House Majority leader John Boehner's "green light" to the GOP controlled House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to consider a contempt of Congress citation against Attorney General Eric Holder is just the latest in the continuing dance of political gamesmanship the GOP is playing with President Obama. That's right Obama. The ostensible issue is that Holder refuses to cooperate with the committee in turning over presumably incriminating documents that would tell what Holder did or didn't do in the botched ATF's Mexican gun sting operation Fast and Furious. The issue is just as partisan politically contemptible as the legion of other GOP ploys to taint Obama through Holder. And they have been come just as fast and furious practically from the moment that Holder took the reins at the Justice Department.
The ATF gun sting hit on Holder is hardly new. Former President George W. Bush's DOJ ran a similar gun sting a year before Obama took office. The program resumed in 2010 with no evidence that Holder knew all the details or the problems with the sting operation. Many of which as he testified were not disclosed to him by operatives. The program ultimately was not a DOJ operation but a local law enforcement program that should have drawn fire but should not have been blown up into a manic partisan crusade against Holder.
A distressed Holder made that exact point during the sweating he got from Congressional GOP attackers some months ago when he bluntly called the attacks "politically motivated gotcha games." The implication is that the attacks are just another in the saber rattle against him and by extension Obama. And he's right.
Holder was always seen by the GOP as the weak link in the Obama chain of command. Someone that was politically vulnerable because of his past position as a Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton administration. He took much heat then for allegedly giving the nod to controversial Clinton pardons, lobbying efforts on behalf of a communications company and for upholding the court order to send the 6-year-old Cuban refugee Elián González back to Cuba. Since then the GOP threatened to filibuster against his appointment as Attorney General, ripped him for publicly chiding the nation on the racial divide, and for turning a blind eye to alleged voter intimidation by the New Black Panthers. These are all phony, self-serving, political hatchet job issues. The intent is, of course, to paint Holder as a corrupt, political deal maker, and a closet racial bigot. The idea is by inference to paint Obama through Holder with the same brush. Or at the very least, plant the seed that Holder's appointment and tenure at the DOJ typifies the poor and untrustworthy judgment of Obama in picking his political appointees.
Holder has enough GOP partisan lashes on his back to know that no matter how many facts he cites to bolster his case that he didn't know or certainly approve any illicit doings in the sting ATF operation, the issue won't go away. The GOP will toss out empty threats such as demands for his firing, or resignation, and even talk about impeachment. It won't happen. But it's media catchy and sensational enough to keep Holder on the hot seat. The issue will be bandied about even more throughout 2012.
Holder has tried to stay out front of the GOP attack dogs by spending hours in testimony before the GOP controlled House panels. He has repeatedly publicly admitted that mistakes were made, calling the ATF's tactics "unacceptable," and has accepted blame for them, calling them "inexcusable." The GOP House members that scream for Holder's head know that he has done no wrong. The House panel has gone through the motions and purportedly drawn up a 48-page bill of particulars against Holder that supposedly will be the basis for a contempt citation at some undetermined future date. The panel has given no sign that it's in any hurry to call for a full House vote.
With the 2012 presidential election set to kick into high gear in the coming weeks, however, and with the GOP's hysteric vow to make Obama a one-term president, if the GOP can keep the heat on Holder -- the nation's top law enforcement official and an official to Obama -- it will serve as a red herring to toss more mud on Obama and hope that it sticks. That's the reason, and the only reason, that the GOP will continue to play fast and furious with Holder.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the author of How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on KTYM Radio Los Angeles streamed on ktym.com podcast on blogtalkradio.com and on thehutchinsonreportnews.com.
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/earlhutchinson
Holder needs to take the opportunity to find and jail those people involved, go back to the Bush area tapes and leak the findings to the press.
Holder should check the serial numbers.
Issa a felon, why is he going after Holder. Holder should use all his technology to find the motive behind Issa's drive.
1. The Bush administration coordinated with the Mexican government. Holder's DOJ didn't.
2. The Bush administration ended their operation without losing track of the guns; Holder's DOJ lost over 2,000 guns.
3. The Bush administration targeted illegal gun traffickers. Holder's DOJ seems to have targeted the gun shops that cooperated with the ATF.
Do some research before pointing fingers.
ECS
Mr. Hutchinson, there is no reason to lie for this man or Fast and Furious.
You cannot honestly claim to support the Obama administration if you don't speak out against a rogue Department of Justice committing acts of war against Mexico.
You may want to brush up on your facts re the differences between the Bush era gunwalking tactics and the Obama era gunwalking tactics. Salient point being that the Mexican government was aware and part of the Bush operation; in the latter operation(s) the Mexican government AS WELL AT THE US AGENTS IN MEXICO were never made aware of nor privy to any of the gunwalking taking place.