Holder Gets Testy At Fast and Furious Hearing

Eric Holder was back at the Capitol yesterday to testify about Fast and Furious. You’ll recall that the ATF sold guns to Mexican drug cartels and/or arranged for Mexican drug cartels to get guns illegally. In theory the ATF was going to track the guns thousands of guns sent over the border. In reality they didn’t and 200+ Mexicans have been murdered with those guns as well as one American border patrol agent. Some on the right have theorized that the Justice Department wanted to use the violence associated with these guns to push for further gun control.

The Attorney General claimed last year to not know about Fast and Furious until just before his hearing before Congress. Since then memos show Holder knew months and perhaps a year before his testimony. Today Holder claims there hasn’t been a cover up, but that’s hard to believe considering his inconsistent testimony.

Holder has spent quite a bit of time in his career testifying that he doesn’t know or doesn’t recall. He’s done that quite a bit during the Fast and Furious investigation. It’s a little disturbing in light of the fact that it’s the Attorney General’s job to know about this sort of an operation. Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) pointed this out and apparently annoyed the Attorney General who said “maybe this is how you do things in Idaho or wherever you’re from.”

Holder’s exchange with Rep. Labrador showed us two things. First, it showed us the racial outlook of Eric Holder. To him it is unthinkable that the white people of Idaho would elect someone with brown skin and/or it’s unthinkable that someone with brown skin would be a Republican. (Labrador is Puerto Rican) This is actual subtle racism, not the sort of subtle racism the left always accuses conservatives of for no other reason than we’re conservative.

But more importantly this exchange as well as others during the hearing show us what Holder really thinks of Fast and Furious. He views this not as a massive disaster that’s resulted in the deaths of hundreds but rather he views this as a political issue. In other words, those dastardly Republicans are up to political games and therefore what happened during Fast and Furious is irrelevant. Again, more than 200 people died with guns illegally handed over to Mexican drug cartels, all without the knowledge of the Mexican government. This isn’t a mere political issue, this is a serious case that deserves a serious investigation.

Of course the mainstream press has largely ignored this issue. Can you imagine what the press would do if 200+ Mexicans and a border patrol agent were killed because John Ashcroft’s ATF handed off guns to drug cartels in Mexico without that government’s knowledge? It would be a massive scandal that is would result in Ashcroft’s resignation. It would have been on the nightly news shows every evening and it would have been front page news in every newspaper. Each Congressional hearing would be covered in depth by the mainstream press. If this isn’t an example of media bias, I don’t know what is.

It is very clear that Holder and company engaged in a massive coverup of Fast and Furious. We can debate what the purpose of this program was but it’s very clear that once it started going bad the Attorney General was involved in a cover up. In short, Holder lied when he told Congress he had just recently learned of Fast and Furious. His behavior at yesterday’s hearing was nothing short of outrageous. Holder displayed his racism and he displayed a complete contempt for anyone who would dare investigate or criticize him. Sadly, this is the story of the Obama administration.