New Information in Fast and Furious

From Fox News:

A House investigative committee said Tuesday it has obtained new information from wiretaps related to the Obama administration’s Operation Fast and Furious that suggests high-ranking officials know more than they are telling Congress about the flawed weapons sting.

Of course they did. If this was really a concoction of lower level functionaries, the most politically expedient way of disposing of this scandal would have been full cooperation with the Congressional oversight and heads on a platter. Their reaction almost guarantees there is more to the story than what the DOJ and White House are letting on.

Holder is going to be counting on Congressional Republican leadership not wanting to take forward any repercussions (contempt charges) for his lack of cooperation in the investigation and hearings. Republican leadership is going to be concerned that if pressed, Holder will successfully play the victim in all this, with a media establishment that will be quite happy to help Holder carry his victimhood narrative forward. We’ll see if sometime between now and the election, Boehner grows a pair and goes after Holder directly. But the best hope to punish Holder is to remove them from office in November. I don’t put much faith in the Speaker.

11 thoughts on “New Information in Fast and Furious”

  1. I’ve always thought that they are saving this for September/October. Issa knows the White House was involved. My gut feeling is that once again the politicians are politicians and are going to use this situation to score political points against Obama. Nothing like Obama defending Holder against charges he smuggled guns to Mexico instead of talking about the Romster.

  2. I might agree. There isn’t enough time for the House to vote an article of impeachment, and the Senate will not be able to convict, anyway. Given those realities, an October Surprise may be a better plan.

  3. Most people in DC know this is over. Boehner caved in the last letter he had sent. It was cover for the voting masses but signaled surrender to the Administration.

    It’s over, folks. Done.

    Nobody will get held to account. We lost this one.

    I am sick of Republican leadership. Issa has got to be fuming.

  4. I’m beginning to wonder some things about timing. See above about impeaching Holder in this Congress (ain’t going to happen). Given that, there are basically two scenarios: 1, Obama loses and he’s out of a job in January. In that case, as much as I dislike it, the repercussions of his officers’ official acts end with their terms of office. It is far worse for political officials to be prosecuted for official acts after they have left office than to allow those to be forgot with the office – this is (essentially) why Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with his army, and why the Roman Republic had been going to hell in a handbasket for about a generation prior. (Insert various Sun Tzu and Machiavelli sayings here). 2)Obama wins. This has two subvariations: 2.a says the officials resign – see option 1. 2.b says they stay in office – at which point they continue to be fair game for impeachment &c.

    In any case, now is not the time to be showing all the cards. To mix a metaphor, Issa can and should keep the heat on them, but we don’t want this pot boiling over yet

    1. I really rather hope he doesn’t; seeing the precedent that an official can be prosecuted for his official, political, actions after he had left office is very bad. I’m not thrilled by preemptive pardons, either, though I can blame Gerald Ford for setting that precedent.

  5. There is evidence of a coordinated attack on gun rights by the directors at DoJ, State, and DHS. Whether they knew about Fast & Furious or not (I think it’s obvious they must have), they certainly tried to use it to justify actions against gun owners and to try to create a public uproar, e.g. “90% nonsense,” “Iron River,” blah blah blah. What shows them to have been truly clueless though is that the administration has continued to approve sales of military grade weapons to law enforcement and militaries of Central American countries that we know with certainty are reselling those arms directly to the cartels. This has been going on for decades of course, and will continue to. The aim of Fast & Furious wasn’t to stop the flow of guns to the cartels, it was to decrease the availability of guns to law-abiding Americans. It didn’t work, but it’s still amazing that the goal was seen as important, let alone worthwhile. Holder is corrupt, but the overall Obama team is simply clueless.

    1. I have nothing to add to your last sentence; it’s THE reason Obama must go no matter what. His appointments show that he doesn’t care about integrity in the people he appoints. I haven’t seen anything to suggest that he is personally corrupt as a President, but he tolerated it in others. I didn’t go to West Point, but their honor coffee was very similar to the one that was in effect at booth my high school and the one in effect at my college. By that criterion, he is unfit to serve as commander-in-chief, or as an elected representative in a republican form of government.
      (And it’s not just F&F, the Solyndra and LightSquared fiascos further illustrate the problem.)

  6. Your assuming that Mitt won’t do a Bush II and just leave all of Obama’s choices in office…

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