Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton's Introductory Remarks, CPAC 2012 Ronald Reagan Banquet

At the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Judicial Watch presented The Ronald Reagan Banquet, featuring Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, on Friday, February 10. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton also spoke. Here is the text of his speech:

It is a truly an honor to be here for Judicial Watch and our quarter million strong membership.

For those of you don’t know us, Judicial Watch is an anti-corruption watchdog that investigates and litigates against public corruption. We aim to protect the rule of law and have the old-fashioned mission of advocating for high standards of ethics and morality in our nation’s public life.

The Left pretends to be concerned about good government. But conservatives know that the only good government is small government. We have a government that spends nearly four trillion dollars annually. Corruption will flow into it as surely as light gets sucked into a black hole. We know that big government and big corruption go hand in hand.

So it is no surprise that Washington is embroiled in a corruption crisis. This administration is out of control and our federal government is off the rails. The rule of law is an afterthought and the U.S. Constitution and the limits it places on government are seen as silly fixations of the Tea Party.

To quote CPAC favorite George Will: “The administration’s central activity — the political allocation of wealth and opportunity — is not merely susceptible to corruption, it is corruption.

There have been exceptions, such as Fast and Furious and Solyndra, but Congressional oversight has not kept pace with the tremendous growth of government. We’d need a thousand Darrell Issa’s to even begin to figure out the truths about our leviathan government.

So Judicial Watch stands in the gap on the behalf of the American people.

We use the open records Freedom of Information laws to uncover corruption from federal, state, and local governments. And when government agencies don’t follow the law and turn over documents as they are supposed to – we sue in court to get them. Democrat or Republican administrations – if we think you have something to hide about government corruption, our lawyers will see you in court.

And those of you in Congress, we have our eye on you, too! Nancy Pelosi learned that the hard way. We exposed Air Pelosi, the scandal of Nancy Pelosi abusing the perk of luxury travel on military jets. She treated our Air Force like a taxi service to go on junkets far and wide. Who pays for it? You do.

I have to hand it Speaker Boehner. Because of Air Pelosi, he flies commercial back to his district. Believe me. We’ve checked. Air Pelosi is grounded.

Nancy Pelosi is now in the House minority because she couldn’t be bothered to keep her promises for “the most open, most honest, and most ethical Congress in history.” Let’s see if Republicans learn from Queen Nancy’s mistakes. Given some of the recent news about insider trading by members of Congress, I can’t say I’m optimistic.

Pelosi’s ethics and transparency promises remind you of President Obama’s broken promises, don’t they? Transparency? Forget about that. Health care negotiations on C-Span? Forget about that. No lobbyists in the White House? Forget about that. Posting a bill on the Internet at least five days before signing? Forget about that, too.

Tough standards on so-called government ethics? Ha. This administration has perfected the use of “ethics waivers” for its compromised and conflicted appointees.

Think about that term, “ethics waivers.” Only in “Alice in Wonderland” Washington can you “waive” ethics. Incredible.

President Obama boldly proclaimed that “transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency,” but his administration is addicted to secrecy.

You want White House visitor logs. No.

You want Fannie and Freddie documents about the money they gave to Obama and other politicians. No.

A president who doesn’t want you to know who is visiting him in the White House or why he got big money from Fannie Mae is a president who doesn’t want to be accountable to the American people.

Under the ongoing bailout racket, the federal government continues to appropriate or control – through fiat and threats – large sectors of the private economy. The socialist state rises as our economy falls.

It seems that we’re now in the same sorry spot as we were three years ago when the bailouts/government takeovers “rescued” our economy. Our credit has been downgraded, the stock market is on a rollercoaster, our government continues its gangster ways in attempting to run the private sector, the government-controlled housing market continues to be a mess, and our banks stand on a precipice. Unless our nation reckons with the government corruption behind the ongoing financial crisis, our economy will continue to founder.

We’ve sued to get access to the Fannie/Freddie documents concerning political contributions to Obama and other politicians of both political parties. The “transparent” Obama White House says no one should be able to see these documents.

In typical Washington fashion, Fannie/Freddie took care of both political parties. So Obama’s corrupt secrecy not only protects himself, but also protects his political opposition – including someone running to replace him.

Americans are not fools. Our polling shows large majorities believe political corruption played a “major role” in the financial crisis. President Obama suggests “fat cat bankers” were the chief cause of the crisis.

Let me tell you something about that. Judicial Watch sued the Obama Treasury Department in order to obtain documents regarding a historic 2008 meeting held by then-Bush Treasury Secretary “Hank” Paulson with top bank executives. The meeting was held in the midst of the financial crisis and resulted in $125 billion of “government investments” in our banks.

The documents show that Paulson and other officials, including then-NY Fed Reserve head and current Treasury Secretary and tax cheat Timothy Geithner forced the banks to take the government’s “investment” (and resulting government control). To quote from the talking points for the meeting, the bankers were told to take the government “investment” or “your regulators will require you to do so.”

“Your regulators will require you to do so.” Doesn’t that perfectly express the essence of our big, stupid and corrupt federal government? “Your regulators will require you to do so.” In 2008, our nation’s leading banks heard it from a Treasury Secretary. And now, in 2012, the church is hearing this command from a president.

I must also draw your attention to the bottom of the Obama administration barrel: Attorney General Eric Holder. I’ll get straight to the point. He must go.

Pick your reason – Black Panthers, race-based decision making, abandoning the defense of marriage law, Fast and Furious killings and lies, or turning the DOJ into an arm of the radicalized left – but Holder must go.

Things are so bad at the Justice Department and this White House that, frankly, I fear for the integrity of the 2012 elections.

The Obama machine is attacking voter ID laws while simultaneously pushing – through Justice Department lawsuits and intimidation – massive voter registration of public assistance recipients. The administration is pushing to register Obama’s “Food Stamp Army” in order to stay in power.

“Registering voters can’t be bad,” you might think.

Well if you’re working with the ACORN-front Project Vote, it is a recipe for election fraud. This is the same network that gave us massive voter registration problems (and crimes) in 2008. They’re back and we have the documents (we sued to get them, of course) that show that this ACORN gang is coordinating with the Obama White House and Justice Department on this voter registration “enforcement” push. Having Project Vote/ACORN being involved in Justice Department enforcement of voting laws is like having the Mafia run the FBI.

You can sign up new voters but federal law requires states to also remove dead voters and clean up the voting roll lists. This legal framework represents a carefully crafted compromise by the U.S. Congress to increase both voter registration and the integrity of voter rolls.

The Holder Justice Department simply refuses to enforce this election integrity law.

So Judicial Watch will try to do the job that the Justice Department won’t do. As part of new Election Integrity Project, Judicial Watch is prepared to sue in federal court up to a dozen states that have dirty voting rolls. We know who they are. We’ll warn state and local officials to clean up the rolls to protect the integrity of the elections. And if they don’t, we’ll do what Eric Holder won’t: go to court.

It is simply impossible to have any faith in the integrity of an election where dead people remain on the voting rolls. This is a recipe for voter fraud and stolen elections.

So you can see how Judicial Watch is your watchdog in Washington. I encourage you to join our grassroots movement.

We are here to help you. We are here to defend you. We are here to represent you in Washington and wherever else the rule of law is under attack from politicians who think they are above the law. Our motto is “No one is above the law!”

Thank you.