Attorney General Holder has released over 7,500 documents regarding the "Fast and Furious" program that is being investigated. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives launched Operation Fast and Furious out of Arizona to track weapon purchases by Mexican drug cartels. However, it lost track of more than 1,000 firearms that the agency had allowed straw buyers to carry across the border, and two of the lost weapons turned up at the scene of the 2010 killing of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
I take nothing away from the seriousness of agent Terry's death, but these outcomes, in these type of conditions, are hardly irregular. People are dying on our southern border everyday, agent Terry has simply become the tragic strawman, in an attempt by the Right, to somehow legitimize their attacks against Holder. In the meantime, Holder, said his ongoing offer still stands to turn over some of the documents sought by House Republicans. However, Chairman Issa said Holder put unreasonable conditions on his offer. Which only furthur proves this is not about the Attorney General, its about attacking President Obama in an election year.
The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), accused Issa of setting an "impossible standard" for Holder by initially demanding documents the attorney general is legally prohibited from providing. Now Issa has "no interest in resolving" the dispute with Holder, Cummings said. At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney called the Republican investigation a "politically motivated, taxpayer funded, election year fishing expedition." "It is this approach, I think, that explains at least in part why this Congress has the lowest public approval ratings of any in memory, if not history," Carney said. Despite this House Speaker Boehner said, "The House will vote next week on a contempt measure unless these documents are released"
So what is this really all about? Eric Holder has been a giant thorn in the side of Republican Governors, as well as, Congressional Republicans. Why? He has been President Obama's muscle in a battle that has been raging since Obama took office. He was the administrations agent to stop enforcing the Defense of Mariage Act (DOMA). He has challenged harsh attempts at immigration reform by some states, and more recently has tried to put the hammer down on a growing number of state Republican initiatives to suppress voter turn-out. The most recent effort by Florida to purge its voter rolls. He has been the administrations attack dog on all these issues, and therefore who better to smack down than the man who has done his best to stop the national Republican agenda?
Before the vote yesterday, President Obama invoked executive privledge on the documents in question. In a move that argueably could have had better timing, it only served as meat for the Republican feeding frenzy that is now spewing terms like conspiracy and cover-up. So while they start every sentence with "This is about justice for agent Terry..." nothing could be furthur from the truth. The fact is, agent Terry is just a convenient tool to put the hammer down on Attorney General Holder, and by default President Obama.
It is pure power politics, and quite frankly I think the American people are sick and tired of this kind of dead end governance. There are transportation bills, jobs bills, student loan bills, rotting on the desks in Congress, and THIS is what Republicans want to concentrate on? Showboating and political theater, they just can't help it. They can't pass up an opportunity to litigate imaginary scandals, it's like catnip, they can't resist. So while the Republicans play games, Washington remains in gridlock, and the American people continue to suffer.
