What Sharyl Attkisson says about Congressional oversight will likely sober up celebratory Republicans

During an interview with Sharyl Attkisson just prior to election day in connection with her new book, "Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington," Attkisson made an assertion likely to temper the expectations of celebratory Republicans expecting Congress to doggedly pursue investigations of presidential malpractice and federal government abuse.

In response to a question about information likely to leave the Department of Justice with Eric Holder when the attorney general steps down, and whether Congress or the media will be able to uncover information heretofore withheld by Holder and his colleagues, Attkisson told us:

Congress has gotten in some respects like some in the media, where according to members themselves and their staff, there is not the appetite to do the hard-nosed investigations and oversight that they used to do.

Attkisson continued during the portion of our interview beginning at around 27:24 below:

They just kind of want to get along.

They want to pound their fists and look like they're doing something, but they won't carry it through to fruition.

It's kind of like what I see in the media.

...But if Congress were to get very serious and push hard to get information that's been withheld for several years on a lot of matters, maybe we'll get some of it.

But as you know, in the recent past when Congress has asked for information, federal agencies are just thumbing their nose at Congress.

...The federal agencies can just ignore these requests from Congress.

And the only thing that seems to be getting past that is if somebody bothers to file a lawsuit  whether it's members of Congress or the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch.

[sharequote align="center"]"They want to pound their fists and look like they're doing something, but...won't carry it through"[/sharequote]

Attkisson added that the media will likely not be helpful in such an investigation:

If Congress gets aggressive about it, the press might follow it.

But I don't think the press really thinks there's much to be found when Eric Holder leaves office.

I mean if you ask most of the managers who decide what good stories are, they're simply Republican phony fake scandals, and when he leaves why should there be any particular follow-up.

During the interview, we also had a chance to cover a number of other topics including:

[instory-book ISBN="9780062322845"]

• Ms. Attkisson's take on the irony of the Obama administration's press release two days before the publication of "Stonewalled" on the "First-Annual International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists"
• Attkisson's reaction to Media Matters' attempt to smear her
• The anatomy of a stonewalling
• Why there is less investigative journalism occurring than ever before despite the mass of areas ripe for investigation
• The intellectual laziness of the mainstream media
• The surveillance of Ms. Attkisson's computer
• "Fast and Furious," and why President Obama invoked executive privilege to withhold documents including Ms. Attkisson's own information requests
• The four things we still need to know about Benghazi
• The curious questions surrounding General Petraeus and why he was forced out of the Obama administration
• How CBS sat on information that protected President Obama on Benghazi
• The tragic story that Attkisson has been pursuing on a government study of extremely premature babies gone horribly wrong

Note: The link to the book in this post will give you an option to elect to donate a percentage of the proceeds from the sale to a charity of your choice. Mercury One, the charity founded by TheBlaze’s Glenn Beck, is one of the options. Donations to Mercury One go towards efforts such as disaster relief, support for education, support for Israel and support for veterans and our military. You can read more about Amazon Smile and Mercury One here.

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