ChutzPah! Obama Blames America For Drug Violence, Blames U.S. GUN SMUGGLING!!

Pure, unadulterated chuzpah!

President Obama spoke in Mexico today, talking about how he sees a 'new Mexico emerging' along with the usual rhetoric about how Mexico and the U.S. should be equal partners, deepen their relationship, the normal stuff you would expect.

But then there's this gem. As Reuters reported, he blamed the drug- violence in Mexico on the United States because- wait for it - much of the violence is centered around the Americans' demand for illegal drugs and the fact that guns are smuggled into Mexico from the United States.



Did he mention that he and his attorney general were responsible for a significant part of that weapons smuggling via Fast and Furious, a scheme to buy weapons illegally here through straw buyers, traffick them illegally over the border and sell weapons directly to the cartels that they didn't even bother to tell the Mexican government about beforehand? No 'coordination' there! He even took a shot at 'gun shops along our shared border'...the same his ATF coerced into selling illegal weapons to straw buyers even though they objected!

Did he take any personal responsibility? No way amigo! Blame it on 'America'.

He's simply shameless. Absolutely everything is somebody else's fault.

Simply disgraceful.

Fast And Furious Gun Linked In Murder Of Mexican Beauty Queen

Maria Susana Flores Gamez, Miss Sinaloa was murdered in an incident this weekend in a shootout between members of the Sinaloa drug cartel and Mexican soldiers. She was apparently used as a human shield by the cartel shooters.

She was just 20 years old.

Found near her body was a Romanian AK-47-type WASR-10 rifle purchased by Uriel Patino at an Arizona gun shop in 2010, as part of the Fast and Furious operation. Patino allegedly purchased 700 guns while under the ATF’s 'sponsorship'.

Sn. Gamez isn't alone. So far, over three hundred murders have been linked to firearms walked over the border because of 'Fast and Furious', an operation of the Obama Justice Department that saw straw buyers purchasing over 2,000 weapons from Arizona gunships under ATF supervision, with the owners of the shops ordered to cooperate and ask no questions by the ATF.They didn't even bother to inform the Mexican government or coordinate anything with them.

You see, the Obama Administration isn't really against guns - just in America. They were apparently fine with shipping guns to Mexican drug cartels.

Sharryl Atkinson, the reporter on the linked CBS story is one of the few reporters in the mainstream press who has been actually covering this scandal. In a Republican administration, 'Fast and Furious' would have been screaming headline news, with the media calling en masse for the president's impeachment or resignation.

Someday though, I'm convinced that the ghosts of SN. Gamez and the other Mexicans who were murdered because of 'Fast and Furious' will receive justice.

One way or the other.

Fast and Furious is one of the few times I've actually felt like I had to apologize for my country.

Major Fast And Furious Report Out Today

 
A major report on Fast and Furious is out today, and it was an obvious attempt by the Obama Administration to find a fall guy or two and protect AG Eric Holder at all costs.

The long-awaited 400 page report was issued by the Department of Justice Inspector General hit a whole slew of federal agencies for the operation that had the Department of Justice buying thousands of weapons and shipping them to Mexican drug cartels, resulting in the death of over 300 Mexican nationals and Brian Terry, a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

 Here's a shocker...this internal probe of the DOJ, by the DOJ, while spewing condemnations at the irresponsibility of a few carefully selected players found “no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was informed about Operation Fast and Furious, or learned about the tactics employed by ATF in the investigation.”

Not only that, but in an unprecedented move , Attorney General Eric Holder, who was one of the people who was supposedly to be investigated  was allowed to view and edit the report before its release.

The designated fall guys are Jason Weinstein, the deputy assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division who the report names as the highest DOJ official who had oversight over Fast and Furious and former ATF acting director Ken Melman, who abruptly retired.

Weinstein didn't exactly go quietly.He claims he took issue with the report's conclusions about him and gave the inspector general a 32-page document laying out alleged errors and suggested changes for the draft report, but "virtually none" of those were incorporated, according to Michael Bromwich, who is representing Weinstein. I guess they didn't make his role as sacrifice quite clear to him:

 The report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz found the ATF and U.S. attorney's office in Arizona shared equal responsibility for the gun-walking programs. It also said senior leaders did little immediately after Terry's death to inquire about Operation Fast and Furious. It faulted ATF headquarters for insufficient oversight of the program. And it cited the "inappropriate" effort to encourage dealers to sell firearms in transactions they knew were unlawful for weapons they did not intend to seize. Now here's the contradiction in the whole matter. If Eric Holder didn't know about Fast and Furious until 2011 ( which by the way, contradicts his sworn testimoney to congress)Then why the rush to put whole swaths of subpoenaed documents under executive privilege? If it wasn’t to cover Eric Holder's personal behind from legal culpability, the only other possible reason for the use of executive privilege and the extensive stonewalling of congress was to buy him time to cover up his mismanagement of the Justice Department.

 Holder also used the coming report as an excuse not to release documents to the House committee which has investigated Fast and Furious, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa. Now that it's out, does that mean that now that he's been 'exonerated' that he'll cooperate with congress in trying to get to the bottom of this? Will President Obama release those documents he protected by what now appears more and more to be an inappropriate use of executive privilege?

Of course not. Here's the Issa Committee's response to this bolshoi:


House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, issued the following statement on Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s findings of widespread failures by both senior DOJ and ATF leaders in both Operation Fast and Furious and the Department of Justice’s false denials of reckless conduct to Congress. Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have led the Congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious following Justice Department denials of reckless conduct that were later retracted. Guns from the reckless program contributed to the deaths of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and an unknown number of Mexican citizens. It also created an ongoing public safety hazard on both sides of the border.

“The Inspector General’s report confirms findings by Congress’ investigation of a near total disregard for public safety in Operation Fast and Furious. Contrary to the denials of the Attorney General and his political defenders in Congress, the investigation found that information in wiretap applications approved by senior Justice Department officials in Washington did contain red flags showing reckless tactics and faults Attorney General Eric Holder’s inner circle for their conduct. 

Former Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer who heads the Criminal Division, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein, Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, and Holder’s own Deputy Chief of Staff Monty Wilkinson are all singled out for criticism in the report. It’s time for President Obama to step in and provide accountability for officials at both the Department of Justice and ATF who failed to do their jobs. Attorney General Holder has clearly known about these unacceptable failures yet has failed to take appropriate action for over a year and a half.

The Inspector General has indicated he will continue his investigation of matters related to Operation Fast and Furious, including retaliation against whistleblowers and an effort to have the Justice Department unseal wiretap applications sealed by courts that were approved by senior officials. The Congressional investigation will also continue to seek documents wrongfully withheld from Congress.

The question remains- what did Eric Holder know and when did he know it? And given the use of Executive privilege, the same question remains for President Obama.

Darrel Issa reads Fast And Furious Wiretap Applications Into Congressional Record

Drudge finally has this up. If you're a regular member of Joshua's Army, you knew about the copy of wiretap applications and the smoking gun contained within Tuesday, three days ago.

From today's story Drudge is linking to at Roll Call:

In the midst of a fiery floor debate over contempt proceedings for Attorney General Eric Holder, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) quietly dropped a bombshell letter into the Congressional Record.

The May 24 letter to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), ranking member on the panel, quotes from and describes in detail a secret wiretap application that has become a point of debate in the GOP’s “Fast and Furious” gun-walking probe.

The wiretap applications are under court seal, and releasing such information to the public would ordinarily be illegal. But Issa appears to be protected by the Speech or Debate Clause in the Constitution, which offers immunity for Congressional speech, especially on a chamber’s floor.

According to the letter, the wiretap applications contained a startling amount of detail about the operation, which would have tipped off anyone who read them closely about what tactics were being used.

Holder and Cummings have both maintained that the wiretap applications did not contain such details and that the applications were reviewed narrowly for probable cause, not for whether any investigatory tactics contained followed Justice Department policy.

The wiretap applications were signed by senior DOJ officials in the department’s criminal division, including Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco and another official who is now deceased.

The Roll Call article isn't telling you the whole story.


As I reported last Tuesday, the wiretap applications, a copy of which was given to the oversight committee by a DOJ whistle blower also shows that senior DOJ officials including AG Holder knew back in March 2011 that the February 4, 2011 letter from the DOJ to Senator Chuck Grassley denying that guns were permitted to “walk” into Mexico was totally bogus. That letter, signed by Attorney General Holder, was allowed to stand for nine more months, and it was only withdrawn when a series of e-mails subpoenaed by the committee proved that Holder was lying and that he was briefed far earlier on the program than he claimed to have been during his testimony.

That's called obstruction of justice and perjury.

Even more interesting is that the wiretap applications may not be able to be shielded by the president under executive privilege because they were already submitted to a federal court and these particular documents are already under seal.

That's the real smoking gun Rep. Issa just read into the Congressional Record, and that's what this story isn't quite telling you.

As I've repeated before, there's a trail here that leads right back to the White House.

Remember President Obama's stimulus bill? There's $10 million in funds that were earmarked to fund Fast and Furious. It's in the stimulus bill itself.

How did it get there? The Republicans were all locked out of the room , literally. Who was responsible for getting it into the bill? And whose instructions were they acting on? What did the President know and when did he know it?

I think it's time Congress deposed President Obama and had him answer a few questions, under oath. Just to get him on record.

AG Holder Held In Criminal Contempt By Congress In Bi-Partisan Vote

The House of Representatives voted today to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal contempt of Congress and pursue a civil action in the courts. The vote was 255 ayes, 67 nays, and 1 present, with 17 Democrats voting with the Republicans in favor.

Over 100 democrats walked out during the voting in a protest led by the Congressional Black Caucus. In fact, one CBC member, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) even introduced a resolution calling for the House to reprimand oversight committee chairman Darrel Issa ( R-CA), accusing him of having “engaged in a witch hunt.”

Holder is the first attorney general ever cited for contempt by Congress. The charges stem from his failure to provide documents subpoenaed by the oversight committee relating to an alleged coverup of Fast and Furious,an Obama Administration operation that allowed thousands of weapons to be illegally purchased and 'walked' across the border to be sold to Mexican drug cartels. Th eweapons were not electronically tracked, most of them have never been recovered and they have been linked to over 300 murders, including that of border patrol agent Brian Terry.

Rep. Issa closed out the contempt debate by speaking in front of a giant poster of Agent Terry in his Border Patrol uniform.

“We were lied to repeatedly, and over a 10-month period,” Mr. Issa said. “That is what we’re here for.”

Black Lawmakers Plan 'Walkout Strategy' During Holder Contempt Vote

The Congressional Black Caucus is circulating a letter encouraging its membership not to participate in the vote on citing Attorney General Eric Holder for contempt:

Dear Colleague:

We write to urge you to stand with us in the pursuit of justice for the Attorney General of the United States of America, Eric H. Holder. In its history, the United States House of Representatives has never held a United States Attorney General, or any other Cabinet official, in contempt.

Instead of focusing on job creation and other critical issues before this Congress, we have been asked to engage in a political stunt on the floor of the United States House of Representatives. Our constituents elected us to do real work, not to engage in meaningless partisan activity.

Over the past 15 months, Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice have cooperated with the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's requests for information on "Fast and Furious", an unfortunate operation that began under the Bush Administration and, in fact, was terminated by Attorney General Holder. The Department has made extraordinary efforts to accommodate Congress by turning over almost 8,000 documents--including all the documents that relate to the tactics in this investigation and the other flawed investigations that occurred in Arizona during the Bush Administration. The Attorney General also participated in a bicameral meeting in a good faith effort to satisfy the Committee's information requests. While the Attorney General has advised House Republicans that he is willing to work with them in attempting to reach an agreement, the Republican Leadership is instead rushing recklessly to a contempt vote.

Contempt power should be used sparingly, carefully and only in the most egregious situations. The Republican Leadership has articulated no legislative purpose for pursuing this course of action. For these reasons we cannot and will not participate in a vote to hold the Attorney General in contempt. We adamantly oppose this partisan attack and refuse to participate in any vote that would tarnish the image of Congress or of an Attorney General who has done nothing but work tirelessly to protect the rights of the American people. We must reflect upon why we are elected to this body and choose now to stand up for justice.

We call upon all members of Congress to stand with us during a press conference on the Capitol Building steps during this appalling series of votes to discuss our nation's most significant priority--creating jobs. At this critically important time in our nation, we must work as colleagues rather than political enemies.

Translation? 'It's ra-aa-aacism!'

Among the other fairy tales in this letter, I absolutely must correct one charming bit of disinformation.

Fast and Furious did not originate with the Bush Administration.That program was called Wide Receiver and it differed from Fast and Furious in some important ways;it involved only a small number of weapons, the weapons were equipped with tracking devices, no one was killed, the sales were closely monitored and done under surveillance and most importantly, Wide Receiver was done with the knowledge and cooperation of the Mexican government and was curtailed by the Bush Administration when it's deficiencies became evident. Fast and Furious was entirely an Obama Administration product and involved a large number of untracked weapons, over 400 people were murdered including a U.S. border patrol agent, and the Mexican government was not informed about what was going on until the whole operation became embarrassingly public and corpses stated piling up.

Obviously, the Congressional Black Caucus can demonstrate racial solidarity über alles and walk out. As a matter of fact, given the attitudes and performance of many of its members, I rather hope they make it a regular habit at voting time.

Fast And Furious Heats Up As A Possible Smoking Gun Is Uncovered

Rep. Darrel Issa, the chairman of the House oversight committee investigating White House involvement in 'Fast And Furious' wrote a 7 page letter to President Obama today, accusing the White House of either misleading Congress about his involvement in the scandal or intentionally obstructing Congress' inquiry.

The letter came in response to the president's decision to assert executive privilege over documents subpoenaed by the committee that Attorney General Eric Holder refused to release. The House is expected to vote on holding the attorney general in contempt of Congress in two days time.

"Either you or your most senior advisers were involved in managing Operation Fast & Furious and the fallout from it...or, you are asserting a Presidential power that you know to be unjustified solely for the purpose of further obstructing a congressional investigation," Issa wrote. "To date, the White House has steadfastly maintained that it has not had any role in advising the Department with respect to the congressional investigation. The surprising assertion of executive privilege raised the question of whether that is still the case."

Issa asked Obama to "define the universe of documents over which you asserted executive privilege and provide the committee with the legal justification from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC)."

This is called cataloging, something that has been used in virtually every claim of executive privilege previously asserted. It amounts to listing the documents denied and providing a rationale under which they are covered by executive privilege. In contrast, this president has merely issued a blanket claim.

"These key documents would help the committee understand how and why the Justice Department moved from denying whistle blower allegations to understanding they were true; the identities of officials who attempted to retaliate against whistle blowers," Issa wrote, also stating that the committee wants to learn "whether senior (Justice) Department officials are being held to the same standard as lower-level employees who have been blamed for Fast and Furious by their politically-appointed bosses in Washington."

And of course, here's the kicker - Issa wants President Obama to explain "what extent were you or your most senior advisers involved in Operation Fast and Furious and the fallout from it," and asked the president to provide documents related to "any communications, meetings, and teleconferences between the White House and the Justice Department between February 4, 2011, and June 18, 2012, the day before the attorney general requested that you assert executive privilege."

 Fast and Furious was a Department of Justice program that allowed huge quantities of AK-47s and other firearms to be purchased by straw buyers and "walk" into Mexico to be illegally sold to Mexican drug cartels. The weapons were not electronically tracked, most have never been recovered and over 300 murders have been linked to them, including that of border patrol agent Brian Terry.

The subpoenaed documents concern Department of Justice and White House deliberations that likely led to a  Justice Department letter, signed by Holder back in February 2011, that claimed he and the upper echelons of the Department of Justice had no prior knowledge of Fast and Furious. The letter was revealed as patently untrue nine months after AG Holder submitted it to the committee.

But wait, there's more.

Issa and his co-chair, Senator Chuck Grassley have their hands on a copy of an internal Justice Department memo provided by a whistle blower that involved wiretap applications and reportedly shows that senior DOJ officials including AG Holder knew back in March 2011 that the February 4, 2011 letter from the DOJ to Senator Chuck Grassley denying guns were permitted to “walk” into Mexico was bogus. That letter, signed by Attorney General Holder was allowed to .stand for nine more months, and was only withdrawn when a series of e-mails subpoenaed by the committee proved that Holder was briefed far earlier on the program than he claimed to have been.

“The ATF director, Kenneth Melson, sent an e-mail. And he had said to us in sworn testimony that, in fact, he had concerns,” Issa said. “And we want to see that e-mail because that’s an example where he was saying, if we believe his sworn testimony, that guns walked. And he said it shortly after February 4, and [on] July 4. When he told us that, we began asking for that document.”

What this shows, of course, is that even though Holder and senior DOJ official knew in March 2011 that the information provided in the February letter was false, they continued to mislead Congress for another 8 months and only dropped the pose after subsequent e-mails showed the information contained February letter was completely untrue.

That's called obstruction of justice and perjury.

Even more interesting is that the wiretap applications may not be able to be shielded by the president under executive privilege because these particular documents are already under federal court seal. Issa has said a whistleblower provided copies to his committee.

Issa and Grassley aren't stupid, and they appear to be following an old lawyer's dictum not to ask any questions you don't already know the answer to.

And there is definitely another trail that leads back directly to the White House.

As you'll recall, Obama's 2009 stimulus bill was thrashed out entirely by Democrats with Republicans literally locked out of the room.

Guess what? There's $10 million in stimulus funds that were earmarked to fund Fast and Furious. It's in the stimulus bill itself.

Who put it in the bill? Was it Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi? Steny Hoyer? And whose instructions were they acting on? What did the President know and when did he know it?

Perhaps it's time to ask President Obama  to be deposed and answer a few questions, under oath. Just to get him on record.

Hypocrisy Flashback - Sen. Obama On Attn'y General Independence And Executive Privilege

Talk about partisan politics and hypocrisy - Here's Senator Barack Obama back in 2007 talking about the need for the attorney general to be independent, for him to be the people's lawyer not the president's and to follow the law regardless.

And oh yes...about how a president and an attorney general shouldn't hide behind executive privilege.

I guess it's only racism when people get outraged over a black president and a black attorney general doing it.



(hat tip, Louie Louie...and to Vlad for the video)

How The House Should Proceed Against AG Holder

Today, the House oversight committee voted to cite Attorney General Eric Holder for contempt over Fast and Furious and refer it to the House for a full vote.To their shame, not one Democrat on the committee voted in favor..it was a strict party line vote. Hopefully some of the other House Democrats will have more regard for their Constitution, their oath of office and their country.

Constitutional expert, talk show host and attorney Mark Levin had some excellent advice for Congress on how to proceed once the full House vote is completed, which should be early next week:

As the Supreme Court recognized in US v. Nixon, the Executive Branch has a legitimate interest in confidentiality of communications among high officials so that the President can have the benefit of candid advice. However, as President Washington himself recognized, that privilege does not protect the President or his underlings from embarrassment or public exposure for questionable actions.

As the Supreme Court has also recognized repeatedly, the Congress, in the exercise of its constitutional powers, has the essential power to investigate the actions of the Executive Branch.

In this case, the exercise of Executive Privilege seems, in its timing and over-inclusiveness, to be nothing less than a political delaying tactic to prevent exposure of wrongdoing and incompetence that resulted in the murder of a American law enforcement agent and injury and death of many others. Further, a wholesale claim of privilege is facially improper: the President should be held to the standard that anyone claiming privilege is held to: identify each document in a log so that privilege can be disputed. (U.S. v. Nixon, 1974)

Because among the categories of documents sought are all those relating to the recantation by Holder of testimony before Congress, the demand goes to the core of the Congressional power under Article I. In this respect, this is not a general or oversight inquiry but a determination of why the Attorney General of the United States testified falsely before Congress about his own knowledge of a federal program. Presumptively, none of this category of documents is protected by Executive Privilege for wrongdoing per se is not protected by the privilege.

The right way to proceed is to hold Holder in contempt by resolution of the House and seek authorization from the House for the Committee, by its Chairman, to proceed by civil action to compel production of the documents. (Holder will not enforce a holding of contempt against himself -- and by the way, he should have authorized, say, the assistant attorney general for legal counsel, to handle the contempt matter once the House voted as at that point he is representing his own interests and not those of the nation generally). Chairman Issa should file suit in federal court in DC and seek expedited action. There is no need for Senate action. The use of this procedure has been acknowledged by the Congressional Research Service in a 2007 study. Further, a privilege log should be sought by Issa and ordered produced immediately by the court, in camera inspection done promptly by the judge, and a final order entered compelling production of all documents for which no legitimate reason justifies Executive Privilege.

Yes, some documents may be covered by EP, but the blanket attachment of that label flouts the law and the Constitution, and harms the legitimate assertion of EP by Presidents of either party in the future. The Constitution is far too important to be subject to the caprice of this President and an AG who, on its face, wants to be free from scrutiny about why he testified falsely before a Committee of Congress.

Executive Privilege is a very important implied executive power, used in various forms since the presidency of George Washington. Therefore, it's misuse and abuse, to cover-up wrongdoing, conceal embarrassing information, or advance a political agenda, diminishes the ability of future presidents to assert it legitimately.

Obviously the president's decision to assert executive privilege en masse without even providing a log and a singling out of specific documents is a cover up in itself, and designed to stall things until after the election. It's also obvious that Senator Grassley and Rep. Issa know something, which is why they zeroed in on these specific documents.

The trick for Congress will be to get some of the rats to start jumping off of the S.S. Titanic to save themselves via immunity.

One possible smoking gun is the fact that $10 million in stimulus funds were earmarked for Fast and Furious, some the Obama Administration boasted about at one time. It's in the stimulus bill itself.

As you'll recall, the bill was entirely constructed by Democrats, with Republicans essentially locked out of the room.Who put it in the bill? Was it Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi? And whose instructions were they acting on? What did the President know and when did he know it?

And by the way, I want to see a statement by Mitt Romney to the effect that if he becomes President, he'll appoint a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of this, go where it may.

President Obama has certain powers, but he can't pardon himself.

Obama Claims Executive Privilege Over Fast And Furious Docs

With a committee vote on a contempt of Congress citation looming, Attorney General Eric Holder brought in the heavy artillery and had President Obama exert executive privilege over the Fast and Furious docs Holder is refusing to provide in answer to subpoenas issued by the investigative committee chaired by Rep. Darrel Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley:

Rep. Darrell Issa pressed ahead with a committee vote Wednesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, despite an 11th-hour move by President Obama to exert executive privilege over the Fast and Furious documents at the heart of the dispute.

The announcement instantly touched off a caustic debate on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, as Democrats accused Issa of prosecuting a "political witch hunt" and Republicans stepped up their criticism of Holder's "stonewalling" over the Fast and Furious probe. Even for Washington, the tone at the hearing was decidedly bitter and accusatory.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was first informed of the president's decision to exert executive privilege in a letter Wednesday morning, shortly before the contempt vote was scheduled.

Issa said committee staff are evaluating the letter but described the move as too little, too late as he and other GOP lawmakers questioned the basis for the assertion.

"This untimely assertion by the Justice Department falls short of any reason to delay today's proceedings," Issa said.

Issa accused the Justice Department of trying to compel the committee to close its investigation in exchange for documents it hasn't yet seen. "I can't accept that deal. No other committee chairman would," he said.

Fast and Furious, you'll remember, involved the Department of Justice allowing thousands of illegally purchased weapons to 'walk' across the border for resale to Mexican drug cartels. The weapons had no tracking devices, most have never been recovered and over 300 murders have been attributed to them, including the murder of U.S. border patrol agent Brian Terry.

Since this came to light, there has been a major pattern of stonewalling, obfuscation and outright lies to the committee, headed by Representative Darrel Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley.

In fact, the documents President Obama just asserted executive privilege over relate to a February 11th, 2011, letter to Sen. Grassley claiming that the Department of Justice and AG Holder had only just found out about Fast and Furious. Holder and the DOJ later admitted the letter was 'in error' after an e-mail trail surfaced that proved they knew about Fast and Furious and had approved the operation long before, and what Grassley and Issa want to see is documents dated after from February 2011 and afterward relating to how Justice officials learned about the Fast and Furious investigation. Or in other words, who knew what and when did they know it.

Holder's final offer in his meeting with Issa was that he would brief Issa and the committee himself on what was in the documents rather than supplying the subpoenaed documents themselves..provided the committee agreed in advance that this would satisfy the subpoena! Such an offer only underlines how much contempt the attorney general has for the committee and for Congress.

I'm hardly surprised President Obama is asserting executive privilege here. It's been obvious to me for some time that this led straight to the White House. In fact, President Obama even allowed for $10 million in funding for the operation as part of his 'stimulus' program. It's in the stimulus bill itself.

As Senator Grassley said in a statement today, there's no reason for President Obama to assert executive privilege if there was no White House involvement:

"The assertion of executive privilege raises monumental questions. How can the President assert executive privilege if there was no White House involvement? How can the President exert executive privilege over documents he's supposedly never seen? Is something very big being hidden to go to this extreme? "

Of course this president knew about Fast and Furious, and a long tome before February 11 of 2011.There's a reason funds for Fast and Furious were in the Stimulus package President Obama is so proud of. I mean, look at all the jobs it provided for weapons traffickers and enforcers for the Mexican drug cartels!

If the majority of Democrats in Congress had any decency (of if the president did, for that matter) there would be a special prosecutor named immediately. Needless to say, they haven't and there won't be.

House Committee Schedules Contempt Vote On AG Holder

The House Oversight Committee has scheduled a vote next week on whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over his non-compliance with subpoenas for documents relating to Fast and Furious, a Department of Justice operation. Fast and Furious involved the Department of Justice allowing thousands of illegally purchased weapons to 'walk' across the border for resale to Mexican drug cartels. The weapons had no tracking devices, most have never been recovered and over 300 murders have been attributed to them, including the murder of U.S. border patrol agent Brian Terry.

Since this came to light, there has been a major pattern of stonewalling, obfuscation and outright lies to the committee, headed by Representative Darrel Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley.

There was a move about a month ago to start the wheels running for a contempt vote, but GOP Speaker John Boehner headed it off for reasons best known to himself.However, after last week's testimony by Holder in which he essentially told the committee exactly what they could do to themselves, even Boehner finally realized enough was enough.

In a statement he released today,Boehner said that "the Justice Department is out of excuses."

"Congress has given Attorney General Holder more than enough time to fully cooperate with its investigation into 'Fast and Furious,' and to help uncover the circumstances regarding the death of Border Agent Brian Terry," Boehner added. "Either the Justice Department turns over the information requested, or Congress will have no choice but to move forward with holding the Attorney General in contempt for obstructing an ongoing investigation."

Fine, you might ask..what does all this mean?

The vote to find Holder in contempt of Congress will likely pass in committee and will almost assuredly pass by a mostly partisan vote in the House. Once it's voted on, Congress has several options.

They can - wait for it - refer this to the Department of Justice for further investigation.Let's finish laughing and move on.

If we had a decent president in the White House who took his oath seriously, Congress could request him to appoint a special prosecutor.We don't and that obviously isn't going to happen here.

Finally, they can go through the courts to try and compel the Attorney General to provide the information they're seeking.If the court agrees and if Holder still refuses, it's contempt of court, which makes him subject to fines and even imprisonment.

Since number three is the only realistic option, Holder undoubtedly feels quite confident in continuing to lie and stonewall. Just going through congress and putting this through the federal courts is going to take months if not a couple of years, the end result is going to depend a great deal on whether President Obama is re-elected or not.

If the president is defeated, Holder will undoubtedly negotiate a settlement of sorts with Congress, which is what Bush Chief of Staff Joshua Bolton did with the Democrats after President Obama was elected over an inquiry into the firing of federal prosecutors by the Bush administration. The governing classes are notoriously shy about prosecuting members of a previous administration after power has changed hands, even over something like Fast and Furious.

If President Obama is re-elected and Holder is still Attorney General, we might see this fester and become more serious over time, the way Watergate did.

In any event, President Obama would almost certainly grant Holder a blanket presidential pardon, because the end trail leads right to the White House.

Eric Holder might tell Congress he has no idea who signed off on Fast and Furious, but it's a matter of record that Deputy Attorney General David Ogden clearly stated on March 24, 2009, that "President Obama provided the initial ten million dollars from the stimulus funds to launch the program". As a matter of fact, it's in the stimulus bill itself.

Eric Holder Blatantly Lies To Congress - Again

Our Attorney General spent yesterday lying his head off to Congress. There's really no other way to put it,and it was a rare display of dishonesty and arrogance, even for Washington.

Let's start out with this link to a clip where Rep. Jason Chafetz (R-Utah)read excerpts from some of the e-mails they finally managed to get from the Department of Justice after months of stone walling. The e-mails openly discuss PR strategy on Fast and Furious, the sordid scandal that saw the Department of Justice allowing the purchase and illegal sale of over 2,000 weapons to Mexican Drug cartels. Few of these weapons have been accounted for, and the ones that have were used to commit at least 300 murders, including that of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Holder simply lies to Chafetz,telling him the e-mails refer to a different operation called Wide Receiver, and continues to repeat that, even when Chafetz actually reads the e-mails and shows that they were talking about Fast and Furious and reference specific dates and incidents connected with it. Holder just says 'I disagree with your interpretation.'

Holder also admitted that the White House helped craft the Fast And Furious PR strategy:

“We [Holder, Axelrod and the White House] have certainly talked about ways in which we could deal with the interaction between the Justice Department and Congress — about ways in which we would,” Holder said in questioning before the House Judiciary Committee.

Virginia Republican Rep. Randy Forbes pressed Holder further by asking him if Axelrod, Obama’s re-election campaign and the White House were involved in crafting the DOJ’s policy for dealing with press. He said they were. “In terms of trying to get any message out that was consistent with facts and make sure it was done in an appropriate way, I’ve had conversations like that with people in the White House.”

Which leads top another question...why would the White House be helping to spin this..unless they were directly involved? It's one thing for a president to say something happened that shouldn't have, and that he's going to cooperate fully in getting to the bottom of it. It's quite another to plot how to package and stonewall it.

Representative Louis Gohmert( R-TX) responds...and grills Holder about two particularly juicy items. One of them is Holder's withholding of documents subpoenaed by Congress that were released under discovery during the infamous Holy Land Foundation Trial...yes, the one where Holder and the Obama Justice Department filed Declination of Prosecution briefs on most of the the individuals cited as unindicted co-conspirators in the first trial ( which ended in a conviction) and ended what was an open and shut case, essentially letting Muslim Brotherhood fronts like CAIR, ISNA, and NAIT off the hook, as well as their executives who were involved in material support for Islamic terrorism.

The second item is for him to ask Holder point blank if he ever went back to his office and demanded to know who signed off on Fast and Furious. Gohmert wants to know if Holder is any closer to finding out who authorized the operation. Holder claims he still doesn't know, and avoids the question of whether he's any closer to an answer.Of course Holder obviously couldn't answer the question truthfully without incriminating himself.



Then it's Chairman Darrel Issa's turn:



Issa continues demanding documents that Holder's refused to disclose. Issa specifically wants to know if he has prepared a list of documents which are responsive to the committee's subpoena, but have been withheld. And Holder... refuses to answer.

This is obscene - there's no other word for it - coming from an Attorney General of the United States, who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies,foreign and domestic and to bear true faith and allegiance to it.

Given the speed at which these things work and given the Democrat's majority in the Senate, there's probably not time to impeach him, as Article II of the Constitution provides for.

But there is time to pursue a criminal indictment - and then offer Eric Holder immunity to rat out his boss so we can see what President Obama knew about Fast and Furious and exactly when he knew it.

House GOP Leaders Demand AG Holder Cooperate With Congress On 'Fast And Furious'

House GOP leaders sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding that he cooperate with Congress in its investigation of the Fast and Furious scandal, which involved the Justice Department illegally selling over 2,000 weapons to Mexican drug cartels after 'walking' them across the border. Over 300 deaths have been attributed to these weapons, including the murder of Brian Terry, a U.S. border patrol agent. Most of the weapons remain unaccounted for.

House Speaker Boehner and the GOP leadership have threatened to cite Holder for contempt of Congress unless he begins complying with the subpoenas issued by Rep. Daryl Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley's investigative committee. Such a citation for contempt is already being prepared.

The investigation has been hampered but what both Grassley and Issa have termed 'stonewalling' as well as apparently deliberate misstatements of fact under oath to Congress. Attorney General Holder has already had to withdraw Feb. 4, 2011, letter that provided false information to Congress about when he first became aware of Fast and Furious, after memos were discovered that contradicted his statements.

If a contempt motion is issued, it would come to a vote of the full House, where it would almost certainly pass. Once a contempt resolution passes, Congress could seek enforcement through federal courts if the Department of Justice still refuses to comply.

The way this works is interesting and should provide a spectacle in and of itself.

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. It's the legal duty of the U.S. Attorney to refer the matter to a grand jury for action.

The penalty if convicted is 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.

Ah, but there's a controversy involved.

According to the views of some interpretations of the Constitution, Congress cannot properly compel the U.S. Attorney to take this action against the Executive Branch, because the U.S. Attorney is a member of the Executive Branch who ultimately reports only to the President. Therefore, they see it as a violation of separation of powers to force the U.S. Attorney to act against the executive branch, because it involves forcing a subordinate of the President to act against the branch of government controlled by the president.

Depend on President Obama to shield Holder by making that argument. Of course, President Obama could act in the interest of justice and either compel Holder to cooperate or appoint an independent prosecutor, but based on his actions thus far it appears this president has personal motives for not doing so.

Ultimately, this might be referred to the Supreme Court, which might make the matter irrelevant since it's unlikely they would render a verdict before Holder is out of office. That still wouldn't make him immune from future prosecution should Congress wish to pursue the matter, but it does stop Fast and Furious erupting as a fresh scandal prior to the election.

That, by the way, is akin to how President Nixon dealt with Watergate during his first term. It would be ironic if President Obama were to be re-elected, only to have Fast and Furious explode during his second term.

Congress Prepares Contempt Citation Against AG Holder Over Fast And Furious

Now here's some good news to take into the weekend!


House Republicans investigating the Fast and Furious scandal plan to pursue a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder, senior congressional aides told CBS News.

The resolution will accuse Holder and his Justice Department of obstructing the congressional probe into the allegations that the government let thousands of weapons fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

The citation would attempt to force Holder to turn over tens of thousands of pages documents related to the probe, which has entered its second year.

Needless to say, the usual suspects at quite upset at this:

The top Democrat on the panel slammed Issa's move as part of "an election-year witch hunt against the Obama administration."

"Leaking a draft contempt citation that members of our committee have never seen suggests that you are more interested in perpetuating your partisan political feud in the press than in obtaining any specific substantive information relating to the committee's investigation," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, referring to a report in the Los Angeles Times, which first reporting the plan.

Considering how Representative Cummings has continuously tried to stymie the investigation and turn it into a referendum on gun control, I think we can take his comments for the little they're worth.

The Oversight Committee's contempt resolution would have to almost certainly come to a full House vote. Passing it would probably be a foregone conclusion considering the current makeup of the House and the ongoing lies, obstructions and misstatements coming out of the Department of Justice since the Fast and Furious scandal, which involved deliberate sales of guns to Mexican drug cartels by the Department of Justice became known. While Holder and the Justice Department have supplied a large number of pages of the documentation demanded in congressional subpoenas, congressional investigators accuse the Justice Department of supplying the documents selectively and highly redacted, and that tens of thousands of pages of internal documents requested by the congressional subpoenas have been deliberately left out.

Once a contempt resolution passes, Congress could seek enforcement through federal courts if the Department of Justice still refuses to comply.

This is going to get good.

AG Holder Caught In Another Fast And Furious Lie

Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice did a document dump on Operation Fast and Furious to congressional officials late Friday night. One part of this was a series of emails showing Holder was informed of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder on the day it happened – December 15, 2010 – and that he was informed the weapons used to kill Terry were from Fast and Furious on the same day.

Let me reiterate. Eric Holder didn't find out about gunwalking and Fast and Furious "a few weeks" before Congress called him in as he originally said (later amended to "a few months") before his May 2011 testimony.He knew all about it the very same day:

An email from one official, whose name has been redacted from the document, to now-former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke reads: “On December 14, 2010, a BORTAC agent working in the Nogales, AZ AOR was shot. The agent was conducting Border Patrol operations 18 miles north of the international boundary when he encountered [redacted word] unidentified subjects. Shots were exchanged resulting in the agent being shot. At this time, the agent is being transported to an area where he can be air lifted to an emergency medical center.”

That email was sent at 2:31 a.m. on the day Terry was shot. One hour later, a follow-up email read: “Our agent has passed away.”

Burke forwarded those two emails to Holder’s then-deputy chief of staff Monty Wilkinson later that morning, adding that the incident was “not good” because it happened “18 miles w/in” the border.

Wilkinson responded to Burke shortly thereafter and said the incident was “tragic.” “I’ve alerted the AG [Holder], the Acting DAG, Lisa, etc.”

Then, later that day, Burke followed up with Wilkinson after Burke discovered from officials whose names are redacted that the guns used to kill Terry were from Fast and Furious. “The guns found in the desert near the murder BP officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about – they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store,” Burke wrote to Wilkinson.

“I’ll call tomorrow,” Wilkinson responded.

Adding to the paper trail, there already are a series of memos containing the intimate details of Fast and Furious that were sent to Holder throughout 2010 from several of his senior aides. Holder has continued to claim he never read them.

Holder is scheduled to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform next Thursday, February 2. This will be the first time the House oversight committee will have an opportunity to question Holder himself, although Holder has already testified before Congress three times on Fast and Furious — twice before the House Judiciary Committee and once before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Congress needs to grow a spine and impeach this weasel, since the president won't fire him. And the fact that President Obama has had nothing to say about this also leads me to believe that this entire plot, which appears to be mainly directed at pushing a major erosion of Second Amendments rights by sparking violent incidents on the border goes far beyond AG Holder and directly into the White House itself.

Does Congress have the basic integrity to insist on a special prosecutor? Idoubt it, but if they do, we might actually be able to get to the bottom of this.

DOJ On Fast And Furious: 'Hey We Lied. So What' ?

President Obama's Department of Justice has formally withdrawn an 'inaccurate' letter on Fast and Furious it admits was sent to Congress earlier this year to answer formal inquiries about the program that saw over 2,000 weapons deliberately placed in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. The program led to at least 200 murders,including a US Border Patrol officer.

In a document dump late last Friday afternoon, Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole sent nearly 1,400 pages of emails and other documents to the investigative committee of Rep. Daryl Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley that, among other tidbits, laid bare the details of how the bogus February 4th letter to Grassley was drafted.

The February 2011 letter in response to Grassley's statements in committee that the Senate Judiciary Committee had received allegations the ATF had sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers. The letter said in response that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) makes "every effort" to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally before they cross into Mexico. It added that the allegation that the ATF had "sanctioned or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons" to suspicious people was false.

As we now know, both of those statements were outright lies.

The paper trail shows that Dennis Burke, a former U.S. attorney who has since 'resigned', and William Hoover, then the deputy director of the ATF who has since been reassigned, were the parties that mostly provided the false information to those officials who drafted the letter. What the documents don't show, of course, is the all-important intent. Misleading Congress is a felony - but only if it can be proven that the perpetrator knew the information was false and intended to deceive.

This is also known as the Hillary Clinton get-out-of-jail-free card. It's not enough to prove that someone prepared fraudulent legal documents and profited thereby. You have to prove intent.

And of course, Attorney General Eric Holder has told lawmakers that so far he has no evidence anyone intended to deceive them. But he's going to look into the matter!

The e-mails also show that Lanny Breuer, the assistant attorney general for the department’s criminal division, received versions of the letter on four occasions via email. Breuer forwarded the emails to a personal account but somehow forgot about it - he testified to the investigative committee that he “cannot say for sure” whether he viewed the drafts.

Breuer admitted on Oct. 31 he knew federal officials allowed assault weapons to be trafficked by straw buyers to the Mexican drug cartels as early as April 2010, 10 months before the department denied doing it in the letter to Grassley.

“Any instance of so-called gunwalking was unacceptable. This tactic was unfortunately used as part of Fast and Furious,” Holder admitted to Senators at a Judiciary Committee hearing Nov. 8. “This should never have happened.”

Ah, but it's obvious that someone intended it to happen. Here's a revealing e-mail exchange between US Attorney Dennis Burke and former ATF Deputy Director Hoover:

“What is so offensive about this whole project is that Grassley’s staff, acting as willing stooges for the Gun Lobby, have attempted to distract from the incredible success in dismantling [southwest border] gun trafficking operations ... but, instead, lobbing this reckless despicable accusation that ATF is complicit in the murder of a fellow federal law enforcement officer,” he wrote in a Feb. 4 email.

“Well said Dennis. Thank you!” Hoover replied.

Senator Grassley, who along with Rep. Issa has been leading an investigation into Fast and Furious for most of this year, has been quite outspoken about the operation and the attempted coverup. Th elatest batch of documents raises a lot of new questions about who knew what and when they knew it. Expect a number of them to come up when Attorney General Holder testifies in a House oversight hearing December 8th.

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Sarah Palin: 'Fire Eric Holder'

The Arctic Fox still hasn't lost her touch. And you have to love the sting at the end:

It’s tempting to get distracted with the horse race aspect of electoral politics during a primary season. But as pundits talk about “who’s up and who’s down” in the 24 hour news cycle, we must keep our eye on the ball with the Obama administration. They rely on distraction to skirt responsibility, but we’re going to hold them accountable for their corruption and incompetence.

When the stories about Operation Fast and Furious first broke, it sounded too crazy even for this administration.

Why would any government official with an ounce of common sense think it’s a good idea to facilitate the smuggling of thousands of guns into the hands of violent Mexican drug cartels? That’s what Operation Fast and Furious did.

You might think Eric Holder’s Department of Justice was setting up a sting operation in which our federal agents would swoop down and arrest the bad guys the minute the guns traded hands. But that’s not what happened. Eric Holder’s DOJ had American gun dealers sell weapons to “straw purchasers” tied to drug cartels without actually following the movement of the guns as they were then sold to Mexican drug lords. They apparently thought this so-called “gun-walking” operation would help them chart the path of gun smuggling, but they didn’t have a plan to actually control the weapons’ movements as the guns were allowed to “walk” into Mexico. All Holder’s DOJ did was arm violent criminals. What manner of fools do we have working in this administration? What’s next? Supplying nuclear weapons components to the Iranians so we can track their activities?

Fast and Furious isn’t just your typical government incompetence. This is a deadly tragedy. U.S. border agent Brian Terry was gunned down with weapons connected to Holder’s debacle. At least 200 Mexican citizens were also killed by criminals using Fast and Furious weapons. We can only imagine how many more people will be murdered by criminals our government armed.

When an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives blew the whistle on this operation, the DOJ leaked sensitive information about him to the press. This week, the former U.S. Attorney for Arizona, who was ousted in the wake of the scandal, admitted to being the leaker.

And where is President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder in all of this? When did he first know about the operation? In his testimony to the House Oversight Committee on May 3, 2011, Holder stated, “I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.” But the DOJ’s own documents prove that Holder had been receiving briefings on Fast and Furious for nearly a year before that date. In other words, our government’s top law enforcement official, Eric Holder, lied to the American public. He finally admitted this week to the Senate Judiciary Committee, “In my testimony before the House committee [on May 3], I did say a few weeks. I probably could have said a couple of months. What I said about a few weeks was inaccurate based on what happened.”

When the nation’s highest law enforcement official lies to the American people, he must go.

And if he claims that he didn’t lie, then how else do we explain this situation? He’s either lying or he’s so grossly incompetent and lazy that he didn’t read important life and death briefings from his deputy attorney general and didn’t know about this deadly operation run by people under him. So, which is it? Incompetent, lazy, or lying? No matter which explanation fits, he needs to go.

Holder conceded this week, “I have ultimate responsibility for what happens in the department.” He can prove it by resigning. And if he refuses to resign, then President Obama – with whom the bucks ultimately stop – can prove that he respects honesty, transparency, and accountability in his administration by firing Holder.

I stand with the members of Congress who are calling for Holder’s resignation. I stand with the family members of Brian Terry who are demanding transparency and accountability. Mr. President, where do you stand?

- Sarah Palin

P.S. It can be argued that some elements of this scandal give the appearance of perhaps being intended to be used to infringe on our Second Amendment rights. I invite our President to correct concerned Americans if they’re wrong on this.

Heh heh! You go, Sarah!

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Fast And Furious: Holder Stonewalling And Refusing To Allow Witnesses To Testify

An angry Senator Chuck Grassley said today in a statement that Attorney General Eric Holder is continuing to stonewall congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious.

Holder's latest tactic is to deny Department of Justice clearances to 11 of the 12 witnesses Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa have requested be made available to the committee for testimony.

“We have requested 12 Justice Department witnesses be made available for transcribed interviews,” Grassley said in a Thursday Senate Judiciary Committee executive business meeting. “Despite the department’s promises of good faith cooperation, only one witness has been provided so far — former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke. The department has refused to schedule interviews with any of the other 11 witnesses. That’s not the good faith cooperation I was promised, and it is unacceptable.”

One thing Grassley and Issa are particularly interested in finding out is who was behind a February 4th letter the Department of Justice sent to Congress, which made false claims that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ( ATF) did not freely allow guns to be trafficked into Mexico.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Holder’s deputy and the head of the DOJ Criminal Division, admitted last week to the committee that the DOJ’s claims that the ATF did not allow guns to walk across the border were a pack of lies.

“It also appears from those documents that Mr. Breuer’s deputy, Jason Weinstein, knew about ATF walking guns in both operations,” Grassley said on Thursday. “Anyone who knew about gunwalking in any case, also knew that the department’s initial letter to me was false. The attorney general said the letter was based on the best information available at the time. But senior officials at headquarters, like Breuer and Weinstein, knew better.”

Ouch.

It's Special Prosecutor time,I think. Scooter Libbey was railroaded on far less evidence. And nothing he was accused of doing killed anyone.

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Democrats Try To Spin Fast And Furious To Attack The 2nd Amendment

The Democrats just provided fresh evidence to those who've speculated that the real reason behind Fast and Furious was a cynical plot to create a series of violent tragedies to build a groundswell of support for stricter gun control and even outright confiscation.

Democratic lawmakers contend that Operation Fast and Furious exemplifies the need to strengthen U.S. gun laws to give federal law enforcement officials more tools to prosecute criminal weapon traffickers.

“This hunt for blame doesn’t really speak about the problem,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein at a recent Senate Judiciary hearing while discussing Fast and Furious.

“And the problem is, anybody can walk in and buy anything, .50-caliber weapons, sniper weapons, buy them in large amounts, and send them down to Mexico. So, the question really becomes, what do we do about this?”

The ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) have introduced a dedicated firearms trafficking statute, but it has stalled in the House Judiciary Committee.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, which has taken the lead investigating Fast and Furious, say that discussing gun laws and the botched operation are very different.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who worked as a federal prosecutor for six years, pointed to the federal sentencing guidelines for possession of illegal automatic machine guns, saying that the second illegal machine gun guarantees life in prison.

“When I hear people trying to make this a political conversation about the need to reform federal gun laws, what do you want other than life?” said Gowdy in an interview with The Hill. “I get it, I’d want to change the subject too if I were them. I’m happy to have a conversation about broader gun laws, but we’re going to do it after Fast and Furious.”

The 'problem', Senator isn't our current gun laws - it's that our Department of Justice happily allowed straw buyers to purchase weapons and traffic them across the border, something very much already against existing US law. The problem is that you, as a sitting Senator are actually defending this for partisan political purposes.

Of course Senator Feinstein hails from the Leftist asylum of California.

This latest push from the Democrats makes accusations that Fast and Furious was engineered by the Obama Administration to 'prove' the need for harsher restrictions on Second Amendment rights a lot more believable. And it shows that the Democrats are quite willing to try to shield Attorney General Eric Holder from his lies, mismanagement and incompetency in the matter.

Fast And Furious: Did 'Bush Do It Too'?

As Fast and Furious continues to metastasize out of control, the Obama Administration and its media sycophants have a brand new variation on their usual theme 'Bush did it too'.

What they're talking about is something called 'Wide Receiver'. CBS reporter Sheryl Aktinson is one of the few dinosaur media reporters even covering Fast and Furious, and alleged that Wide Receiver also had some of the same 'Gunrunner'aspectd Fast and Furious did.

Well it did, and it mostly didn't. Jim Shepherd in The Outdoor Wire reveals just how different the admittedly botched Wide Receiver was from Fast and Furious:

In Operation Wide Receiver, Tucson agents allowed the sales of more than 500 firearms to known straw purchasers. Like Gunrunner/Fast and Furious, the operation apparently backfired.

Some firearms in Wide Receiver were equipped with RFID tracking devices. In Wide Receiver, it seems the illegal purchasers seemed more than slightly knowledgeable of the ATF and how to take their aerial and electronic tracking procedures down.

Knowing the time aloft numbers for virtually all planes used in government surveillance, the buyers had a simple method of getting their purchases across the border undetected. They simply drove four-hour loops around the area.

As surveillance planes were forced to return to base for refueling, the smugglers simply turned and sprinted their cargo across the border.

The RFID tags also turned out to be problematic.

Rather than making large enough holes for the tags to be laid out inside weapons, agents force-fit them into the rifles.

That cramming caused the antennae to be folded, reducing the effective range of the tags. And an already short battery life (36-48 hours maximum) meant that should purchasers allow the firearms to sit, the tracking devices eliminated themselves.

Let's summarize the differences, shall we? Wide Receiver actually made an attempt at surveillance, but was stymied by equipment problems and the resourcefulness of the cartels.

In addition, Wide Receiver was conducted in cooperation with the Mexican government - not kept secret from them as Fast and Furious was.

Fast and Furious made no use of tracking devices, prevented local law enforcement from interfering with the smugglers, on multiple occasions, and federal agents were not allowed to stop the flow of weapons. The whole idea behind Wide Receiver was to nab the smugglers and cut off the traffic.

Wide Receiver allowed something like 450 guns into Mexico before the Bush Administration and the Mexican authorities realized it had failed. Fast and Furious allowed over 2,000 weapons into the hands of the cartels without any intention of arresting the straw buyers and smugglers. And this might just be the tip of the iceberg. CBS News’ Attkisson mentions allegations of “at least 10 cities in five other [Mexican] states”, which means that Holder’s Department of Justice may have intentionally sent more than 12,000 weapons into the hands of the cartels.

Of course, the most important difference, aside from the death toll is that Holder and the DOJ already knew that Wide Receiver had been a failure.They had the advantage of hindsight and went ahead and did this anyway.

And that, frankly, amounts to criminal negligence.As opposed to a botched law enforcement program.

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