Democrat congressional rep says you don't have a right to know what Team Obama is doing

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the non-voting congressional representative for the District of Columbia, angrily sputtered during a congressional hearing Friday that the White House should not be held up to scrutiny, saying that there was no right to know what it was doing behind closed doors.

"You don't have a right to know everything in a separation-of-powers government, my friend. That is the difference between a parliamentary government and a separation-of-powers government," Norton said during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing.

It was a huge departure from the usual liberal claim that we must have openness and transparency in government to prevent abuses of power by government officials.  Instead Holmes argued that even the congressional committee charged with oversight shouldn't be asking questions of the Obama administration.

Holmes made the statement while complaining about the committee's Republican majority voting to ignore a claim by the White House that the director of its Office of Political Strategy and Outreach, was immune to a congressional subpoena to testify.  Republicans believe the office is being used to further political campaigning at taxpayer expense, which would violate federal election law.

Here's the vid: