The investigation is not fast, but the investigators are understandably becoming furious.
From AOSHQ and the Daily Caller the other day:
Attorney General Eric Holder again today would not answer who the highest-ranking Obama administration official was that had knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious and the gunwalking tactics it employed before Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was murdered.
Instead, when House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith pressed him directly during a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday, Holder dodged giving a response.
“Mr. Attorney General, who is the highest ranking official in this administration that knew that these tactics were being used?” Smith asked of Holder at the beginning of a Thursday hearing. “And I’m talking about, knew the tactics were being used before the death of Agent Brian Terry on December 15, 2010.”
Holder attempted to answer a question that wasn’t asked. “Well we know that the operation began in the field offices in Arizona,” Holder said. “Both in the US Attorney’s office and in the ATF office there. The inspector general is in the process of examining –”
Smith then cut off Holder and asked his question again: “To your knowledge, who was the highest-ranking official in the administration who knew about the tactics?”
Holder again deflected. “At this point I can say that it started in Arizona and I’m not at all certain who beyond that can be said to have been involved with regard to the use — now there was knowledge of it, but the use of the tactics,” he responded again.
Unedited Politics had the video:
This is mind-boggling. The Attorney General of the United States is saying, in essence: “I’m only the AG. How am I supposed to know this stuff…?”.
John Hayward, the erstwhile Doctor Zero of HotAir, wrote about this over the weekend:
The Attorney General still maintains he and his top deputies didn’t know anything, can’t remember anything, and have no intention of complying with lawful subpoenas from Congress. Holder acknowledges that he’s only turned over 7,600 of the 140,000 Fast and Furious documents he’s sitting on, and that’s about as good as it’s going to get.
The Administration apparently thinks we are fools. And the media, ever complicit, are side-stepping the subject to an absurd degree, reporting only when necessary and burying the leads, basically giving lip service to the story. It’s another media blackout, being conducted in alarming lockstep.
More from John Hayward:
Asked when the White House was made aware of the gun walking tactics employed by Operation Fast and Furious, Holder essentially said his staffers briefed the White House but didn’t brief him, so he doesn’t know what anybody said, or when they said it. He allegedly still hasn’t found the time to gather “specifics” about the case, even though he easily made the time to conduct a political seminar for black preachers recently. When Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) demanded to know who authorized Fast and Furious, Holder referred him to the eternally “in progress” internal Justice Department investigation, which is apparently being conducted by Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.
This has been said before, but just imagine how this would be portrayed if it were a Republican in the White House, and we were dealing with National Security. Would the press think THAT was an actual story worth doing more than the rock-bottom minimum reporting? Actually, we don’t have to imagine: we’ve seen it happen already.
Issa, Smith and Gohmert are finally losing their patience with Holder, and one could hardly blame ’em. These videos show an AG and an Administration that is determined to delay, prevaricate, and stone-wall this investigation indefinitely until forced to do otherwise. Based on the dearth of reporting on this, it’s gonna be up to us to spread the word.
Sadly, it’s not as if we can count on Eric Holder to pursue actual justice:
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Two Heads are Better Than One 
GOOD NEWS! The contempt hearing has been set. Also, in Holder’s testimony, I heard their was a document that actually had the words “Fast and Furious” on it and Holder tried to convince the committee the reference was not to “Fast and Furious.”
Holder is definitely on the way out. Makes sense, though, He and Axelrod don’t get along because Axelrod wants Justice to be MORE politcal.
More politcal? Don’t enforce DOMA. Don’t enforce immigration laws. Not only don’t enforce them, hinder states that try. Take sides with Trayvon. Raid Gibson. Refuse to give Homeland Security databases designed to assist in voter registration to Florida so they can purge their rolls of KNOWN illegal voters. (Gov Rick Scott filed suit June 11 against Homeland. He’s only been asking since last September.) Drones! Contraceptives! DOGS AND CATS SLEEPING TOGETHER…CHAOS!
Can we get Valerie Jarrett next? Wasserman-Shultz? Eleanor Norton-Homes? (Her last night sounds like a boxing match) Barney Frank? Henry Waxman’s incredibly large nostrils have always bugged me….or we can go straight for the top. This leak thing is going to bite Obama, I think.
Any time you can sneak a Ghostbuster’s quote into a political rant, you’re doing something, John.
As for Jarrett: unlikely. Frank? Naaah: he’s on his way out. And DWS has a popularity as low as Congress’, which is scary. I will refrain from any drug jokes involving Waxman, as they’re too obvious.
The leaks? Hmmm…. I’d LOVE to think the media will finally do their job, but I am, as ever, cynical.
Hopeful and prayerful, as well. But verrrrry cynical.
Holder’s gonna go sooner or later. Might as well drag it out a bit closer to the election. IMO, Ditzy Wasserman-Schultz is doing a bang-up job as DNC chair—let her stay. Bawney Fwank…he’s done as much to damage this country as any single individual I can think of, but as JTR said, he’s already on his way out. Waxman is a case study in what can happen when you spend too much time picking your nose. Jarrett’s the real power behind the throne—not going anywhere.
Clearly this is an administration (and a national ‘Rat party) that needs a good hosing out (a la the Augean stables) from top to bottom. Holder’s Dept. of Injustice is as good a place as any to start.
I’m a little concerned about the Greek reference to the Augean Stables, Buckeye.
Do we HAVE a Hercules to clean them?
I’ll acknowledge that Romney is looking better seemingly each day, but that’s a tall order. We better elect a Congress along with him, or it would take a truly Herculean effort to fix the mess on our hands by himself.
Interesting you bring that up, JTR…as I was typing that I thought about whether Willard was up to the task, too.I sure hope and pray that he and a GOP-controlled Congress can do it.
If the ‘Rats were smart they’d police themselves and purge some of the more unsavory elements from their party. Instead, they’ve allowed those elements to take control.
Inmates; asylum; you know the rest.
Mitt will have to come in hard and fast once inaugurated. If we can swing the Senate, too, that would be helpful.
One step at a time, though. Let’s try to keep President Perfect from blowing up th ecountry in the next five months, and then I suppose we can worry about Romney’s First 100 Days….
Indeed, sir.
About Mr. Romney, a columnist named Paul A. Rahe recently had this to say:
“He deserves our support in the upcoming election, but he has not earned and should not be accorded our trust.”
I think that about sums it up.
(Tip o’ the hat to my old friend Brian for the quote. I’ve been trying to interest him in this blog since its inception. BH, hope you’re out there…and if you are, it’s time to stop lurking!)
Paul Rahe, the guy from Hillsdale? He’s a seriously bright dude.
I’ve followed his writing over at Ricochet since he joined, and I think I recall him saying something to this effect on one of the podcasts.
Yep, that’s him. Funny, here in MI we’ve got the U-M and Ann Arbor, a haven for every kind of liberal nuttiness under the sun. Only 70 miles to the southwest we’ve got Hillsdale, a locus of conservative philosophy and thought.
That does seem like an odd juxtapostion.
Agreed on Hillsdale: They have some great programs, including an online constitutional course whicch was free last time I checked.
Also, they have guest speakers throughout the year that are sensational.
Take a trip over there sometime. It would be worth the gas, if you haven’t yet made the journey.
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