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Political Hay
Fast and Furious Breeds Contempt
Might a bestselling book finally blow the lid off the gun walking scandal and the administration’s underlying gun control designs?
Will Attorney General Eric Holder be held in contempt Congress? It’s a question that could be answered this week as lawmakers consider what would be just the fourth contempt action against a member of the executive branch in the last thirty years. Janet Reno was the last attorney general to hold such a dubious distinction.
Rep. Darrell Issa, the California Republican who chairs the House Oversight Committee, is finally losing his patience with Holder. The committee has subpoenaed documents related to the “gun-walking” scandal Operation Fast and Furious. The Justice Department has not forked them over or even bothered to invoke a legal argument for why they don’t have to.
Issa originally scheduled a contempt vote at the committee level for Wednesday, but signaled late last week he would be willing to give Holder a reprieve in exchange for internal documents the attorney general finally seems willing to part with concerning a Justice Department statement to Congress on the scandal that was false and had to be withdrawn.
Holder generously allowed that the “department is prepared to provide documents that, while outside the scope of the committee’s interest in the inappropriate tactics used in Fast and Furious, are responsive to how the department’s understanding of the facts regarding that matter evolved throughout 2011 and how the department came to withdraw its February 4, 2011 letter to Senator Grassley.”
Whether the vote takes place as scheduled or is postponed, it remains unclear whether this will shine a brighter media spotlight on the Fast and Furious fiasco. Under this now-canceled offshoot of Project Gunrunner, federal agents were ordered to allow illegal gun buyers to transport weapons to Mexico. The argument was that this would lead the government to the cartels. Instead the guns didn’t turn up until they were used in crimes, including the murder of at least one border patrol agent and an untold number of Mexican citizens.
Fast and Furious sounds like something out of a movie, and most of the media seems unwilling to pull the scandal into the realm of nonfiction. One exception to this general rule in Katie Pavlich, a young Townhall reporter who wrote the book Fast and Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal and the Shameless Cover-Up. She doesn’t miss a beat when asked why so few journalists cover the story.
“It would complicate Obama’s reelection campaign,” Pavlich says. “Most of the media doesn’t want to tell a story that makes him look bad in an election year so they have been complicit in this cover-up.” She contends that the loss of life makes this far worse than Iran-Contra or Watergate, both of which were media obsessions.
But like Watergate, a key question is what did senior officials know and when did they know it. Issa sent Holder a letter about six Fast and Furious wiretap applications from 2010 that were approved by Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein. Despite the date on the applications, Holder and Breuer have maintained that they didn’t know about Fast and Furious until sometime in early 2011 — after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was slain.
Holder repeated those assertions in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month. “Fast and Furious was a mid-level, regional investigation,” the attorney general maintained. “Mr. Weinstein and Mr. Breuer did not know about the tactics being used in Fast and Furious until the beginning of last year.”
Highly unlikely, says Pavlich, who notes that “in order to apply for and have a wiretap approved, agents must submit extremely detailed information about a case.” In her telling, Holder and other Justice Department officials are stonewalling to protect their political hides.
Pavlich doesn’t even buy the notion that Fast and Furious was merely a botched investigation. She contends that the “emails, documents, and interviews” prove that the Obama administration sought all along to blame American gun dealers for escalating violence in Mexico, with the goal of rebuilding political support for gun control and the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban. In her book, she shows that many of the political appointees close the story haven’t exactly been friendly to the Second Amendment.
One of the rare mainstream media reports on Fast and Furious backs this up: “Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation ‘Fast and Furious’ to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.” And congressional Democrats seldom let an opportunity pass to talk about gun control during committee hearings about the scandal.
Katie Pavlich has written the book on Fast and Furious. Darrell Issa might be getting ready to throw it at Eric Holder.
About the Author
W. James Antle, III, author of the new book Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?, is editor of the Daily Caller News Foundation and a senior editor of The American Spectator. You can follow him on Twitter @jimantle.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (73) | Leave a comment
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Pecos Pete| 6.18.12 @ 6:59AM
Pardons are on the way.
MelvinNC| 6.18.12 @ 7:34AM
This political tête-à-tête makes my butt tired. The Republicans fluff up their chests like Bantam Roosters, squawking, and kicking up a whole lot of dust, but accomplishing little.
If the Republicans are going to cite Eric Holder in contempt then do it. How many weeks has this drama played out and we are further from the truth than when we started.
There is an easy solution to all this. The Republicans need to treat Eric Holder as any other American would be treated. And we all know how the government treats the average American citizen.
TLP| 6.18.12 @ 7:38AM
It's too bad he wasn't using Steroids.
THEN he would be in some deep sh*t, you can bet you're ass, on that.
TLP| 6.18.12 @ 7:35AM
This is all Bullsh*t.
Holder's not gonna do anything, because Issa's not gonna do anything.
Once again, Republicans talk Sh*t. They've been TALKING, for the last 3 Years. They've been THREATENING, for the last 3 Years. Drawing lines in the sand. They couldn't even stand together on a call for this POS Weasel to resign. Mitch McConnell says he's "Not prepared to go that far".
They've pretty much CAVED, at every turn. The've BACKED OFF, from every one of their "Principled Stances".
The Muslim has Run Guns to Mexican Drug Cartels. He's Misappropriated hundreds of Billion$ of taxpayer monies, to line the pockets of his most loyal Campaign Contributors, and Bundlers, throwing them Million$, and sometimes Billion$, for their Mafia Style "Front" Green Companies.
He SUES American States for the CRIME of protecting their Borders. He SUES American States for the CRIME of protecting the Sanctity of the Vote.
He wages Illegal Wars in Libya, and has his Energy and Interior Secretaries FORGE DOCUMENTS for His Illegal Drilling Moratoriums in this Country. He is Destroying our Intelligence Operation's ability to do their job, with HIS constant One Man Wikileaks Show.
HE has declared that HE will decide, from now, on, what "LAWS" are Constitutional, and what ones are not. Which "LAWS" the Executive Branch will Enforce, and which ones they will not.
And the best we could do, was 4 Votes for Contempt.
All good things..................
TLP| 6.18.12 @ 7:51AM
4 Calls for his Resignation.
(Damn it!)
Shadow| 6.18.12 @ 9:23AM
Resignation is not enough. The facts need to see the light of day and the guilty should be imprisoned. The criminal cabal of Obama's administration uses illegal tactics to achieve their goals and launders money to their supporters to be returned to them. This must be stopped!
TLP| 6.18.12 @ 4:45PM
And, we can start with ACCESSORY TO MURDER, for handing over the High Powered Automatic Weapons, used by the Mexican Drug Cartels, to MURDER hunderds of Mexican men, women, and CHILDREN.
I'm just saying.
redwolf6911| 6.19.12 @ 6:53PM
I agree with your comments. Holder is contemptible as is his boss Obama.
TW in SC| 6.18.12 @ 11:08AM
Well, at least they've gone from "haughty looks of derision" to "hands on hips while grimacing heavily". As things have now proceeded to "finger-wagging", I'm pretty sure up next will come the very, very serious, "scolding statements" by such people as Boehner, who's an expert in that field, I'm told.
I did so hope that we would get to "scathing commentary" by the media, which always signals the end of someone's political career, aside from actual hearings on the matter-at-hand.
Holder has masterfully employed the "stamp his little foot" defense along with surgical implementations of "racsist" as-needed.
Boar Hunter| 6.18.12 @ 1:22PM
According to you, the same Republican establishment that has been stymied by this lawless regime for the last three years, that has been unwilling to stop or even impede it's progress on any issue, will suddenly find their manhood when Romney the RINO is elected.
According to you, as soon as Romney is elected, the same cowards who laughably voted to support Holder's continued criminal actions will suddenly come out of the shadowy world of back room deals and appeasement of the communist's currently in power, shrug off the medias contempt of them and do what?
Romney is going to change who they are?
I know it comes as a surprise to you, but these are the same Republican establishment leaders who foisted this gutless coward of a man who changes his mind like the seasons in New Hampshire on us and you think they're character is suddenly going to change from a worm into a butterfly?
I know this may come as a shock to you, but if the Republicans did their job, the Obama presidency would not matter. If Republicans did their job Romney's presidency might.
I stood by you in the past on numerous occasions and naively counted you as a friend. Apparently my support was forgotten or was of no value to you to begin with. As far as I'm concerned the Republican establishment is making you an excrement sandwich and your helping them spread on the mayo thinking that's going to make it more palatable. Well sir, enjoy your lunch. After all you helped make it.
TLP| 6.18.12 @ 4:51PM
I agree with everything you just said, with one little caveat?
It's Romney, or the Organized Crime Family.
I'm more than willing to give Romney a shot.
The alternative, is SUICIDE.
Boar Hunter| 6.18.12 @ 8:28PM
BRUNSWICK, Ohio — Mitt Romney is refusing to say that he would overturn President Barack Obama's new policy allowing some young illegal immigrants to stay in the United States.
The Republican presidential candidate was asked three times in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" whether he would overturn the executive order issued Friday if he's elected in the fall. He refused to directly answer.
Von Mises Jr| 6.18.12 @ 7:38AM
The Election in November is nothing less than a referendum whether we will have a Constitutional Representative Republic with the "Rule of Law," or a tyrannical dictatorship with the Rule of Men.
The Chrysler bailout picked the unions as winners and bond holders whom are only behind AR in bankruptcy law as the losers. The Philadelphia election incident with the New Black Panther Party and other reports from inside the Justice Department clearly shows that blacks will not be prosecuted by this regime, while whites, Asians and Hispanics such as Zimmerman are treated differently. Just last week, Obama announced a new dictatorial power to excuse illegal immigrants between 16 and 30 from prosecution under the law. In this case, their prosecutorial discretion is a farce since the law may account for an individual with extenuating circumstances, but treating groups and sub-groups outside the law is not congruent with our Constitution.
November will be nothing less than a decision for liberty or dictatorial rule.
Boar Hunter| 6.18.12 @ 1:30PM
We will never have a Constitutional Representative Republic based on the rule of law again until such time as the cowards in the Republican party enforce it.
What good is the law without enforcement?
For three years now Obama the vile and his minions of communists have been thwarting the law and no one, not one time, has attempted to hold them to account for violating either the constitution or the law.
BillSaidIt| 6.18.12 @ 3:56PM
The people that elected Obama are not the problem. The problem is Government. Obama shouldn't have even had his name on the ballot.
"First fix government then elect a leader" Thomas Jefferson - rolling in my grave laughing my azz off
aware| 6.18.12 @ 4:55PM
Yes. Yes. Yes!
TLP| 6.18.12 @ 4:57PM
You are still correct.
But, so am I.
Romney is the only other choice.
Period.
Bitching and Moaning isn't gonna change that.
We're way past the stage the stage of wishing there was another choice.
It's Go Time.
EastTexasRancher| 6.18.12 @ 7:38AM
I remember in 2009 Rush Limbaugh wisely saying, "If Congress does not pay attention they will become irrelevant."
I remember the day I knew when we were already there. Thing is Congress has been irrelevant for awhile. Even the Tea Party candidates have sat rather quietly.
Having been assigned to the D.C. area, I always felt it was in the water. So, I took the kids and husband back to Daddy's ranch in Texas, and we drank well water and worked cattle, and did fence repair. That seemed to wash away the effects of the water we'd been drinking.
I knew why Pres. Bush went back to Crawford to chop brush. He cleared his head and dispelled the effects of the same water he'd been drinking.
That place is a totally different universe than the one we all live in.
Don't expect anything but what my old Daddy would say regarding the law. "When it is gone chaos takes its place." And that is what I am seeing for my beloved country.....Greek chaos, because our President shows no respect for the law, and Congress or the Courts cannot enforce it as well.
I am just thankful for ranch living....far from the maddening crowd.
TLP| 6.18.12 @ 8:16AM
And, he WILL call for All Student Loans to be forgiven.
And, he WILL call for all Mortgages to be forgiven.
He will put every city to the Torch, if he thinks it will help him keep his hold on Power.
Everything about this man, screams out "The Omen".
Everything about this man, screams out "Revelation".
Everything about what he is doing, not just here, but around the world, screams out "End of Times".
It's like Germany - circa 1930.
Russia - circa 1916.
Rome, just before the walls fell.
Ready or not..............
Bill84728| 6.18.12 @ 10:20AM
Just a point on a little bit of a tangent. The skewing of America has been going on for quite a while. Whenever you hear someone claiming, quite rationally, that the contributions they made to Social Security entitles them to Social Security payments, just tell them to look up Flemming v. Nestor, a Supreme Court case that says no one has a legal or contractual right to their Social Security money. Congress can take it away any time it wants to. Yes, all those years you were putting tons of money away into FICA, well, that money doesn't belong to you. Tough.
BillSaidIt| 6.18.12 @ 4:02PM
So why give it to Illegal immigrants, the easier you make being illegal a success the more will come - You feed the sob's their just like birds -
TLP| 6.18.12 @ 5:00PM
We DON'T have any right to that money.
Besides.
They Stole It, a looooooong time ago.
creeper| 6.18.12 @ 11:56AM
We in the Midwest feel the same way, ETR. It's as though the people in DC are aliens. They have absolutely no frame of reference for what the average American cherishes.
We need to throw the grifters out...all of them...and keep throwing them out until we get honest representation.
BillSaidIt| 6.18.12 @ 4:17PM
Government can be controled by the people if the government will alow it. Yes the internet can control government by giving the people a voice that carries weight - Congress is yet to pass a 2009 budget 3 1/2 years of kicking the can (aneriCAN) putting all of the government expenses on line to be voted on with a survey of how much to spend or which departments to eliminate. The people decide, as it should be if the peoples representatives can't.
with 400 million people in the USA (LEGAL CITIZENS) WHY DO WE GIVE OUR VOICE TO SOMEONE ELSE
Anthony| 6.18.12 @ 8:09AM
I'm glad TAS is finally getting on this story, it needs to be front and center. "Fast & Furious" is the worst scandal in presidential history.
It is about a regime that despises the Constitution and conceived of a plan that would make Americans appear culpable for gun proliferation.
Instead, you have a president and a A.G., who willfully, allowed weapons to get into the hands of Mexican drug lords, knowing that such weapons could and would be used against American border agents.
Obozo and Holder are acesssories to murder of two American border agents. They, like handing the keys to a car to an intoxicated person and letting him drive off, knew the forseeability of their actions. Obozo and Holder need to be arrested,tried and convicted.
The frauds in the MSM over at MSLSD recently praised Ben Bradlee for his "brave" journalism in Watergate. What crap. Watergate was kindergarten kids compared to" Fast & Furious". They'll be no Ben Bradlee, Woodward, or Burnstein on "Fast & Furious", no Dan Rather with rude, nasty questions to the president.
No, rather we have a rogue regime ruling America, with a weak and feckless R party, save for a few, like Issa, and a corrupt media doing its bidding.
Anybody still think this election means nothing?
Boar Hunter| 6.18.12 @ 1:44PM
The short version of it is that the Gun Runner issue is big down in San Diego where Issa is from. As I have mentioned before, Issa is simply paying lip service to a political hot button issue.
Issa is a coward who will pay lip service to the investigation, but Holder will be out of office before Issa ever acts. Just examine how many times Holder has already lied, impeded and thumbed his nose at the law? How did the Republicans vote concerning Holder?
Holder, the highest law enforcement official in the United States of America is a liar without honor or integrity. Holder needs to go to jail and all of the coward republicans who allow this abomination, this piece of human offal to continue to disrespect the rule of law and discredit the honor of the American people need to be sent home permanently.
TLP| 6.18.12 @ 5:01PM
Agreed.
c. j. acworth| 6.18.12 @ 8:14AM
I'm no legal scholar, so someone fill me in here. What exactly does it mean to be found "in contempt of congress"? What are the consequences for Holder if it happens? Does he lose his job? Serve time? Pay a fine? Get sent to bed with no TV for a week? If something very serious doesn't happen then congress deserves contempt.
Bill84728| 6.18.12 @ 10:06AM
Contempt of Congress is punishable by a term of imprisonment in a federal prison. The Hollywood Six, way back in the days of HUAC, received a year each for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer their questions about their Communist associations (every one of them was a "card-carrying" member of the CPUSA. They served a year. Dalton Trumbo was one of them. He wrote about his experience.
Contempt of court at the federal level is typically limited to a six-month term, but I don't know about Congress. The one-year term may still be in force.
Bill84728| 6.18.12 @ 10:14AM
The Hollywood Ten, not the Hollywood Six. Duh.
Oldefarte| 6.18.12 @ 10:41AM
'..........Following a contempt citation, the presiding officer of the chamber is instructed to refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia;[9] according to the law it is the "duty" of the U.S. Attorney to refer the matter to a grand jury for action.The criminal offense of "contempt of Congress" sets the penalty at not less than one month nor more than twelve months in jail and a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000.[10]While the law pronounces the duty of the U.S. Attorney is to impanel a grand jury for its action on the matter, some proponents of the unitary executive theory believe that the Congress cannot properly compel the U.S. Attorney to take this action against the Executive Branch, asserting that the U.S. Attorney is a member of the Executive Branch who ultimately reports only to the President and that compelling the Attorney amounts to compelling the President himself. They believe that to allow Congress to force the President to take action against a subordinate following his directives would be a violation of the separation of powers and infringe on the power of the Executive branch. The legal basis for this belief, they contend, can be found in Federalist 49, in which James Madison wrote "“The several departments being perfectly co-ordinate by the terms of their common commission, none of them, it is evident, can pretend to an exclusive or superior right of settling the boundaries between their respective powers.” ......'
Bill84728| 6.18.12 @ 12:40PM
By the same reasoning, I suppose it would be conceptually impossible for the local District Attorney to get prosecuted for DUI.
Since that happened in my home, I find the argument that Congress can't force the DOJ to cite the President for contempt a bit laughable.
Everyone under our Constitution is subject to the law. If the DOJ can't start a prosecution of the President, who can?
TLP| 6.18.12 @ 5:07PM
The Muslim has ALREADY been cited for Contempt, by the Federal Judge who denied his request for a Drilling Moratorium, which he put in place, anyway.
The Rule of Law DIED, January 21, 2009.
The Country will do the same, January 21, 2013, should this MFer gets sworn in, again.
Count on it.
Louis Jenkins| 6.18.12 @ 8:36AM
From all appearances we are at the breaking point. Issa has said this and that. Now Mr. Holder, if you don't go to bed I'll...Now Mr. Holder, if you don't stop that I'll... basically, Mr. Issa, either go or get off the pot. Obama has went his own way, ignoring judical procedure, ignoring the decision making of congress, ignoring the constitution, and ignoring the citizenry in general. Holder is at his beck and call. Fast and Furious has become a joke for those of us who were really interested in the outcome. The standard newsmedia has ignored the entire story, and the second line of news, the blogs, are getting disgusted. David Codrea and Sipsey Street Irregulars have kept on the story like pigs on slop and one can understand their discontent.
People in Mexico have died. All for the image of making it look like American gunstores have fueled the fight, when in reality it has been the BATF ordering the owners to let the purchasers walk. How long, Oh Lord, will the miscreants go unpunished? Will Obama and Holder stop running interference? No they will not. An election is in the making, and afterall, the Commander in Lies will have more leaway after he is re-elected.
Get ready America, we've got a long row to hoe.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 6.18.12 @ 8:44AM
I’ve posted this before about four months ago, but the facts haven’t changed, so it bears repeating.
What is bizarre about this story is when one considers the question of what exactly was the DOJ trying to investigate. The Mexican drug cartels make money selling and transporting illegal drugs, primarily to the US. They murder people to protect themselves from detection and eliminate competition. Among the tools they use to do this are firearms, however they are also well know for hacking apart their victims as well (though I am not certain if the USDA and Commerce Department had a concurrent operation investigation to determine the source of the machetes and chainsaws used to accomplish this dismemberment).
Though many of the firearms in the hands of the cartel are of the selective fire military type obtained from deserters or turncoats in the Mexican military or international arms traffickers, this operation sought to open a separate source of semi automatic but powerful weapons that are legal in the US, and lowered the barriers that inhibit straw purchasers to enhance this option for the cartels.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 6.18.12 @ 8:48AM
(cont'd)
And what was this investigation going to prove? Was it to show there are Mexican drug cartels to operate in violation of US drug and racketeering laws? Was it to show that they used murder, violence and intimidation to do this and avoid accountability? Most of those acts are also unlawful here (and maybe even in Mexico). Was it to show that they make massive sums of money from this illegal trade, and violate our treasury laws laundering or smuggling this out of the US? We seem to be pretty effective at enforcing these laws, too.
That the cartels would use a tiny fraction of their profits to come back to the US to purchase legally available firearms in the border states made more available through the intercession of the USDOJ would finally give us the proof necessary to prosecute these criminal organization is absurd.
All logical inferences show that this case had nothing to do with the prosecution of those violating US, or even Mexican law, but was instead undertaken to show that the US is a source country for illegal arms, as a step to “reform” our gun laws.
Holder and every official should have to run a gauntlet consisting of the families of the victims of their misguided and dishonest abomination, with the Terry family at the front, before they are turned over to the Mexican government for prosecution. Any survivors should then returned to the US for same through a gauntlet of American gun owners.
Louis Jenkins| 6.18.12 @ 9:22AM
Mr. Constantine:
A gauntlet would be too kind. The bottom line is to make the USA appear as a source for weapons. Even though it has been proven that more guns are acquired by the cartels from overseas.
JP| 6.18.12 @ 11:29AM
If Holder did in fact break federal laws, he should be sent to prison. It is as simple as that.
anamvet68| 6.18.12 @ 10:31AM
I have been following this from day one. Albert is right on with this post and I have read it before when Albert first posted it. I am very knowledgable about guns and gun "laws". Being, and ex-combat vet (15yrs) and retired Fed. Officer
(one that carries and uses these types of weapons)
Albert has "hit the nail on the head". Mr. O and his subjects at the DOJ are far and away worse than Watergate and Nixon. I was in my late 20's at that time!
Boar Hunter| 6.18.12 @ 1:51PM
Can anyone explain to me why Holder has not been offered a plea deal? Resign now or Jail after trial.
Can the Republicans not hear the outrage of the American People over this and many other issues?
What good are any of them if they won't enforce the law?
Are they waiting for Romney's election?
Anthony| 6.18.12 @ 2:07PM
BH, Why the hell would Holder even contemplate your scenerio? Who on the R side dares make this demand? NOBODY. They're are all cowards. The Ds are silent, unlike the Rs during Watergate, rushing to impeach, to show how honest they were!!!
Besides, Holder thinks Obozo will win, or steal the election, so he feels no heat.
Have you observed him during his testimony? He is brazen, cocky, arrogant, and totally distainful of Issa and the Rs. His leftist contempt drips from his smirking mouth.
Holder's fielty to Obozo came with quid pro quo. In Holder's safe is his Get of Jail Card, it's called a Presidential Pardon.
Boar Hunter| 6.18.12 @ 4:20PM
My comment was meant as satire.
I know good and well why Holder won't resign (Refer to my prior post below Anthony).
The Republicans "in power" right now (In power LOL, that was a good one) are not going to do anything for the exact reason you said. They are COWARDS. Weak willed spineless COWARDS.
Anthony| 6.18.12 @ 1:58PM
A gauntlet works for me, but I'm a plain sort of guy, I'd be happy with just a simple arrest of Obozo and Holder.
Less bloodshed, and no subsequent hate crime repercussions.
Dare we ask, where the F are the MSM?? Hello!!!Is there not ONE honest journalist left in the MSM?? No wonder your days are numbered.
Bill84728| 6.18.12 @ 9:59AM
How depressing that the Department of Justice would stoop to fudging gun transactions so as to point to the use of firearms purchased in the U.S. being used in Mexican homicides as a basis for "controversial" gun control laws.
What happened to the idea that law enforcement lawyers are supposed to adhere to the truth and to be dedicated to administering justice?
Some ethical grievance committed somewhere should be paying attention to this. Oh well, it's just arms so a little padding here and there is OK because gun control is on the side of the angels.
Bill84728| 6.18.12 @ 9:59AM
I should have said "some ethical grievance committee," not "some ethical grievance committed." Sorry.
anamvet68| 6.18.12 @ 10:33AM
Bill, you can correct any of my mistakes any time.
We all need Good "teachers" now and then. Thanks.
TLP| 6.18.12 @ 5:13PM
CBS NEWS, of all places, printed the Emails between Administration Officials, discussing their PLEASURE over the Hundreds of Murdered Mexican men, women, and CHILDREN.
This is CUT and DRY.
Kwan| 6.18.12 @ 10:13AM
Needless to say any Marxist Revolution worth its salt must confiscate all firearms as it cannot allow its Gestapo/KGB/Stasi agents to be endangered when they go out to arrest counter-revolutionaries, refuseniks, and other no-goodniks. This Weathermen Underground/Keystone-Cop plan has backfired on Holder and Obama, and this along with the rest of the idiotic insanity that has taken place in this country since Obama was inaugurated should have sane Americans coming to the rational conclusion it's time for Obama to go.
anamvet68| 6.18.12 @ 10:35AM
One way or another!
anamvet68| 6.18.12 @ 10:36AM
Of course I meant by ALL legal means!
Boar Hunter| 6.18.12 @ 1:53PM
Be careful, next you will be quoting our founding fathers and end up on somebodies terrorist watch list. Oh sorry your a veteran, that already happened.
TLP| 6.18.12 @ 5:15PM
Actually, on top of a Caisson, would be fine, as well.
I'm just saying.
Oldefarte| 6.18.12 @ 10:44AM
Simple solution: Vote the straight Republican ticket in November and hopefully it will result in what lawyers say as CASE CLOSED!!!!!!!!!!!
aware| 6.18.12 @ 5:02PM
What if Charlie Crist, Susan Collins, O. Snowe, or Nanny Bloomberg is on the ballot? Or Linsay Graham? Or....well there are too many to name.
CASE REOPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!
JP| 6.18.12 @ 11:27AM
We all know how this will end. Issa will yell, pound his fists, and then give up. The GOP Establishment does not like to upset their Masters. When it becomes politically expedient, the President will allow Holder to announce his retirement. Holder and his minons will then move on to K-Street, Wall St, or Academia. If the President does manage to win in November, he will nominate an even more crass, progressive partisan. Who knows, maybe it will be Bill Ayers? In the meantime, the victims of Fast and Furious will be forgotten.
J.C.Eaton| 6.18.12 @ 11:38AM
This!! The whole episode exposes structural pusillamity on multiple levels. First, watching the aging drama zombies, Woodward and Bernstein swoon all over themselves in the reflected glory of Watergate, and persisting that it was the most important story since Lincoln's bad theatre experience, and utterly ignoring this one is a howler. Second, if the Mighty D. Issa can't wind up his little testosterone spring and go at this Holder creep with an ax in each hand, what the hell good is he? The libs are larded with mean, offensive,pr--ks, and not afraid to behave to form. I'm not insisting that Issa replicate that level of behavior but at least put out a claw with that ridiculously impotent snarl.
J.C.Eaton| 6.18.12 @ 11:46AM
"pusillilanimity", sorry.
aware| 6.18.12 @ 5:04PM
"pusillanimity", but we get the point.
Petronius| 6.18.12 @ 11:43AM
There will be no votes for contempt for any Democrat for the same reason there were no votes to convict O. J. Do the words, "you'll never eat lunch in This Town again," mean anything to all the plonkers outside the beltway? Issa wants to do it yesterday. But the others have families who they don't want subjected to abuse in public. If they vote for his Contempt Resolution they'll be attacked everywhere they go by Code Pink crapheels, Moveon miscreants, and all the other pond life in the loony left lineup.
Vance P. Frickey| 6.18.12 @ 6:19PM
So WHAT? If that happens... videotape it. It'll make SPLENDID political ad copy.
It's time that conservatives looked down and discovered two bits of anatomy crucial to winning elections. My fellow Cajun James Carville might have been standing behind the door when consciences were handed out, but he has brains and balls, and you need both audacity and analysis to win elections. Obama might be a moron, but he's an audacious moron. Nothing is beyond him, and he is so absolutely un-self conscious about his own record of corruption and self-contradiction, it's legendary.
Conservatism has brains and to spare - the editorial board of the Spectator could out-SAT the entire White House staff and the DNC combined, and that when both Brzezinskis show up for work.
What we seem to lack these days is the sort of gray matter needed to pin Eric Holder against the wall and make him scream for mercy - the polite term is "audacity" - everyone else calls it "balls."
J.C.Eaton| 6.18.12 @ 11:50AM
Don't see it that way. Getting hounded by the Harpies of Code pink would be like wearing a Silver Star. For Pete's sake, if Issa can't run this he ought to shut it down.
CJW| 6.18.12 @ 12:21PM
Holder should not resign. It is better that he remain as a campaign issue to use against Obama. Holder is a puppet doing Obama's bidding. If he resigns it appears that Obama is doing something about the corruption, and removes Holder as a campaign issue.
What is the point of Holder resigning with only six months left in Obama's term?
Romney will and Obama and his crew will be gone. Keep the focus on beating Obama.
irish19| 6.18.12 @ 1:01PM
Absolutely. I want Holder's image to play a prominent part in Republican campaign ads.
Drunken Sailor| 6.18.12 @ 4:14PM
And that is exactly the reasoning I am hoping the Republican powers are using. If not then they should get off their butt and do something. I would like to think they will finally decide to do something soon. Say maybe around late Oct. Should be fresh in the minds of voters. It seems many of them have a short attention span. Then again maybe I am just dreaming.
Who Knows?| 6.18.12 @ 1:03PM
Whatever happened to “the appearance of impropriety”?
Eric Holder is just one of the too-many soldiers in the Obama army that took power in 2008.
In 1933, when the economy was in ruins, Hitler managed to finagle enough votes to become Der Fuhrer. In 2008, BHO dazzled the asleep portion of American voters, and what’s gone on since then is all to predictable.
By all means, the awake and aware voters should continue to rant and rave, and essentially TELL the TRUTH about each of the depredations wrought by Obama’s underlings. However---
Here’s the only two words Obama spoke that matter: I won.
He had the marbles in January 2009, and that means he was going to get 4 years to play for KEEPS, and he has---and, will continue. The 2010 midterms put some limits on his power, but remember, the Dems are the “So what?” party.
I recall an old poll---most people would kill someone (something like that) for a million bucks, if they knew they could get away with it. Obama got away with being elected, and he’s built to try to get away with whatever he can!
From now until the election, he must be mocked and teased, unmercifully, by all means possible. What a rich vein of mock-able ore he has exposed!
Ah, maybe some gutsy reporter will challenge him like Dan Rather did Nixon, only instead of ribbing him by asking if he’s running for some office, he’ll just outright laugh his ass off, and reprise a Jack Paar nugget---
“You’ve got to be kidding?”
sickofit5| 6.18.12 @ 1:39PM
Anyone who has ever worked in law enforcement with either the Bureau or ATF knows that there is no way F&F would have ever gotten started without an Ops plan being submitted and reviewed all the way up in both DOJ and ATF. In this case, with transporting the weapons into a sovereign country being part of the operation, without question, this operation probably went to the top of the Dept. of State. (yes, that means Hilary). That is why Holder is so blatantly lying to Congress. Federal Agencies do not wipe their asses without having a written ops plan. The idea that no one in DC knew about this operation until the Terry incident occurred is laughable. This operation was for the purpose of changing guns laws in this country. Republicans have to stop acting like they are afraid of being called political and they need to get on with it. Holder is playing the republicans like the Iranians are playing his boss.
Boar Hunter| 6.18.12 @ 2:02PM
A most excellent point sir! Sometimes it's the simple things that are most important? Perhaps Issa could obtain a copy of the plan and the chain of command necessary for the approval of this operation?
Boar Hunter| 6.18.12 @ 4:23PM
"I received authorization from" has to stop at some point. Who was the highest ranking person required to authorize this operation.
cicero| 6.18.12 @ 5:08PM
Let me see if I get this right. The awesome power of the Federal government is brought to bear on the chance that an aging baseball player may have used performance enhancing drugs a decade age, when there was no law against it, and no baseball rule prohibiting it, and failed to affirm that fact to a Congressional panel that had nothing better to do but investigate it. Then the same power is brough against a perfectly silly political wanabe for having sustainers, who wanted to be players in the presidential lottery, funnel money to a mistress with kid to keep her quiet while his ailing wife was dying. Before that, the same power pursued to destruction a v.p. aide who may have mispoken about remembering elling someone the name of a governmental agency desk jockey. And that was after it dogged to death a businessman they thought was making too much money exploiting that government's own rules put into place to remedy a fantasy fuel and energy shortage.
Now we have the chief law enforcement officer in the land caught lying about giving guns to criminals, who then shoot police officers, and they won't even back up a subpoena? What the f....!!!
Vance P. Frickey| 6.18.12 @ 6:05PM
Right, right, and right, Cicero. You speak like a book (Katie Pavlich's book, to be specific).
And the biggest story - albeit one never to be told - is how the national media helped cover it all up.
It's one thing for journalists to play the advocacy game. They all do it, from Dan Rather to Rowland Evans, to Robert Novak, to Lou Dobbs.
But to actually ignore what is very likely the illegal funneling of arms from a few illegal gun dealers in order to get massive restrictions of the vast majority of law-abiding gun dealers, gun buyers and gun owners, to the extent that la Familia and other Mexican drug cartels are armed to the limit and American citizens (and agents) are killed with those guns - to ignore it and help the Obama administration cover it up is little short of amazing.
Imagine Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward helping Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman sweep the Watergate break-in under the rug, and flipping Mark Felt ("Deep Throat") off in the parking garage. "Nothing to see here.... "
When it's THEIR candidate whose goodies are in the mangle, the liberal press would cover stuff up. They're more cynical than anyone.
Vance P. Frickey| 6.18.12 @ 5:29PM
It didn't take Barack Obama very long to be the liberal Nixon. Nor did it take Eric Holder very long to be Obama's John Mitchell.
What's puzzling is why the media have not jumped on this story. Like Watergate itself or Iran/Contra, Fast and Furious has all the elements of high-level, politically-motivated malfeasance in office to warm an investigative journalist's heart. With the exception of Katie Pavlich, however, what we have in the nation's mainstream media aren't investigative journalists at all, but political hacks devoted to covering up the malfeasance themselves.
The cover-up of the cover-up of Fast and Furious is the story of how the national news media are trying to help Barack Obama stay in office. It's an indictment of how biased they are and how corrupt they are.
And if Fox News were to cover it, all they'd get for their effort is lied about by the national media and the political hacks whose backsides they kiss.
Eagle Creek| 6.18.12 @ 10:42PM
Gaetano Lucchese.. Joseph Bonanno..
Carlo Gambino... Vito Genovese...
John Gotti... Alphonse Capone... Do these names sound familiar ? You can add Barack Obama to the list... Barack Hussein Obama is a mob boss...
Eric Holder is a "made man" and is therefor untouchable.... 1 "capo" in the Obama syndicate is Jon Corzine, the son-of-a-bitch STOLE 1.2 billion in customer funds from MF Global, and where is he today ? why, he's bundling cash for Obama's re-election...
Every member of the current congress is a coward.. Greedy, Morally Bankrupt gasbags the entire lot of them !! They all know Obama is illegally occupying the White House, and not one of them has the stones to do the right thing for the country... The constitutional republic is effectively
dead
bankrupt gasbags
oldeham| 6.19.12 @ 5:53AM
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