A Note on ‘Fast and Furious,’ Executive Privilege, and the End of the Obama Administration
We need to keep those differences in mind as the story unfolds. We also need to remind ourselves of how blatantly, er, economical Eric Holder has been with the truth as he testified under oath before Congress. He didn’t know about Fast and Furious, no sirree, until the day before yesterday, except that internal Justice Department documents show he knew about it back in July of 2010. An email discussing “Fast and Furious” was really about an operation called “Wide Receiver” and was overseen by George W. Bush’s Attorney General Michael Mukasey, except that it wasn’t, as Holder eventually acknowledged (without, however, apologizing to Mr. Mukasey). The more we know about Fast and Furious, the more it appears that Holder’s testimony before Congress is a tissue of evasions, equivocations, and outright lies.
For ordinary folk, lying under oath is a serious offense. What does it portend for above-the-law elites like Eric Holder? At the very least, I suspect, it means that he should be polishing his resume. And here’s something else to ponder: as I say, Obama’s assertion of executive privilege has been widely interpreted as an effort to protect Holder. Yet I can’t help thinking that behind that spectacular performance I hear the revving of a bus engine, a bus that has Eric Holder’s name on it and that he is shortly to be thrown under. Sure, the president wants to conceal something by asserting executive privilege. The dramatic and politically risky nature of the act naturally leads one to suspect that it is something serious. You can’t hear the phrase “executive privilege” without thinking “Watergate,” a word you can’t hear without thinking “cover-up,” “Nixon,” “impeachment.” In fact, Fast and Furious is far worse than Watergate. No one died in Watergate. Dozens of people are dead as the result of Fast and Furious, including at least one U.S. citizen, Border Agent Brian Terry.
No, Obama’s assertion of executive privilege will do little if anything to save Eric Holder. Its chief effect, I predict, will be to focus attention more sharply on the great questions that have not been sufficiently plumbed: Who is Barack Obama? What does he have to hide?
If Obama is protecting Holder it would be the first time he’s shown any reluctance to throw someone under the bus. No, I suspect that in amongst those documents is something very damaging to Obama. Something Holder is threatening to release if Obama simply wants him to quietly slip away under the wheels. Perhaps the gun rights folks are correct- there’s something showing this really was all a political anti-gun op designed to increase the violence in Mexico, blame it on US sold guns and increase pressure/public tolerance for more gun control.
Could be something else, support to one drug cartel in exchange for…? But then, if it were some kind of black op executive privilege would have been invoked a long time ago with many classified briefings to intelligence committees.
Throwing people under the bus is practically Obama’s favorite hobby. He threw his own mother under the bus just as a warm-up back in the early days of his first presidential campaign.
That he HASN’T thrown Holder under the bus is just downright weird (for Obama) – that’s the very first thing done in almost every circumstance.
There’s only one believable reason for that: Holder has something on Obama.
Maybe it’s something on BOTH of them (involvement in F&F), but when the chips are down, Holder could trade Obama’s hide for his own in some form or fashion, or he would have been thrown under the bus literally years ago.
Or it could be the Holder is actually higher up the ladder in the liberal elitist establishment.
Could be that Obama is just a public figure head and Holder is actually the puppet behind the power (Soros).
The only problem with that conspiracy theory is Obama’s ego. Obama would never play second fiddle; he is after all the smartest, most handsome, coolest, most bad ass, compassionate president to ever exist. Oh and if you disagree with that assessment, you’re racist.
By Andrew C. McCarthy
November 8, 2011 3:20 P.M. Comments69
I was only able to take in parts of Attorney General Eric Holder’s just-completed Senate testimony. But that was enough to see that “Bush did it” is going to be the Democrats’ excuse for the inexcusable “Fast & Furious” operation conducted by ATF on the Obama administration’s watch.
On the Obama administration’s watch. That is the biggest problem with the Democrats’ strategy. Fast & Furious did not begin until 2009, months after the end of the Bush administration. Given that, one might think that even today’s Democrats would be unable with a straight face to lay this disaster at the feet of Obama’s predecessor. But then one wouldn’t know today’s Democrats.
The key to their strategy is conflating two very different programs: Operation Fast & Furious and a Bush era ATF initiative known as “Operation Wide Receiver.” In the questions from Judiciary Committee Democrats (principally, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer — there may have been others but, again, I didn’t see the entire hearing), it emerged that Wide Receiver began in 2006, when Alberto Gonzales was the Bush administration attorney general. Senator Schumer took pains to describe Wide Receiver as involving the “tracing” of firearms that crossed into Mexico. As we shall see, Wide Receiver’s notion of tracing was night-and-day different from the tracing involved in the reckless gun-walking approach employed by Fast & Furious. Obviously, however, Democrats hope that if they get enough help from their friends in the media, the public will miss the distinction.
Schumer made much of the happenstance that a briefing, said to have included information on Wide Receiver, was prepared for Michael Mukasey in late 2007, after he succeeded Gonzales as AG. (This is an amusing contradiction in the Democrats’ strategy: If a memo addressed to Holder in the middle of Fast & Furious emerges, you’re supposed to understand that, as attorney general, he is way too busy to read every memo; but if a memo is found to have been addressed to Mukasey or Gonzales years before Fast & Furious began, you should see them as the architects of gun-walking!)
Schumer pointed out that AG Mukasey had met with his counterpart, the Mexican attorney general, after the briefing, and that he had expressed a commitment to stanch the flow of guns to destinations south of the border. Schumer took these unremarkable facts, added the gloss that Wide Receiver involved gun tracing, and wildly theorized that it was very likely the subject of gun-walking came up in the Mukasey briefing — even though both Schumer and Holder conceded that they did not really know what was discussed at the briefing or even who was present at it (details you might figure Holder would be up on if it actually showed that this whole Fast & Furious fiasco was a Bush creation).
It was left to Republican Senators Charles Grassley and John Cornyn to lay bare some crucial distinctions between to two ATF operations. Wide Receiver actually involved not gun-walking but controlled delivery. Unlike gun-walking, which seems (for good reason) to have been unheard of until Fast & Furious, controlled delivery is a very common law enforcement tactic. Basically, the agents know the bad guys have negotiated a deal to acquire some commodity that is either illegal itself (e.g., heroin, child porn) or illegal for them to have/use (e.g., guns, corporate secrets). The agents allow the transfer to happen under circumstances where they are in control — i.e., they are on the scene conducting surveillance of the transfer, and sometimes even participating undercover in the transfer. As soon as the transfer takes place, they can descend on the suspects, make arrests, and seize the commodity in question — all of which makes for powerful evidence of guilt.
Senator Schumer’s drawing of an equivalence between “tracing” in a controlled-delivery situation and “tracing” in Fast & Furious is laughable. In a controlled delivery firearms case, guns are traced in the sense that agents closely and physically follow them — they don’t just note the serial numbers or other identifying markers. The agents are thus able to trace the precise path of the guns from, say, American dealers to straw purchasers to Mexican buyers.
To the contrary, Fast & Furious involved uncontrolled deliveries — of thousands of weapons. It was an utterly heedless program in which the feds allowed these guns to be sold to straw purchasers — often leaning on reluctant gun dealers to make the sales. The straw purchasers were not followed by close physical surveillance; they were freely permitted to bulk transfer the guns to, among others, Mexican drug gangs and other violent criminals — with no agents on hand to swoop in, make arrests, and grab the firearms. The inevitable result of this was that the guns have been used (and will continue to be used) in many crimes, including the murder of Brian Terry, a U.S. border patrol agent.
In sum, the Fast & Furious idea of “trace” is that, after violent crimes occur in Mexico, we can trace any guns the Mexican police are lucky enough to seize back to the sales to U.S. straw purchasers … who should never have been allowed to transfer them (or even buy them) in the first place. That is not law enforcement; that is abetting a criminal rampage.
As Sen. Cornyn pointed out, there is another major distinction between Wide Receiver and Fast & Furious. The former was actually a coordinated effort between American and Mexican authorities. Law enforcement agents in both countries kept each other apprised about suspected transactions and tried to work together to apprehend law-breakers. To the contrary, Fast & Furious was a unilateral, half-baked scheme cooked up by an agency of the Obama Justice Department — an agency that was coordinating with the Justice Department on the operation and that turned to Main Justice in order to get wiretapping authority.
By the time Cornyn was done drawing this stark contrast between Wide Receiver and Fast & Furious, Holder was reduced to conceding, “I’m not trying to equate the two.” That is big of him given that the two cannot be equated. But the attorney general seemed fine with the effort to equate them — to make them one and the same — when it was Schumer asking the questions. Expect the effort to continue. “Bush did it” may be a tired defense, and in this instance a preposterous one, but it’s the one the Democratic base loves to hear.
If you watched the Sunday talk shows this weekend you saw the full court press for:
This is a continuation of a Bush program
Partisan witch hunt/fishing expedition
How many of the folks Obama threw under the bus were black like him?
Obama throws people under the bus when doing so helps Obama. In this case Holder could be much more dangerous under the bus than he is by remaining in the bus. Obama will not throw him to the wolves, he will pardon him because Holder knows too much. Holder is a huge risk to Obama’s legacy as President.
obama threw his own grandmother under the bus, trashed the man who acted as his father for 20 years (Rev Wrigt), has abused the memory of his mother, and has gleefuly exploited his daughters for political purposes.
He would have ZERO problem with throwing Holder under the bus if he thought it would buy him one more second as El Presidente.
Holder has told Zero that he, Eric, will not go down alone, and this time, Marion Obama has been checkmated by one of the little people. You would think the ultimate con man would have known better than to trust somebody who is as slimy as he is.
Who is “Marion Obama”?
I think he’s constructing a metaphor that equates disgraced Washington DC mayor Marion Barry to Obama….
…..please, please don’t suggest…..gasp!……that.
Marion Barry was caught on video doing whatever one does with crack cocaine, or something akin to it.
In spite of that, and other sort of …..indiscretions……he was re-elected Mayor of our Nation’s Capital by his adoring claque of voters in……our Nation’s Capital.
Even today, I think he’s holding (no puns, please) onto some elected committee membership in the District Government.
In other words, Obama, Holder, and Marion Barry are, collectively, a National disgrace.
But the real test will come when and if the voters in our America will take these three as a Lesson. That’s an open question…..if the voters in our America can’t see this, then we’re in big trouble, and we’ll deserve the jerks we elect to political office.
Certain of of our Congressmen-and-women bear much closer scrutiny also. Good luck with that with our liberal media.
We’ve got a real problem on our hands, no doubt about it.
And it could possibly have had the added effect of alienating Mexico against the US, and isolating us. Obama has shown time and again, he has no desire to be friends with our allies.
obeyme isn’t protecting holder, he’s protecting himself. if holder goes down, there is nothing left to protect thegreatwon. holder is his firewall.
This Fast and Furious is nothing compared to the fact that Barack Hussein Obama has usurped the office of the POTUS. He is NOT a “natural born Citizen” and he has been flaunting documents that are easy to prove to be fraudulent enabling him to keep this nightmare away from the American people. The Conservative media and the Republican Congress have been driving the get-a-way car enabling him to get away with it. They will eventually pay the price. When Sheriff Joe Arpaio has his SECOND Press Conference unloading another truck load of evidence against this usurper the media will be forced to begin an investigation resulting in Congress being forced to address the criminal acitivity. It amazes me that people see this Fast and Furious issue as more serious than a man usurping the office of the POTUS. Shameless!!
Well folks, all of these and others are possibilities but, the only ones that the “little o” protects like this are his handlers. The Valerie Jarrett and George Soros types. These “people” are hiding the fact that they were using horrific language and scenarios proposed by their higher ups and cannot allow the likes of Valerie Jarrett, Moochele and Axelfraud to be subpoena’d and have to testify as to what they new and why they are giving advice to the POTUS on how to spin the Murder of a Border Patrol Agent(Brian Terry) and an ICE Agent Jaime Zapata. Those Murders of course being an unintended consequence of F&F. What was not unintended, was the murders of hundreds of Mexican Nationals. That was one of the objectives in order to give credibility to Hillary Clinton’s statement that 90% of Mexican guns come from the U.S. They also will not admit the lengths to which these individuals will go to get rid of the 2nd Amendment but, obviously the Murder of two U.S. Agents is quite acceptable to this administration and its minions. the Murder of hundreds of Mexicans is not a problem, it was part of the plan from the beginning.
God Bless America!
I think you are on to somesthing, I’ve been looking for the conection to soros for thre years, but could find a cut-out. It may well be v. jarrett
I suspect the reason Obama said “you can’t have ‘em” is simple: the papers no longer exist. And since destroying records during an investigation is a real no-no, we can’t be allowed to open the empty filing cabinets.
I believe you are correct. Next up, obstruction of justice charges against the justice department. How ironic.
That has also come to my mind. While they may well have done the deed and shredded paperwork and electronic information with no care about it being illegal – and thinking executive privilege would save their asses (with help from the MSM) there are still people around that have that information in their heads. Lets hope a few of them have a conscience.
These morons are like kids playing with gas and a pile of leaves – and can’t understand how and why this has blown up in their face. Not only are they morons – they are amateur morons and thats the worst (and most dangerous) types.
Thank God for Rep. Issa. If Boehner had his way this would all be swept under the carpet. Not now! There is plenty of smoke – and fire is right behind – and a three alarm fire at that.
The trouble with “documents” such as emails and anything digitally created is that, while they can erase files on hard drives or shred hard copies, rounding up any copies of the files that might have been surreptitiously saved by others to cover their own behinds as a shield to avoid being sacrificed might be a bit tougher. Think “blue dresses”. Who’s to say that the people doing Obama’s bidding know exactly the kind of person they’re working for?
I have found it interesting that the following angle hasn’t been discussed. Our government facilitated the passage of arms from the United States to Mexicans who are fighting each other and are fighting the Mexican government, a government universally recognized. Might these actions be considered an act of war? While the intention may not have been so, we have had no clear and precise explanation from our government as to what was going on and, more importantly, at what level the decisions were made. Without this information, the Congress has every right to press froward since it is the only body which can Constitutionally declare war. Impeachment of many may be warranted.
Oh, yes. There is that aspect. Several of us have brought it up, but I think that the way the Mexican Pres is acting has kept that from taking off.
The UN is not going to say anything, even though the criminal activity is from the US gov’t, as it was related to an attempt to outlaw firearms in the US. Besides, the kleptocrats in the UN need to have a monetary motive for anything more than wiping their butts.
OR . . . the bolshevik schemers in the White House remade the limited and defunct Bush program into a grand scale, open ended and unsupervised weapons flood in order to justify gun control . . . a purely political and unthinking act worthy of the adolescent Maoists they really are.
Yes, that is a huge point that hasn’t received enough attention. The transfer of these guns to straw buyers violated U.S. Arms Export Control Act which the State Department oversees. That brings us to clinton’s wife who testified late last year that she had no knowledge of anyone in her department asking for a permission waiver to allow these guns to walk. This definitely involves the State Department as well as the DEA, DHS, ICE, FBI. I don’t think the House has the stomach to go this route even though they should.
House of Usher? I’ll have you know there is an R&B artist named Usher, who is black, and the president is black, and therefore this is a racist reference.
Well someone had to say it.
Excellent point, Ron. I bet this very valid, accurate, vicious point will be used tomorrow on ASharpton radio program. great catch on the Usher connection that might have been overlooked by those focusing on F&F.
It isn’t much of a stretch to see a pattern with the exaggerations in Dreams From My Father and the the claims the indirectly gave live to the Birther myth when Obama claimed to be born in Kenya. He was born into a family of two college educated parents who were part of the academic elite; Obama was raise as a white child who happened to look black.
Society doesn’t give any major breaks to white kids; they are assumed to be on the road to prosperity; they have “white privilege” and they better cash in on it; if they don’t it’s their fault.
Barack Obama needed to have “street cred” as an African-American, so he could get those minority goodies that the guilty whites had paid for. He also needed it so he could bamboozle and hoodwink voters in the black community. Ultimately, the search for street cred led Barack Obama to Trinity Church.
I’ve heard that the biggest result of the executive privilege assertion will be a long delay in the legal proceedings against Holder. The EP issue will first have to work its way through the courts before the contempt charge is considered. If so, this seems like a very effective way to prevent facts from emerging this summer and fall and to give the media a way to shift the focus away from coverup and toward constitutional crisis.
Barring more leaked documents, we can’t do anything to get the facts out. It’s imperative that we not get pulled into separation of powers distractions. Let the courts work that out. We need to focus on the withheld documents.
I hope they stretch it out till after the election and the corrupt Eric Holder is beyond the pardon window of his corrupt boss.
‘Twill be very interesting to see what Holder does in Obama’s lame duck session. Holder may beg Republicans to convict him so he can be pardoned before Romney’s AG takes office. (Indicted? Convicted? What do you have to do to get a pardon?)
Ford pardoned Nixon pre-emptively. Of course, there’s still the matter of Obama himself. Obama can pardon Holder, but he cannot pardon himself. He’d have to resign and get Joe Biden to pardon him.
A president can pardon himself. None has, but that doesn’t mean he can’t.
Executive Priviledge is just to push the conclusion out beyond the election, isn’t it? Or else, Holder threatenend Marion. As an accomplished criminal himself, Holder certainly knows how to play the blackmail game.
I believe three things about Obama’s claim of Executive Privilege regarding operation “Fast and Furious”:
1. If there weren’t moles in DOJ that have funneled information to Issa’s committee, the e-mails and other documents would have disappeared quicker than Rosemary Woods could do the famous stretch;
2. If the documents are released, they will show that the whole purpose behind Fast and Furious was to support gun ban laws in the U.S. by focusing on the number of U.S. weapons that were used in the atrocities by drug cartels in Mexico (this was already attempted in 2009 http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/02/myth-percent-small-fraction-guns-mexico-come/
3. The real reason for the assertion of the privilege is that, having been caught, e-mails and documents will show that Holder sought/received advice from the White House on how to deal with the new crisis politically and public relations wise – most likely Axelrod, since Carney should still be working in the sewers of New York.
I expect an “October surprise” from the Obama camp. But at this point I cannot imagine what that might be or how it might pull him from the fire.
How about “The country is inflamed, divided , on the verge of revolution, and that is no time to hold an election – we need fairness, not inflamed angry voters..so by executive order, I decree that elections are on hold until next year.” Or something like that??
Possible. But I was thinking along the lines of something like this: Romney and his family often eat Aunt Jemima pancakes, which proves that he is racist.
OMG!!! I had no idea I was racist. I just threw out my package of Aunt Jemima pancake mix. I feel so cleansed.
You threw out Aunt Jemima? Racist!
Scary people those Romneys. The way they treat their dog, now they are accused of, oh no, eating racist pancakes. BTW, Aunt Jemima made the syrup not the pancakes.
And that will take us from “on the verge of a revolution” to a full-scale shooting war. If Obama cancels elections, he should be removed from office by the military, and shot if removing him without violence is not practical. There is no provision under the Constitution for canceling elections, and it will constitute an attempted coup and act of war against the Republic to cancel the elections.
My guess is that Obama wants to protect Holder long enough for Holder’s DoJ to help him steal the election in November. Obama will throw Holder under the bus along with all teh others after he has served that purpose, but there is no one else Obama trusts to do so, at this point (and who could get confirmed as A.G.!)
The other likely alternative is that the privilege claim is genuine and Obama was, personally, heavily involved in decisions about Fast & Furious.
Seems like the best explanations of why Obama would open himself up to all the heat about the executive privilege claim. Hard to see any other explanations that make sense.
This is looking more and more like Watergate, where something of interest mostly to insiders blows up due to the cover-up.
BINGO! Pelosi said that Republicans are after Holder so he can’t stop voter suppression. Translation: Dems need Holder to protect the votes of illegal aliens, dead people, cartoon characters, and felons.
Also, why can’t Obama’s involvement in F&F also be true? O himself, as President-elect, met with the Mexican Pres and pledged to stop the flow of guns from the USA.
Don’t forget the voting rights of pets, too. Also dead pets.
The October surprise will be a major attack on Iran coupled with the announcement that Iran has nukes. And the declaration of martial law, with suspension of elections until hostilities cease.
The suspension of elections will not happen, trust me…even if the Demo-marxists continued to dominate the major organs of the country. However, it IS likely that a “kinetic” action against Iran (not a major attack, just a false ‘glancing blow’) is in the cards. In fact, I’m betting on it.
I don’t care if Washington D.C. has been vaporized- that’s no reason to postpone elections by more than a week (and only if we’re hit with nukes just hours before or during elections.
Sir William of Ockham told me the answer in a dream: the documents implicate Obama personally. He is trapped like a rat. Even if he drags it out past the election, if he is subsequently implicated directly he will be impeached.
Perhaps he would be impeached, but it takes a 2/3 vote in the Senate to convict. No one is now predicting that the Republicans can get anywhere near that many Senate wins.
President Obama and Eric Holder were talking. Attorney General Holder said, “Those documents that the House wants – My dog ate them.”
President Obama replied, “That’s OK, Eric. I’ve got your back. I’ll eat the dog.”
The number ONE rule for government workers is CYA. This applies to Holder as much as to anyone else. Of COURSE Obama was involved in F&F from the get go! Remember, he was working “under the radar,” as he told Ms. Brady, on gun control. Any strategy which might affect relations with Mexico would have to be brought to Obama as anyone involved in this effort could readily see how explosive this might become. Moreover, there is no way that Hillary is not involved, either. She would have been informed about F&F even if the DOJ did not formally request a waiver or “export license” to send arms into Mexico (a violation of federal law without such a waiver). Even if Hillary was asked about a waiver she is too smart to have granted it.
Hence, the desperation of the administration to conceal records is easily understandable. When all of this information is eventually disclosed it will devastate the Democratic party. If Obama is somehow miraculously reelected, he will be impeached and convicted when this truth comes out.
“If Obama is somehow miraculously reelected, he will be impeached and convicted when this truth comes out.”
Only if the millions of his useful idiots in this country somehow fail to elect a majority of ‘Democratic’ (Pro-Obama, anti-constitutional) congressmen. Admittedly, that’s looking like a demographic impossibility….
“What does he have to hide?”
Everything that is a Democrat/Liberal/Socialist/Marxist/Fascist needs to be hidden.
I’ll see Kimball’s “Fast and Furious” and raise you…
The birth certificate mess. Where was he born? I don’t know. I wasn’t there. But one thing I do know for certain, is that if I were President, and someone raised a ruckus about where and when I was born, I would sign whatever form was necessary to allow ANYBODY to see my birth certificate, which would positively document that 60 years ago today, at Brooklyn Doctor’s Hospital in Borough Park, Brooklyn, one Dr. Marcus delivered by Caesarian section yours truly. Finito. Das Ende. But Barack Hussein Obama had some reason to not sign whatever form. How come? I’m not hysterical over the “birther” issue. I’m simply asking “how come”.
And the Left needs to hide the reality of abortion, which begins with the oh-so-friendly euphemism of “choice”. What “choice”? You mean whether or not to allow nature to deliver a healthy child, a process that nature, whether that be Darwinian evolution or the Creator Himself, has been perfecting for millions of years? Yes, that “choice”. And “how come” we see TV specials on every imaginable surgery, everything, EXCEPT abortion? Could it be that watching the “doctor” insert the stainless steel vacuum into the “mother”, and with that tear the “fetus” to pieces, all the pieces caught in a stainless steel mesh, so that the “doctor” can check that all the pieces have been removed from the “mother”? And that the little feet can be compared to a mylar chart to positively establish the weeks of gestation?
Yes, everything about the Left needs to be hidden. Everything.
Woah…where have you been all this time? Touche….
Perfect.
My conjecture is that in that pile of documents they don’t want to release is a substantial gold seam showing that AG Holder, Sec, Napolitano, Geither, etc plus Obama met and discussed Fast & Furious strategies.sometime in 2009. (If you are going to ship that many guns over the border you need a large pile of export licenses, which must be approved by Justice, Treasury, Defense, Commerce, maybe DHS as well.)
I believe that they know they are going to lose the election and so therefore are just trying to stall long enough to let the clock run out.
The State Department can approve gun sales to foreign governments. Under the Bush administration there were something like 2,500 gun sales approved to Mexico each year, but for some strange reason Hillary Clinton approved a whopping 18,700 guns in 2009 alone. Of course with the high amount of corruption in Mexico thousands of them ended up in the hands of cartels and were recovered at crime scenes. Then Mexico sends them back to the US to be traced. So between Fast and Furious and the State Department program the Obama administration successfully executed their strategy to flood Mexico with guns.
Export licenses are not an issue here. ATF stood by while the guns were purchased by criminals who smuggled them across the border. Smuggling has never required a license.
But I fear that our problems are becoming more transparent with ‘o’s stand on immigration, and the republicans not even putting up the slightest fight on that and all the other ‘o’ issues -place of birth, Soros, F&F, etc.We seem to be going from negative strength to positive weakness. Romney is not standing up to his responsibilities before the election.And why hasn’t Boener demanded that the unions return their shares of Chrysler and GM to their rightful owners?Pretty soon it’s going to be too late to win. I would like to be in D. C. on a designated date that is publicized throughout the nation, so that the million man march will look like a buggy ride. I am 80 and will positively show up. Can this be organized before it’s too late?? We can all demand that O be held in contempt of congress for not turning over the papers and emails – we’ll all carry placards lising the lies he has stated, the cover-ups, etc. And wse will demand that he open the Columbia records so that his entry on the line – place of birth – will be shown to all the world. Either he was born here, and used another country to list his birth to get funds, or he is a citizen. In either case he no doubt has committed fraud. I think his application to get funds was based on his being a foreign student. I think the Department of Justice should be responsible for getting his conflicting stories straight.
He shrewd, calculating, an egomaniac, and his move in the immigration debate was smart. Too many votes will seing his way on this one. It appears that impeachment is the only answer at this point. Come on, Boehmer!!! follow through on your promioses of strength, honor, etc.
I’ve always thought it the job of the cabinet members to defend the president, not the other way round. In this case, Eric Holder would have taken the blame and resigned.
That The Won should take a bullet for his attorney general tells me that this whole scandal starts at the top.
The end of the Obama administration?
I’ll believe it when I see it.
This may be worse than Watergate but that doesn’t matter to the press. They have too much vested in this man’s being a successful president. Since the press is making excuses, his supporters will, too. (It all started under Bush; Obama just continued it, etc.) Impeachment will never happen. This man has a ‘D’ after his name. There aren’t enough Republicans in Congress to make impeachment a remote possibility.
The October surprise? How about Obambi dumping Biden and naming Holder as his new VP choice?
Took me longer to stop retching than it did to type that! Okay, a serious question. If Holder gets kicked out who takes his place? Seems like just about everybody close to him is involved so how far down the line would they have to go to get a replacement? I am assuming they will just pick a temp from the Justice Dept. instead of trying to confirm a new one this close to election.
Today, RUSH talked about the differences between Operation Wide Receiver and F&F…
http://www.therightscoop.com/rush-limbaugh-explains-the-difference-between-wide-receiver-and-fast-furious/
Has anybody heard of a larger weapons operation run through Hillary’s State Dept (concurrently with F&F) that provided military grade ordnance to Mexican cartels: automatic weapons, anti-aircraft ordnance, anti-armor, night vision, etc….?
What does he have to hide?
Every single thing, apparently.
Even Hitler didn’t dissemble like this. Mugabe, maybe. Chavez, absolutely!
For a man who can credit almost his entire political career to opponents’ sealed records being outed at EXACTLY the right moment, this behavior is even more suspicious. He obviously believes that everyone has stuff to hide. Why, exactly? Because he does. In spades.
Oh, hell! It isn’t at all suspicious. Con artists never can allow you to see the con, or even the suspicion of the con. His Mom and Pop were both con artists* and you know…apples and all that.
He, deep down, is a lying scumbag.
Nuff said.
*Read the documents regarding immigration and his dad, lying with his mother swearing to it, even contradicting herself in two documents two weeks apart. It used to be easily read on the internet. Look it up for an insight into the “family business”. The Big Con. Once you’ve perused that stuff, Ostupid makes absolute sense.
Perhaps Soros doesn’t want to be tied in with the mess.
Remember there were two agents killed with these weapons. ICE Agent Jaime Zapata never seems to get mentioned.
I have noticed the absence of any mention of Jamie Zapata on many sites. Why would that be? It can’t be coincidental. Is ICE somehow not connected to the whole F&F mess?
I believe the reason Jamie Zapata’s name is withheld is because the serial number was taken off the gun that killed him, so even though most people figure the gun came from F&F, they need more evidence to prove it.
I wonder how Hispanics will react to this now that it’s finally getting some serious coverage? How will they react to the Dems reaction that this isn’t serious, it was just a bunch of Mexicans killed.
http://dunellanoestachato.blogspot.com/2012/06/adventures-of-huckleberry-holder.html
It’s hard to hide a lot of dead Mexicans, but I’m sure Univision and Telemundo will parrot the mentiras from MSNBC: Bush started it, and Superman Holder saved the day.
Omertà will trump all in promoting the leftist agenda
Is it too early to suggest an appropriate location for Mr. Obama’s presidential library?
I did some checking and found that there is a piece of prime federal real estate not currently being utilized in Joliet Illinois, his current state of residence.
The Joliet Correctional Center, aka Joliet Prison, closed in 2002 so it would be the perfect place to immortalize this presidency. Might also be worth fixing up a bit and offering Obama and Holder both a place to live after they’re out of office. They’ve certainly earned it.
You don’t think Romney will pardon him?
Leavenworth would work well too.
I’m anxious for my local blood bank to open up tomorrow morning so I can donate blood for cash and send that cash to Obama for his campaign.
It’s the best I can do since I’m not getting married, nor do I know anyone getting married that I can use their registry to donate.
I wonder if I can donate at the local sperm bank for cash?
I hope you’re kidding about giving blood money to BOzo. If not the sperm idea is whacked out too. If you do plan to do so for real then learn from your parents mistakes, wear a confom and don’t reproduce.
“Who is Barack Obama? What does he have to hide?”
The mass and wonton murder of hundreds of Mexicans.
Since his first week in office Obama has been making reprehensible decisions and his job approval hasn’t slipped in three years. Why does anyone thing this will be different from Honduras, Obamacare, selling out Poland, the Czech Republic, Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, America’s friends in the middle east, bail outs that don’t work, fraudulent green projects and crony capitalism, introducing dehabilitating uncertainty in the economy, appointing nut leftists to important positions, court nominees so extreme the Dems won’t them, and releasing state secrets in a silly effort to have the NYT paint him as something other than a gutless wonder?
His supporters will rationalize this, or just ignore it, like all the rest for some reason I hope to understand someday, and go looking forward to the day they can vote for him again.
“Lets hope a few of them have a conscience.”
No, when you join the clown posse you check your conscience at the door.
The 0bomination used his big gun because he is desperate. Issa has moles all through the DoJ. Some of those working there still salute the flag because they love America. So if the documents are gone, so is Berry. Issa knows exactly what happened and who made it happen. His problem is working a system that is designed to protect the guilty.
After Holder is cited next week, DoJ will slow walk the Grand Jury. So by the end of July that approach will be dead. Then Issa goes to a civil judge and gets a search warrant. Then guys with badges and guns escort guys with hand trucks into the DoJ, where they remove the subpoenaed documents. Then the jig is up. That should be mid August. A week or two before the convention. If the MSM sits on this affair, it can be featured at the convention, leaving the MSM a choice of covering it or not covering the convention. Issa will be able to do a document dump.
As far as an October surprise, in ’08 Soros collapsed the stock market. Not sure that will work this time. Might not be anything left to collapse.
Remember “Pulp Fiction”? 0bama is over a barrel and the line forms on the right.
More importantly, collapsing the stock market DOESN’T HELP THEM this time. They have nothing to gain besides revenge by collapsing the stock market, because a market collapse causes votes to break for the challenger.
I am uncertain about this, but I believe Obama can issue a pardon of Holder arising from any and all circumstances surrounding Fast and Furious. The pardon could issue prior to any indictment or conviction of Holder, but, obviously before the end of Obama’s term in office. (When Ford pardoned Nixon it was well before any conviction of Nixon.)
Issa needs to send JNosh Randall after Obama and Holder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUROZEmC1WQ&feature=related
Josh Randall!
This is June.
Watergate took time to unroll, even with everyone and his brother’s dog in the news media baying for Nixon’s butt.
This is not merely about Holder. Obama is guilty as hell too, but he might yet be able to stave off the investigation until after the election.
This is only June of 2012. February and after is the reckoning.
Patience.
I was sadly and jarringly reminded yet again of past Republican cowardice and fecklessness when I read the following: “…Alberto Gonzales, the attorney general under President George W. Bush who was hounded out of office by Democratic zealots after he fired some U.S. attorneys…[T]he Bush situation involved (a) a non-crime (presidents do not need a reason to fire U.S. attorneys), (b) a non-scandal manufactured into a scandal (Bush 43 fired 8 U.S. attorneys; Clinton had fired 92 of the 93, and for no better reason than partisan patronage after he defeated Bush 41), and (c) patently improper subpoenas to the president’s personal staffers who are not subject to Senate confirmation and assist him in his constitutional duties.”
The shameless, cowardly and gutless manner in which the Republican “leadership” has caved, capitulated and kowtowed to the Marxocrats rather than fight those domestic enemies of freedom and liberty during my lifetime has been a sorry spectacle to behold and lies at the root of the collapse of the rule of law in this country and the destruction of the Constitution. Republicans have completely lost faith with those of us who have tried to support the rule of law and, in truth, have unforgiveably failed the servicemen who they’ve ordered to their deaths fighting foreign enemies to protect and defend the Constitution that the Republicans treat like a roll of toilet paper.
After the next election is over and we’ve ended our current national nightmare by removing Hussein and his gaggle of communists, we simply MUST defeat the GOPe and remove every RINO that has aided and abetted this ongoing catastrophe of over 70 years of liberal-left progressivism that has been the scourge of this country.
As I understand it, Obama has not invoked privilege as yet. Holder has requested it. Trial balloon? We shall see.
I definitely agree F&F is now going to be terible for Obama. And it is only one story in a whole stream of recent bad news, like:
1. Continued terible economic news.
2. Obamas only semi decent area, national security, blown up by leaking scandall.
3. Clinton and Booker call Romneys Bain record “sterling”.
4. In several recent dem only primaries Obama has “nobody” get 40% vote against him.
5. W Virginia gov and senator vow to not attend dem convention, because they cannot bear to be seen with Obama.
I am thinking of a scene in a Jim Carry movie, where he was a reporter having problems, and criticising God, and on the air he talked about his whole life ERODING, ERODING, ERODING. It makes me think of what Obama must be feeling.
It seems that the floodgates are opening. Yet, sadly, eventual justice will hang on such issues as the leaning of the MSM, and who controls the Senate/House and even who makes up the Supreme Court. I hope the Terry and Zapata families will continue to speak out.
Ah, hell…. the next administration should just give Holder to the Mexicans. Which might be a grand strategy to open a few mouths and get some cooperation if a few rouges think they might end up facing a court in Mexico.
All this makes the assumption, which may not be warranted anymore, that there is enough of the rule of law left for the system to work. Keep in mind that Congress has not passed anything but retroactive budgets for 3 1/2 years, and a factor in that is that the Senate Democrats refuse to do so. The government is being largely funded by games between the Federal Reserve Bank and the Treasury that is creating money out of thin air. Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat leader in the House yesterday called for Obama to declare that congressional limitations on the debt are unconstitutional and to assume the power to borrow as much as he wants.
Days ago, he asserted the power to selectively overturn the laws passed by Congress and signed by another president; enforcing them when he wants, against who he wants, and not against those he chooses not to hold to the law. And he got no pushback from the Republicans.
Now he is voiding Congressional oversight. These are not the acts of someone who ever believes that they can be called to account for their actions, ever. He does not fear the Congress. He does not fear the Courts [in fact, I would be totally unsurprised by bald defiance of the Supreme Court if it rules against him on either Obamacare or Arizona's SB-1070]. I have the feeling that he does not fear the elections, no matter how much of the country he infuriates, impoverishes, and enslaves. Either they are already rigged, or he knows that they will not take place.
What will happen afterwards is unknowable. I take comfort in the fact that our military swears their Oath to the Constitution. And even for those not still in service, the Oath never expires. Our politicians swear the same Oath, but it is just words to them, like the lies they tell the voters.
Subotai Bahadur
I’m skeptical this will cause any damage to Obama before the election. He has already started the stalling routine. In the long run, documents will disappear, memories will become fuzzy, etc. We’ll get Holder, but that’s probably it.
I don’t doubt for a minute that Holder has plenty on Obama that is at least damaging enough to guarantee he loses in November, but that’s not what is driving Obama’s strategy here. If Holder goes, the questions remain, the House still wants the documents. There would be blood in the water and the new Acting AG wouldn’t have more than a week before his own contempt vote was scheduled. Holder is safe because his departure wouldn’t solve the problem.
So Obama is implementing, as Levin noted, a strategy he decided long ago, planning the privilege assertion and subsequent court battle to carry him past the election without taking the damage. After that, he wouldn’t care. He couldn’t be removed without at least a dozen Democratic votes in the Senate to convict him, and that wouldn’t happen if he shot Brian Terry himself. He’s running out the clock on the election.
BTW, those two lines in the opening graph are almost sublime: “The end hasn’t come yet, not quite. But you can feel it coming, a dull, oppressive presence like the heaviness of the air before a storm, or the quickly widening fissures that consumed the House of Usher.”
Wish I’d said that.
Roger Kimball asked, “who is Barack Obama, and what does he have to hide?
Answer: Barack Obama is a small c communist trying to destroy the United States. His lies spewed every day on both important (like Op. Fast and Furious) and unimportant questions of the day are what he has to hide.
Julian Assange needs to be appointed to the House Oversight Committee.
We’ve already been introduced to the official party line; attacking Holder is part of the Republican attempt to suppress potential Democrat voters. Undoubtedly, many on the Democrat voting rolls agree with this. Such is the level of intelligence amongst much of the electorate. Where is the outrage from Republicans re Pelosis’ slander? Where is the hard nosed investigative reporting from the MSM, the supposed guardians of liberty? This is another Goebels moment.
ps: the other party line is that Holder is being attacked because he is black. Of course. We knew that was coming. Message to the Left: it’s not his skin color, it’s that awful mustache!
The real racism here is the Dem reaction to the contempt vote. A few hundred dead Mexicans is no big deal, they were only Mexicans. So this is all a witch hunt not really important like the Valerie Plame scandal.
http://dunellanoestachato.blogspot.com/2012/06/adventures-of-huckleberry-holder.html
I have concerns about the gunrunning operations of both the Bush and Obama Administrations that go beyond the Congressional investigation.
The gun running operations of the Bush Administration were significantly different from those of the Obama Administration. One major difference between the two is that under Bush’s Operation Wide Receiver the Mexican government was working with the US Government; thus the sovereignty of Mexico was respected. It was recently confirmed by the Obama DoJ that President Bush’s AG, Michael Mukasey, did not know about Operation Wide Receiver. That, to me, opens up a few questions. At what level in the DoJ and other government departments do lower level officials in any administration have the power to skirt laws, and as in Fast and Furious (F&F) and other Obama Administration gunrunning operations, permit the violation of the sovereignty of other nations? That alone causes me serious concerns about the distribution of power in our ever growing government.
While Operation Wide Receiver had the cooperation of the Mexican Government, at a minimum the FBI had to be involved to allow the background checks for the weapon’s purchasers to be bypassed. In Fast and Furious both US laws and Mexico’s sovereignty were violated. These violations were performed with the knowledge and cooperation of the FBI, DHS, State Department and even the IRS. If I am to believe AG Holder, he and his deputies were not in the approval loop for F&F. If that is true, we have a government that has renegade elements that can violate our laws and other nations sovereignty with impunity. That is very dangerous and I can envision scenarios where some lower level official’s actions could provoke a war.
While the Congressional investigation has centered on the AZ F&F operation there were others by the Obama Administration that have had little public scrutiny. Additionally beyond the questions of who authorized F&F and why, Congress needs to determine at what level can officials authorize such operations and the process. We must not sweep these questions under the carpet.
I don’t think Mukasey was AG during Wide Receiver. Did Alberto Gonzales know about it?
I don’t know why Obama has not thrown Holder under the bus yet. Obama has NO problems getting rid of political liabilities, from “Reverand” Wright and Bill Ayers to his own grandmother. So I’m surprised he’s even giving Holder a second thought. No, there must be something larger at stake here. Obama must have known something about this sooner than he admitted and if Holder is going down, so is Obama. If Obama gets re-elected (and I pray GOD that does not happen), this will be worse than Watergate and both Obama and Holder will be impeached. Romney has to win now. The country cannot afford to go through another Watergate. That scandal destroyed the presidency for almost 10 years and we just can’t do that again.
It seems like when we find out the money trail, we can virtually stop this corrupt administration. Whatever gov’t department that signed off on for the funding for these guns has some major problems. Likely we have a combination of DOJ, ATF, DHS, FBI, ICE, State Department, CIA, or any number of possibilities for the beginnings of an endless money trail. Rep. Darrel Issa is dealing with money laundering central and has his hands full. Look at the potential sources of cash including the endless Obama stimulus pipeline. Time to make the guilty more furious than they already are.
How ironic that the gunwalking killed hundreds of Mexicans and Obama apparently has the Hispanic vote all but locked up?
Given how little it’s been covered so far how many Hispanics know about it? Obama might have messed up by making it a big story. As been pointed out above, he didn’t do this to save Holder, something huge that could seriously hurt Obama is being covered up.
http://dunellanoestachato.blogspot.com/2012/06/adventures-of-huckleberry-holder.html
That’s up for debate.
Until ballots are cast, you are right. Yet I will be shocked if he does less than 75% of the Latino vote.
I must respectfully disagree with your expectations. And no, it’s not because the MSM will close ranks and provide an impenetrable fortress around these corruptocrats; that has already begun, but it is the Republican leadership that will provide the real fortress. Gutless is as gutless does. Now that the issue has moved beyond Issa to Boehner, our faux-conservative congressional leaders are eager to wait for their own chance to redistribute the spoils of governmental plunder. Expect a grand compromise (whatever Holder has offered to date plus a dollar) to allow our gifted leaders to get back to their important work on behalf the people. November, 2012, will render the issue moot, right? That’s the same argument they’ve been making since the first continuing resolution fight! It is undeniably a better argument today than it was then — and we bought it then; why would we reject it now!?
When we do kick Obama to the curb, we’ll boldly downshift from overdrive Progressivism to first gear Progressivism, and begin the kinder, gentler repel down the cliff face. I personally see little ultimate distinction to just flinging ourselves into the abyss, and actually prefer sudden demise to death by a thousand cuts like our mindless European brethren who we observe a bit further down the cliff face.
I just read this and detect an aura of whining darkness so . . . Sorry, GO TEAM!
Excellent article. When I read that he invoked executive privilege my gut said “Gotcha!” I don’t always trust my gut. Your piece gives me peace with my gut.
Obama has admitted to drug use. Perhaps it is more extensive than commonly known?
Perhaps its all as simple as one of the cartels having the goods on Obama and threatening to release the information?
Dear Readers…..
……pause, stop for just a few minutes, re-scan all of these comments here…and then reflect on what the sum of all of these comments represents….an historic, tragic result of careless voting…..as you will read on another blog here at PJMedia, a case of “holding one’s nose and voting”…..
We must not be careless with our precious vote.
Although the following is probably not germane to the serious Constitutional matters being discussed above, from the view of my simple explanatory schema – which sees Obama, enc., as no more than mobster Communists – the obvious intent of F&F’s arming of the Mexican Drug Cartels was at least to obtain illegal Campaign
Contributions from the like-minded Mexican Criminals involved. The same logic also explains Obama’s otherwise strange decision to suddenly prosecute the California-legal marijuana dispensaries.
Barack Obama is an unconstitutional resident of the people’s White House
He did not become America’s first unconstitutional president alone, he had help
While most of the criminal cabal are Democrats, some are Republicans
Every member of congress knew Obama was ineligible for the office of president
Every member of the U.S. Supreme Court knows that Obama is unconstitutional
Every intelligent member of the press knows the truth, but won’t dare tell this story
Numerous people tried to remove natural born citizen from the constitution
They all know the correct definition of natural born citizen and applied it to John McCain
None of these people wants to apply the same definition to Barack Obama
Nobody in the Federal Government is going to do anything about the greatest constitutional crisis in American history, because all of them are complicit on one level or another
Almost 50 years old and there’s no paper trail — coincidence, Would you hire someone with this curriculum vitae? The man is completely undocumented. You don’t know anything about Obama — operative word, KNOW. None of us really do because he and his life are undocumented — an impossible coincidence — and Obama fiercely defends the release of what documentation is available. Some of us believe that something isn’t on the level and that we are entitled as United States citizens to ask any damned politician who he is, what his politics are, what his agenda is, where he came from and who sent him. You do know Obama could end all of this with a single phone call — why doesn’t he press the button?
Born to a Kenyan British Citizen Muslim, alcoholic, polygamous, womanizing, Undesirable mooching alien, absentee Father and an underage mother and adopted by an Indonesian Muslim STEPFATHER. ALL members of BOTH his Paternal Families are Muslims even his Kenyan Grandmother who his LYING Election Committee told us was a Christian has not long returned (AFTER his election of course) from the completing the Haj at Mecca.
He was brought up and schooled as a Muslim in BOTH the State and the Catholic run MULTI FAITH schools he attended in Jakarta. When Barry was in Indonesia you had to be an Indonesian CITIZEN to go to State School, so maybe THATS why the Passport , College and Student loan records are HIDDEN. His contemporaries at school , one of whom is the current head of Garuda Airlines the Indonesian national airline,remember him as a devout Mosque going MUSLIM.
He took KORANIC STUDIES a Muslim ONLY subject at school a fact he himself ADMITS in his book DREAMS. He is on record as saying ‘If the Political will goes against them I WILL STAND WITH THE MUSLIMS” and also “the Muslim call to prayer is one of the MOST beautiful sounds on earth” .
He can also recite the Shahada in perfectly accented Koranic Arabic , must be a result of his MENGAGI studies a subject only DEVOUT Muslims take. According to Muslims anyone who says the Shahada, which calls Allah the PARAMOUNT God (why Paramount are there other LESSER Gods????) and claims Mohammad as his messenger , IS A MUSLIM.
So who is Barry HUSSEIN Soetero Kardashian America’s first Gay, Celebrity USURPER President the man who tells us he has ‘ALWAYS been a Christian(if you can call the Racist, antisemitic, anti American Black Liberation Theology CULT Christian)” well for a start he is a BLATANT BAREFACED LIAR
To all those wondering how the Obamination still rates 40-47% support. Sit down and just think about it a little. There are 13% of the population who voted for him because he looked the same as them I refer of course to BLACKS of whom 96% RACISTLY voted for him and that same 96% support him still and will continue to do so no matter what . Its what RACISTS do. Then there are the 20-30% of Americans who are dyed in the wool brainwashed left wing Islamophile PC, MC moonbats. Who also are incapable of change or logic or common sense.
So you see the Obamination is SURE of between 33-43% moronic and RACIST support no matter what he does. Which leaves him the following options to cement re-election 1) the certainty that at least 10-15% of voters are STUPID enough to be fooled TWICE and the back up now being put in to place of he and the corrupt DEMS going ‘hell for leather’ for the nailed on moonbat voters ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT AMNESTY will bring them. You have been warned.
Ah, just in time for the election. And try as they will the people who created Obama, our arrogant media, can protect him only so long. Contrary to dumb opinion people can hold on two thoughts, F & F, And the economy.
It may all be academic, it seems probable that Obama is heading for a breakdown, so Mother Nature may do the job or us.
Mr. Kimball:
You are dead wrong. Should Eric Holder be found in contempt and should he be forced to resign. It will all be the fault of white, racist, Republicans out to get Obama with a political witch hunt. That is what already appearing on television and in the papers. You think having a little bit of right on your side is going to change that? Get Real!
Great article! Congress will never really take any punitive action against either Holder or Obama. Congress is bought and paid for, as well as intimidated by the Obamafia. Congress passed Obamacare. Congress passed NDAA. Congress has repeatedly sold out and increased the debt ceiling. Congress refuses to control the Fed. Obama owns Congress.Congress outsourced US jobs with NAFTA and other “free trade” programs.Congress authorizes the insane spending of this administration. Until we clean out Congress as well as the obamafia the only ones who will pay will be the American People.
Obama is protecting Obama. He implicated himself by taking executive privledge.
Didn’t Rosie O’donnell say she knew nothing about gun running? Oh wait, my mistake, I thought this was about “Fat and Furious’ .. never mind.