Let’s recap what the Obama administration’s assertion of executive privilege over documents concerning Operation Fast and Furious did and did not do.

It did not call off the congressional dogs. The House Oversight Committee is pressing forward with contempt action against Attorney General Eric Holder. The Republican majority seems outraged by the action rather than deterred.

It did implicate the White House in a scandal about which it was supposed to know nothing. How else can they invoke executive privilege if the president didn’t have some knowledge? The move has also gotten mainstream and other non-conservative media outlets talking about Fast and Furious.

All in all, this is not what the administration intended when it decided to go the executive privilege route..