Todd Akin: 'A Whole Lot Implies Another Watergate'

Thursday was a unique marker in American history, declared U.S. Rep. William "Todd" Akin, R-Wildwood, to Chesterfield Township Republicans' Saturday morning at the group's monthly membership meeting.

Akin, also a U.S. Senate candidate, told the 50 attendees mainly from and Chesterfield that he agreed with the vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress related to his decision to withhold information about a recently mishandled Mexico-related gun-tracking operation.

"I called for his (Holder's) resignation," said Akin at the meeting hosted at the Daniel Boone Branch of the St. Louis County Library in Ellisville. "There's been so much stonewalling. I think it’s pretty serious; a whole lot of recent action implies another Watergate situation. This matter has historic implications."

Akin said he believed the real situational analysis would only be reported through Fox News, because "the liberal media doesn’t want to cover it."

The House voted Thursday afternoon to find Holder in criminal and civil contempt for refusing to hand over documents about government assault rifles getting into the hands of drug dealers at the U.S./Mexico border last February. Drug dealers allegedly used the guns to kill people, including a border guard.

"We (Congress) were assured nothing like that was going on," said Akin. "Then we were eventually told there was some sort of operations, but that we couldn't have the information. This has gone on for a year and a half."

The reportedly flawed gun endeavor was called Operation Fast and Furious.

Akin said whole parts of hundreds of thousands of pieces of paper about the matter were blacked out before given to Congress. "The fact is that 100,000 assault rifles are loose. Who knew about this? And we wanted to know why it happened."

When actions were started this week to hold Holder in contempt, Akin said President Barack Obama used executive privileges outside of his authority to order Holder not to turn over materials about executive branch deliberations and internal recommendations.

Akin said presidential privileges cover communications to the presidency's immediate office, and that his authority does not and cannot apply to Holder. "Why is he trying to protect him?" Akin asked. "Maybe Holder has information the president doesn’t want released. This is the first time this has happened in all of American history."

Akin said in 1974, with the case Nixon versus United States, it was asserted and confirmed that U.S. presidents cannot use executive privileges to cover up criminal behavior. "The attorney who would be handling this case, however, was appointed by Holder. Stay tuned, l think it will be interesting."

"Darryl Isaa, the one (R-Vista, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform) who is going after this, is an imaginative guy," said Akin.

In a letter authored Thursday but released Friday from the U.S. Justice Department to House Speaker John Boehner, department representatives indicated they will not bring the congressional contempt citation against Holder. The letter also indicated department officials will not take action to prosecute Holder.

At Saturday's meeting, Akin also addressed the , which declared 'ObamaCare' constitutional. "It's not surprising, and there's not much silver lining to it, but it did take care of a few issues."

He said the Supreme Court decision on Thursday stopped states from being bankrupted due to huge amounts of Medicaid. "It would have been terrible for Missouri."

He said it tightened the commerce clause but that the "overall decision was a disaster."

Akin said, "We hope for change, but this bill will destroy our country. I fought it for three years. I voted to repeal it again. I'm not going to rest until every last sentence of that bill is gone."

He said there simply is a pattern of Obama and Democrats ignoring Constitutional laws and provisions in several other areas, such as:

• Same-sex marriage
• Religious freedoms and open worship practices
• Immigration
• Tax collecting

Akin has represented Missouri's Second Congressional District since 2001. His area includes municipalities such as , Ballwin, parts of Chesterfield, Kirkwood, Des Peres, Town & Country, as well as excerpts of St. Charles and St. Peters. He said he approaches current political situations through filters of his practical-minded engineering background. Several times on Saturday he referenced his prior IBM work.

He was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1988. Chesterfield Township Committeewoman Judy Hon said as a state rep, Akin's reputation was being one of most conservative members of the caucus.

Editor's Note:  For additional coverage of Akin's presentation to, and interaction with, Chesterfield Township Republicans, return to Eureka-Wildwood Patch. To stay current with community news and events, click here for the free Eureka-Wildwood Patch newsletter.