The investigation into the botched “Fast and Furious” sting operation moved to a whole new level on Wednesday. A committee vote along partisan lines to cite the Attorney General for contempt of Congress and the President invoking “executive privilege” to protect his cabinet officer raised the heat on an already smoldering situation.
The committee is investigating the details of a botched federal sting operation run by the ATF. The plan was to set up the sale of some 2,000 weapons to known drug gang connections…follow the guns across the Mexican border…and arrest not only the gun purchaser but nab the ultimate buyer as well. Somehow the ATF lost track of the guns and several of them were found at a crime scene where a border patrol agent was shot and killed.
The Republican led Oversight and Government Reform Committee had advised Attorney General Eric Holder that his failure to provide certain subpoenaed documents by Wednesday would result in his being cited for contempt of Congress. Holder said that he was legally prohibited from providing the specific documents that the committee had requested but was willing to find other means of getting the committee the information they were seeking. That was not good enough for the committee. The President suddenly weighed in saying that the requested documents were privileged personal conversations within the executive branch and therefore off limits to congressional oversight. The Presidents invoking executive privilege did not stop the committee from voting Holder in contempt of Congress. The vote went straight down party lines: 23-17.
As we stated yesterday, this is not about a botched gun walking operation. This is about committee chairman Darrel Issa and his Republican committee members attempting to embarrass the Attorney General personally and the Obama administration politically.
The Fast and Furious sting operation originated by the ATF under the Bush administration and continued by the ATF under the Obama Administration. Yet the committee has not found it necessary to subpoena any members of the Bush administration to testify. ATF officials testified they did not notify their superiors of the sting operation; and specifically that the Attorney General had no knowledge of the operation. When the border agent was killed and details of Fast and Furious began to surface it was Holder who shut down the operation. He has provided the committee with over 7,000 documents and appeared before them nine times to testify under oath. As recently as yesterday he offered to provide unprecedented access to the information the committee is seeking without revealing any privileged, personal conversations of members of the executive branch.
Not good enough for Chairman Issa.
The Republicans have wanted to rid themselves of Holder for quite some time. He has been a thorn in their on many issues. He has blocked individual states from suppressing voter rights. He has challenged states anti-immigration laws. And he has refused to defend the Defense of Marriage Act. As a result the attacks by Republicans have come from a wide range of sources. Republican Senator John Cornyn slipped while calling for Holder’s resignation. As he commented on the oversight committee’s investigation he curiously included Holder’s “blocking of state attempts to combat voter fraud…you leave me with no alternative but to join others who call upon you to resign from office.” The NRA issued a statement saying that they would be scoring the vote for Holder’s contempt citation; making it clear that they would hold any Republican voting against the citation accountable. House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who originally told Issa to ease up on the contempt rhetoric, issued a joint statement in support of the committee’s actions.
So what do voter fraud and the NRA have to do with an ATF sting operation? The answer is nothing...nothing but politics.
Darrel Issa and the right wing of the party are forcing the committee to take this action. Naturally the President entering the fray only serves to exacerbate the situation; raising questions about what he may be hiding. Issa is already asking: “what did the President know and when did he know it.”
Lost in all the political noise is the fact that ATF agent Brian Terry is dead and his grieving family members want answers.
While this is just another sad example of how broken our government is, it is at the same time a good day for the President. Because every day the press is talking about ATF sting operations and conspiracy theories… they are not talking about the economy.
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