Congress is on track to find Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt. Given how contemptuous most Americans are of Congress -- only 17 percent approve, an all-time low -- this week's mostly party line vote will be the political equivalent of the congressional pot calling the attorney general kettle, well, black.
Here's what's really going on.
The dispute between the House Oversight Committee and the Department of Justice, coming to an absurd boil, has an inverse relationship between ferocity and substance.
At first, Republicans demanded every document on the misguided Fast and Furious "gun walking" investigation. Nine months later, they abandoned that tactic and requested only correspondence about how the Justice Department first reacted to congressional oversight. The Department accommodated more and more of their requests. That is, the parties were seemingly on the verge of striking a deal.
Then it exploded. Why? Politics, of course.
As Republicans narrowed their requests for information from the Department, they moved farther away from their role of reforming policies that led to failed plan and closer to a more political question of whether the Department was massaging or manipulating facts.
Just read the committee transcripts. There was little discussion about how the Department should be protecting the border from gun and drug violence, how the law should be enforced or how prosecutions and agents ought to conduct themselves. If they did, they would be fulfilling their oversight role and improving national policy.
Instead, they raised the ante on what certain key officials at the Department of Justice and the White House may have said to each other about how to talk to Congress about what were already acknowledged as mistakes.
A legitimate and far-reaching inquiry into how best to protect the American people devolved into the kind of crass political theater that the American people despise.
There are four reasons this fight became so aggressive and acrimonious:
Simply put, the right wing has been at Holder's throat from the very beginning, which is odd, given that Holder is the most qualified person in decades to be attorney general, having been an attorney at DOJ, a judge, U.S. attorney, and deputy attorney general. No one has ever had more experience with and devotion to the Department of Justice than Eric Holder.
Unfortunately, because of a political mismatch, this battle's messaging is lopsided. Conservatives wrap themselves in the honor of a tragically slain border agent and the completely fabricated but nonetheless compelling stench of "cover-up," while the administration finds itself in the muck talking about documents and something called "the deliberative process privilege." It is easy to see why the politics are irresistible for the GOP.
We are likely, but not guaranteed, to see a contempt vote on the floor of the House of Representatives this week. The vote will greatly satisfy Rush Limbaugh and the membership of the NRA. It may cause the White House to make its institutional and political interests the priority and leave the attorney general to take a hit like this. It will cause countless progressives, and much of black and Latino America, to wonder why the first contempt citation to make it through the House will be directed at the first black attorney general. It will lead to more cynicism about the true nature of Congress and whose interests it serves.
A 17 percent favorability rating means never having to say you're sorry.
Rep. John Conyers: Why Is the Best Attorney General Receiving the Worst Treatment?
If he covered stuff up he should go to jail.
I am no Issa fan but he has a right to those papers and Obama should never have evokedf EP because if something is found he will be in very HOT water
If Republicans keep the investigation going for political reasons then the political process may finally have a good reason to exist.
It is still curious how regressives want to ignore the murder and refuse to ask, "If there was no attempt in Fast and Furious to trace the weapons, what was the purpose of the operation?"
Holder is showing contempt for the American people.
Sir, there are no weapons of "mass destruction? what do we say or do ...
How to avoid a jail term : Dick Cheney
How to "out a CIA Agent " leak names to the media, claim "she" is not really "covert"
How to "dupe" the American people ..after unjust War? BLAME OBAMA!
Holder to Issa: "Oh you're the head of the Congressional Oversight Committee in charge of this investigation and you would like some additional documentation on the operation? Sure, no problem, here you go.
How to effect a cover up:
Holder to Obama: "Sir, unless you want some major egg on your face you better exert executive privilege over these documents and paint the inquiry as a GOP witch hunt."
All of this is made possible by people who claim to be Americans, but in reality are nothing more than Political Party groupies willing to overlook the most egregious acts perpetrated by "their team" even when to actions (or inactions) are clearly detrimental to America as a whole.
As a conservative, I am no longer feel angry with you progressives. Today the only feeling I have is the feeling one has when passing a car accident with fatalities.
We'll check back in in November to see how you feel when your team takes a major loss. Conservatives in this country are a pathetic joke.