By: Jeffrey Klein
Political Buzz Examiner

As President Barack Obama spends most of the week traveling up and down the east coast on endless campaign fund-raising charrettes, the intensity and invasive nature of Congress’ hunt for the truth is escalating against he and Attorney General Eric Holder, who both seem to prefer using “head-in-the-sand” defensive measures–essentially making themselves unavailable and having their underlings pitch “sticks and stones” at their antagonists–expecting it all to go away.

On Thursday, there is no doubt that the Republican-controlled House will pass the Contempt of Congress citation against Eric Holder, and pursue a legal challenge to Barack Obama’s extraordinarily last-minute throw down “Executive Privilege,” while the GOP launches it own throw-down for “Independent Prosecutors” in both cases.

The first escalator between Congress and all the President’s men was the seven-page letter from House Oversight Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) to Barack Obama, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News–the first time the network has covered this story since it broke over 18 months ago–as reported on in Kelly O’Donnell’s NBC News article today.

Issa begins by demanding that the president provide a formal, legal justification for the [executive] privilege claim and a list of specific documents covered by it, referencing a 1997 case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in which the court said the privilege should not extend to staff outside the White House in executive branch agencies, as reported in a FOXNews article today.

Rather, the court said, it should apply only to “communications authored or solicited and received by those members of an immediate White House adviser’s staff,” who has the responsibility to formulate advice for the president.

And, he questioned whether Obama was asserting a presidential power “solely for the purpose of further obstructing a congressional investigation,” according to a FOXNews article today.

Rep. Issa also expects an explanation from the president, as to how Eric Holder could tell him that releasing the documents would result in “significant damaging consequences,” just hours after agreeing to provide them to congressional leaders if the investigation were closed.

In addition the letter recounts the history of the case, beginning with the death of border agent Brian Terry, reminding the president that Attorney General Holder provided false information to Congress on Feb. 4, 2011 in a letter–that denied the gun operation permitted illegally bought weapons to cross into Mexico.

As the Justice Department retracted that denial months later, Chairman Issa pointedly states that lying to Congress is a crime itself, and states that the subpoenaed documents pertain to Holder’s denial and internal communications that brought about the subsequent correction.

As a “courtesy” to President Obama, Issa’s letter also provided the quotes from the president’s own public statements, which declared that neither he nor Holder knew about, or authorized, the Operation Fast and Furious.

Then, the Chairman gave Barack Obama the “bottom line,” stating that either the president’s “most senior advisers were involved in managing Operation Fast & Furious … and the fallout,” or the White House is asserting “a presidential power that you know to be unjustified solely for the purpose of further obstructing a congressional investigation.”

Now, Rep. Issa is demanding all the communications between the White House and Justice Department between the date of the false denial letter on February 4, 2011 and June 18, 2012, the day before ‘privilege’ was asserted.

Finally, Issa’s letter rejects criticism that the contempt vote is purely political, and taking serious exception to Holder having referred to the committee’s action as an “election-year tactic;” addressing it by writing that…

…nothing could be further from the truth. This statement not only betrays a total lack of understanding of our investigation, it exemplifies the stonewalling we have consistently faced.

And now, the considered response from White House spokesman Eric Schultz…

The congressman’s analysis has as much merit as his absurd contention that Operation Fast and Furious was created in order to promote gun control. Our position is consistent with executive branch legal precedent for the past three decades … The courts have routinely … affirmed the right of the executive branch to invoke the privilege even when White House documents are not involved.

There is not one learned, clear-thinking person following these stories, for whom ‘connecting the dots’ spells anything but … “Nixon-Watergate.”