Bachmann Calls for Holder to Go, Perry Dodges

From Matthew Boyle at the DC:

Bachmann is the first presidential candidate, and the 52nd member of Congress, to demand Holder’s immediate resignation. “Attorney General Holder should resign because of the mismanagement of ‘Fast and Furious,’” Bachmann told TheDC. “As the nation’s top law enforcement officer, he bears the responsibility for the actions of his department.”

Bachmann went further with this statement than with her previous position on Holder’s job performance. On October 10 in New Hampshire, she told TheDC: “There needs to be a full investigation. And surely he should resign … if the facts prove to be what they appear to be.”

Holder is on a Caribbean junket this week, on a trip scheduled to take him to Barbados, Trinidad and the Dominican Republic — on what his office has characterized as a law enforcement-related excursion. His spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler, whom former Justice Department civil rights division attorney J. Christian Adams has dubbed Holder’s “spin mistress,” is traveling with him. Schmaler has repeatedly declined to answer any questions about the increasing numbers of federal lawmakers calling for Holder’s immediate resignation.

Bachmann’s statement comes on the heels of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, another Republican presidential hopeful, punting the question. Perry spokesman Mark Miner has similarly dodged TheDC’s questions about whether he thinks the attorney general should step down.