Fast & Furious: Holder’s email on Issa’s “idiot cronies”

On election day, the Department of Justice released about 65,000 Fast & Furious-related documents subpoenaed more than two years ago by the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform. The DOJ claimed the documents were privileged, but our friend John Hinderaker over at Power Line doesn’t think so. I’ve got a comment on Attorney General Eric Holder’s statements he wrote in an email.

Brief background from Hinderaker

The Obama administration chose Election Day to give Darrell Issa’s House Oversight Committee more than 64,000 pages of documents relating to the Fast and Furious gun walking operation. These are documents that the House committee subpoenaed more than two years ago. The Obama administration alleged that they were subject to executive privilege and refused to produce them. The committee commenced a lawsuit to compel production, and on October 6 the presiding judge issued an order requiring DOJ to produce those documents that it admits are not covered by the “deliberative process” aspect of executive privilege. Other documents are still being withheld because the administration claims that the deliberative process privilege applies to them.

OK, do go over and read the piece. That said, one of the emails has been circulating. Most are pointing to Holder’s reference to “Issa and his idiot cronies” but I don’t care about that. From the email…

Issa and his idiot cronies never gave a damn about this when all that was happening was that thousands of Mexicans were being killed with guns from our country. All they want to do – in reality – is cripple the ATF and suck up to the gun lobby. Politics at its worst – maybe the media will get it.

Huh.

From my civics class I remember the Legislative Branch writes and passes the legislation. They make laws. The Executive Branch – that includes the Obama administration and Holder’s Department of Justice – has sole authority and responsibility to execute and enforce the law.

So Mr. Attorney General, where was the failure here?

The DOJ certainly did not seem to give a crap about guns making their way over the border, since they were letting guns walk. Mexico had no clue about the program and there was nothing in place to monitor the guns once over the border. The DOJ and AFT actually encouraged dealers to sell the guns when they were uncomfortable doing so. They were told the buyers would be monitored and tracked to nail bigger fish, but it never happened since there was no way to track the guns on the other side of the border.

Congress – and Issa – gave a damn about people dying in Mexico. For the last few decades, they have passed very strict laws against straw purposes, transferring guns to those ineligible to own one, and taking them across the border into Mexico. All of the actions the DOJ and ATF were monitoring were already against the law passed by Congress.

Congress gave a dam, it’s the Obama administration, the DOJ or the ATF to blame here, and “Issa and his idiot cronies” have no recourse other than public hearings to call out the administration for screwing up. That’s what the House Oversight Committee does! Let’s not forget what the Justice Department’s own inspector general found.

The report released Wednesday by the Justice Department’s inspector general focused blame on ATF headquarters, the agency’s Phoenix, Arizona, field office, and the U.S. attorney’s office in Arizona. The report cited “a series of misguided strategies, tactics, errors in judgment, and management failures that permeated ATF headquarters and the Phoenix Field Division, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona.”

Before the release of the report, ATF officials in Arizona said they were following guidelines from ATF headquarters in Washington.

Holder’s attitude displayed in his email from April 15, 2011 is quite something as compared to his statement on Sept. 19, 2012 after the IG report was released. In short, he states …

We know nothing… it was all the field’s idea… leadership did not authorize… we didn’t cover up anything…

It’s always someone else’s fault when it comes to leadership in the Obama administration.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

6 Comments

  1. Lynn on November 11, 2014 at 7:39 pm

    There is no justice in AG Holder’s Department of Justice. He has totally perverted the idea of justice.



  2. bien-pensant on November 13, 2014 at 8:06 am

    Everything with the Obama regime is political. I am sure that these emails will lead directly to Holder. The rest of the communications that Congress requested, if they are ever released, will lead directly to the White House and to Obama. F&F is just a symptom of the left’s fervent desire to disarm American citizens.
    Obama worked with the Annenberg and Joyce foundations funneling money to anti-gun groups.
    Holder is a committed anti-gun crusader. http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/18/holder-in-1995-really-brainwash-people-to-be-anti-gun/
    The WH and Obama are behind all of scheming of F&F.



  3. johnboy111 on November 14, 2014 at 11:27 am

    At this point…What difference does it make???



  4. Dimsdale on November 20, 2014 at 9:36 am

    Doesn’t being called an “idiot” by a demonstrably corrupt “idiot” just cancel out?

    It does leave the “demonstrably corrupt” part there though…..



  5. ConservaDave on November 21, 2014 at 3:54 pm

    “My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.” -Barack H. Obama



  6. Lynn on November 22, 2014 at 4:18 pm

    Ok, on Facebook I saw a link from Judicial Watch. They are saying that now that the Fast & Furious Documents are released, they need help from people to help review the documents and post what they find. I tried to past the link from Judicial Watch but could not do it. Maybe that violates rules of RVO. Anyways, this appears to be a legitimate link from Judicial Watch. If some of you care enough or have somespare time try the website. Remember it was a private citizen that found the videos of Gruber. He spent hours trying to find them. When he tried to interest the media he was rejected even by Fox News until Daily Caller believed in him enough to print. Anyone up to being a Paul Revere?



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