's top Republican Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) of provoking a partisan showdown between the branches of government.

"He has chosen to use his authority to take an extraordinary, unprecedented and entirely unnecessary action, intended to provoke an avoidable conflict between Congress and the Executive Branch," Holder said in a statement.

"This divisive action does not help us fix the problems that led to this operation or previous ones and it does nothing to make any of our law enforcement agents safer.  It's an election-year tactic intended to distract attention -- and, as a result -- has deflected critical resources from fulfilling what remains my top priority at the Department of Justice:  Protecting the American people," Holder said.

Vice President Joe Biden surprised recent graduate Carly Burns with a phone call after meeting her parents at a California fundraiser, the Sacramento Bee reports:

"Hello, this is Vice President Joe Biden," the caller said.

She thought it was a joke.

It wasn't.

Carly's mother and father, Dina and Michael Burns, the latter a partner in KP Public Affairs, had shaken Biden's hand minutes earlier at a fundraiser in the Sutter Club. They mentioned that their daughter had just graduated from the University of Oregon, had studied abroad in Tunisia, had been inspired by him, and had kept a newspaper from Election Day 2008 on the wall of her room.

"He said, 'Oh, get her on the phone,'" Dina recalled.

AP Photo

Close

The category: THE OBAMAS

The clue: First Lady Michelle Obama will quiz contestants on Wednesday's episode of this popular game show.

The correct response: "What is Jeopardy?"

The show announced in a video that the first lady would be a guest on the program — but did not say what category she would read to contestants. Obama, however, has been on a tour promoting her new book "American Grown" — and a gardening or food-related category wouldn't be surprising.

The White House is responding to allegations of a coverup from House Speaker John Boehner by accusing him and other House Republicans of playing politics.

The statement by White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer:

"With millions of Americans still struggling to pay the bills, Republicans announced at the beginning of this year that one of their top priorities was to investigate the Administration and damage the President politically. We are ten days away from the expiration of federal transportation funding which guarantees jobs for almost a million construction workers because Congress hasn't passed a transportation bill.  We are eleven days away from nearly seven and a half million students seeing their loan rates double because Congress hasn't acted to stop it.  But instead of creating jobs or strengthening the middle-class, Congressional Republicans are spending their time on a politically-motivated, taxpayer-funded election-year fishing expedition.

The problem of gunwalking was a field-driven tactic that dated back to the previous Administration, and it was this Administration's Attorney General who ended it. In fact, the Justice Department has spent the past fourteen months accommodating Congressional investigators, producing 7,600 pages of documents, and testifying at eleven Congressional hearings. Yet, Republicans insist on moving forward with an effort that Republicans and objective legal experts have noted is purely political.

Given the economic challenges facing the country, we believe that House Republicans should work with the rest of Congress and the President to create more jobs, not more political theater."

On the heels of President Obama's decision to shield Department of Justice documents under the doctrine of executive privilege, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner wondered if White House officials were being involved in a cover-up.

"Until now, everyone believed that the decisions regarding ‘Fast and Furious’ were confined to the Department of Justice," Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement.

"The White House decision to invoke executive privilege implies that White House officials were either involved in the ‘Fast and Furious’ operation or the cover-up that followed. The Administration has always insisted that wasn't the case. Were they lying, or are they now bending the law to hide the truth?” Buck said.

Administration officials dispute the implication, pointing to several cases under Republican administrations where executive privilege was invoked on behalf of agencies.

Executive privilege is not explicitly mentioned in the constitution, but has been recognized by the courts in several instances. The conflict sets up a showdown between Attorney General Eric Holder and Hill Republicans, who are scheduled to hold a contempt vote against Holder later today.

POLITICO's John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman have the full story on the homepage.

The conservative group Concerned Women for America is launching a six-state, $6 million ad campaign against President Obama's signature health care law.

"Our members are highly energized on the aspects of the President's health care law; we are making a significant financial investment on this issue because we mean business," the group's president Penny Nance said in a statement. "As the Supreme Court decides the fate of government-mandated health care, we must continue to seek real reform, not President Obama's plan which costs hardworking taxpayers too much money and gives Washington too much control over our personal health decisions."

The ad will air in several states where the airwaves are already crowded with campaign and super PAC ads, including Virginia, Iowa and New Hampshire. It will also air in more traditionally blue states like Minnesota, New Mexico, Wisconsin.

And the ad is airing just as the Supreme Court is poised to rule on the constitutionality of the individual mandate at the heart of the law — with decisions expected either this week or next week.