By Michael A. Walsh
New York Post
http://www.nypost.com
December 9, 2011
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that everything Attorney General Eric Holder told the House Judiciary Committee yesterday was true.
That the answer to several questions about who ordered Fast and Furious — the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “deeply flawed, reckless, misguided and inexcusable” (Holder’s words) gun-trafficking operation — is: “We don’t know yet.”
That concerns over the program’s death toll (one, probably two American agents, hundreds of Mexicans) and demands for accountability — including for Holder’s resignation and that of his deputy, Lanny Breuer — are “inflammatory and inappropriate rhetoric to score political points.”
That the recently withdrawn letter from the Justice Department to Congress denying federal responsibility for the program was not a lie, “because it all has to do with your state of mind and whether or not you had the requisite intent to come up with something that would be considered perjury or a lie.”
That the push for something called “Demand Letter No. 3”— a new regulation to compel border-state gun dealers to report multiples sales of long guns to the ATF — had nothing to do with the fact that the feds had just allowed some 2,000 weapons to “walk” to Mexico and were using the blowback to justify more gun control.
That Holder doesn’t read the memos in his own in-box, instead relying on staffers to bring pertinent information to his attention.
And that, miraculously, of the thousands of pages of e-mails about F&F turned over to Congress last Friday night, not one is from or to Holder — that he was just an innocent bystander as the US Attorney’s office and ATF field headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., cooked up the scheme.
Let’s believe all that; what are we left with? Let Holder sum it up:
“Although the department has taken steps to ensure that such tactics are never used again . . . we will continue to feel the effects of this flawed operation for years to come. Guns lost during this operation will continue to show up at crime scenes on both sides of the border.”
There you have it: One of the most incompetent (at best) and murderous operations ever undertaken in the name of the Justice Department, and all the attorney general can do is say they’ve closed the barn door now that the horses have fled, taking the guns and ammo with them.
Oh, and promise to get to the bottom of things . . . someday.
Watching Holder dodge, twist and weave under intense questioning by his nemesis, Rep. Darrell Issa (R- Calif.) and other Republicans yesterday was to observe a true turf-defending Washington apparatchik. Holder repeatedly hid behind the excuse that acting Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar is doing her own probe. “That,” said Holder, “will take time.”
And still heads have not rolled.
Sure, Dennis Burke, the former US Attorney in Arizona, has stepped down. Kenneth Melson, the former acting head of the ATF, on whose watch Fast and Furious got started, has been protectively shuffled off into a do-nothing job elsewhere.
But both Holder and Breuer remain behind their desks, finger-pointing down the chain of command.
No wonder Issa tried to get Holder declared a hostile witness and have him put under oath.
Issa says his committee has been “systematically lied to” by Holder & Co.
“We believe you’re withholding documents,” said Issa, threatening Holder with contempt of Congress as well as a subpoena for an appearance before his Oversight Committee in January and comparing him to disgraced Nixon AG, John Mitchell.
“Have you no shame?” retorted Holder, to which Issa replied: “Have you no shame?”
Holder angrily rejected the implication that Justice deliberately concocted Fast and Furious to justify the increased gun control that is a clear priority of the Obama administration. Committee Democrats, meanwhile, did their best to change the subject, cheer him on and support his irrelevant calls for tighter gun laws.
But just last week, we learned that the Drug Enforcement Administration, another Justice Department division involved in F&F, has laundered and smuggled millions of dollars in drug money, ostensibly to help the Mexican government track drug money and identify cartel leaders.
“I have no intention of resigning,” said a defiant Holder yesterday, nor, he said, should anyone else quit. But if the drip, drip, drip of revelations continues, that might soon change.
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