It’s time to return Holder’s contempt
By Michael A. Walsh
The New York Post
Last Updated: 11:27 PM, February 15, 2012
Posted: 11:03 PM, February 15, 2012
‘Contempt of Congress” is a pretty strong term, and one with tangible legal consequences, but how else to describe Attorney General Eric Holder’s continuing obstructionism in the burgeoning Fast and Furious scandal?
It’s been 14 months since news broke that a federal agent had been killed with weapons that Holder’s Justice Department intentionally allowed to cross the border into Mexico, with no plan on how to track them and without alerting Mexican officials. In all, the Obama administration sent thousands of guns south to the drug gangs under the misbegotten operation.
But since last May, Eric Holder has been stonewalling congressional attempts to get to the bottom of Fast and Furious — a mess hatched on his watch by Obama appointees at the office of the US attorney for Arizona and agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
On Tuesday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-Calif) — whose House Oversight Committee is leading the congressional investigation — sent Holder another in a series of stern letters, demanding that Justice comply with committee subpoenas that it’s been pretty much ignoring since Oct. 12.
The letter was prompted by Justice’s failure to meet a Feb. 9 deadline to make witnesses available and turn over hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of internal documents. Holder’s crew requested a further extension — while publicly decrying Issa’s probe as a political witch hunt.
Of course, as Issa writes, it’s Justice’s own “delay tactics” that “have extended this investigation into a presidential-election year.” Indeed, “had the department demonstrated willingness to cooperate with this investigation from the outset — instead of attempting to cover up its own internal mismanagement — this investigation likely would have concluded” last year.
“In reality,” Issa continues, “it is the department that is playing political gotcha games, instead of allowing a co-equal branch of government to perform its constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch.
“We cannot wait any longer for the deparment’s cooperation.”
Tough words. But will there ever be more than words?
Issa’s letter still offers Holder an out: “Please specify a date by which you expect the department to produce all documents responsive to the subpoena.”
But it’s clear Holder is trying to stall through Election Day. Holder and President Obama are joined at the hip, and if Holder falls, the president is severely damaged. Were Democrats to regain control of the House, they could shut down Issa’s probe.
...
The shell game has gone on long enough. The country deserves answers — not gotcha games.
For months now, Holder has been dodging, obfuscating, withholding evidence and outright lying in his attempt to evade responsibility for the deadly program that has cost the lives of two federal agents and countless Mexican nationals.
Contempt of Congress? Contempt for the American people is more like it.
Remainder of article @ http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/it_time_to_return_holder_contempt_pw6HxNVJifwkZmabXSVZNP#ixzz1mb86yuRt
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
| 
