I have not devoted nearly enough space to the Fast and Furious scandal and cover up. It is a potential Achilles’ Heel exposing the “above the law” attitude of this administration.
From The Daily Caller:
A single internal Department of Justice email could be the smoking-gun document in the Operation Fast and Furious scandal — if it turns out to contain what congressional investigators have said it does.
The document would establish that wiretap application documents show senior DOJ officials knew about and approved the gunwalking tactic in Fast and Furious. This is the opposite of what Attorney General Eric Holder and House oversight committee ranking Democratic member Rep. Elijah Cummings have claimed.
It appears that email would also prove senior DOJ officials, likely including Holder himself, knew in March 2011 that a Feb. 4, 2011 letter from the DOJ to Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley falsely denied guns were permitted to “walk” into Mexico. The DOJ allowed that false letter to stand for nine more months, only withdrawing it in December 2011.
Additionally, also via The Daily Caller:
In a letter obtained by The Daily Caller, House oversight committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa pressed President Barack Obama directly on his assertion of executive privilege over documents related to Operation Fast and Furious.
“[Y]our privilege assertion means one of two things,” Issa wrote to the president in a letter dated June 25. “Either you or your most senior advisors were involved in managing Operation Fast & Furious and the fallout from it, including the false February 4, 2011 letter provided by the attorney general to the committee, or, you are asserting a presidential power that you know to be unjustified solely for the purpose of further obstructing a congressional investigation.”
Issa said Obama’s assertion of executive privilege “raised the question” about the veracity of how the “White House has steadfastly maintained that it has not had any role in advising the department with respect to the congressional investigation.”
Keep pushing. You’re onto something. And we don’t want to wait until after the election to find out what that something is.
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http://pjmedia.com/andrewmccarthy/2012/06/20/the-plot-thickens-obama-asserts-executive-privilege-to-block-fast-furious-disclosures/?singlepage=true
Read whatever McCarthy writes about this. He’s one of those people no criminal or terrorist wants on his six, and he’s no fool about the politics of the law, either.
Additionally, this one…
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/303808/fast-and-furious-and-ocdetf-andrew-c-mccarthy
Sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com. If you go to the far right of the home page, it will give you the entire story from Day One.
they alone (2 of them iirc) broke the whole thing open and are not given enough credit.
So very true.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFIpoL3jrfo
That NEEDS to be shared with your family, friends, neighbors, etc.
Whittle tells the story, and our job is to educate, as Breitbart did.
Here’s one to warm the heart of all government-worshippers, such as you. For the rest of us, it’s a terrifying, curl-your-hair nightmare:
http://godfatherpolitics.com/5813/feds-jail-new-mexico-family-seize-everything-they-own-being-honest-legal-firearms-dealers/
Note the part about the Spanish language being used by the criminal stooge. But such tricks and deceptions are fine if used by the government, eh Rags?
Here’s a brilliant essay from Zero Hedge from last week that you should keep in your arsenal: It’s called “The Lesser of Two Evils Con Game” that so many Republicans buy into hook, line and sinker.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-%E2%80%98lesser-two-evils%E2%80%99-con-game
In 2008, after kicking out the big government amnesty-loving Republicans in 2006, they came back with the very architect of amnesty John McCain. This year, after everything we’ve been through with ObamaCare, they come back with the very architect of ObamaCare, Rombama.
So long as Republican continue their war against those of us who aren’t playing the game any more, they will continue to pay dearly even when they win.
This year should have been a slam dunk for the Republicans but they again opted to cram another liberal Democrat down our throats. Now it will cost them billions to get the guy elected over an outright crook. This is what happened in CA in 2010 when they ran unber-liberal Meg Whitman against the most unpopular politician in CA, Jerry Brown, and lost, it’s much more expensive to sell cancer to the sick than food to the hungry.
Phil, thanks for the link, but I can’t get to the article. Yesterday the site would only load the banner and the rest of the page was blank. Today it loads, but the article is not on the front page and I can’t get the archives to scroll.
*sigh*
You poor, hate-twisted old bigot. I love government exactly like Mark Levin loves it.
You know…Mark Levin, the attorney. We both believe in, and work in, a system we support. A system we understand is necessary and good, while being highly imperfect.
I apparently live in your crazed head rent free. Heh.
To try to place yourself in the political company of Mark Levin is beyond hilarious. For one thing, he’s a real lawyer. For another, he’s smart. For a third, he doesn’t like government. That leaves you out of his company, bam, bam, bam.
No, your soulmate would more likely be someone like Barbara Streisand, a really dimwitted, leftitst, on-the-record government worshipper.
You don’t live in my head at all. I just happen to see you invading yet another thread with your usual idiotic attempts at sounding lawyerly.
“Jeb Bush wrote an article and tried to explain what conservatism is, and misses the mark completely. He doesn’t understand that government exists to create a platform so that the individual can thrive and succeed, not for the government to.”
Mr. Levin and I share exactly the same views. He is not anti-goverment. In fact, he strongly supports and clearly understands the necessity for governments to exist, as did the Framers.
Both of us are radically opposed to BIG GOVERNMENT.
Why do you feel compelled to lie?
This should pave the way for the beginning of impeachment proceedings. I maintain that there is a very good chance that Obama will not be on the ballot in November. Even the Dems are fed up with him. And today, Drudge is reporting that the Dem Convention in NC is out of money. All of the knives are now pointed at that tight little cabal running the WH.
If only the GOP had picked someone other than the very architect of ObamaCare as their candidate. Now RomBama may have to face Hillary.
Practically , its to late for lmpeachment. l agree with the rest of what you say.
It doesn’t require that Obama actually be impeached by November to affect his being taken off of the ballot. The very plausibility of impeachment and facing four years of a country consumed by impeachment is a scary proposition for everyone, including the Dems. That is why Nixon stepped down after winning re-election in a landslide and why Ford pardoned him. Obama isn’t headed for a landslide which probably increases the likelihood that he will be forced off of the ticket at the convention.
Of course, the spineless and corrupt GOP establishment might argue that this is why we cannot push ahead with impeachment.
The rats will never push obastard off the ballot because he is the first “black” president.
Never, ever gonna happen.
Well since you mentioned Nixon…
http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-do-you-get-when-you-cross-jimmy.html #fastandfurious Barack Obama’s spiritual fathers revealed!
It is highly unlikely. But I agree impeachment is warranted.
Why waste money, time and energy on impeachment? Let’s focus on WINNING in November, meaning keep the House, put a strong, conservative majority in the Senate and get rid of the empty suit.
Romney was the rats’ best option. Of course, the stupid stooge GOP fell for it hook, line and sinker just as they always do.
McCarthy has been following all this well. Particularly a recent piece where he gets into the type of operation F&F was and how it was impossible for Holder not to be aware simply because of the case “type”.
But that doesnt help us inform the voting public particularly. The most effective Ive seen so far…and can easily be expanded to let voters know id this…I sure think. Voters like and understand comparisons.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/06/23/What-if-Wal-Mart-Sold-2-500-Guns-Illegally-Walked-Them-Into-Mexico-And-Hid-the-Documentation-from-Congress
What recourse does a citizenry have when its government openly refuses to obey the written law? This government’s Department of Justice whose job it is to ensure that laws are followed and not ignored, is the problem. We now have an example of how difficult it would have been for citizens in Nazi Germany to contain their government. There doesn’t seem to be a LEGAL way to force this government to follow the law.
There are many things involved here:
The DOJ refuses to investigate the New Black Panther Party for obstructing voters and for issuing a bounty on the head of Mr. Zimmerman.
The DOJ not only allowed the gun running into Mexico but actively was involved in pushing it. The DOJ refuses to release the information of who authorized and condoned this program. Was this program an act of war against the Mexican government?
That is an excellent point. To all of us, including me, who wondered how it could ever have happened, we are seeing it happen here.
texasron, I would think that states attorneys general would have the right to file, on behalf of those state’s citizens, a writ of mandamus.
Mandamus would be taken directly to the SCOTUS, as the Arizona case was, in the name of the people who are being harmed by the administration’s refusal to enforce Constitutionally decreed responsibilities.
I think mandamus is especially applicable to the Obama’s administration refusal to enforce legally enacted immigrantion laws, as the lack of enforcement places citizens in harm’s way, as well as unfairly taxes them to support those who have no legal right to be in the United States.
Perhaps the good professor would like to address mandamus as it is applicable to Obama’s run around his sworn Constitutional duties.
As to F & F, Obama’s claim of executive privilege will wind up in court, and Obama knows that. He also knows that he is on shaky ground claiming executive privilege (see United States vs. Nixon and Epsy. But the goal of pushing the cart past the upcoming November election was acheived unless the Congressional oversight committee, headed by Issa, can force it into the courts prior to November. It is my understanding that Issa could fast track this to the D.C. District Court, if he really tried.
It is clear that we currently have a POTUS who, in the mold of Woodrow Wilson and FDR, thinks that the office of President is not a coequal branch of the government, but a superior branch of the government entitled to ingore legally enacted laws if he so desires.
Citizens have the right to redress. It is time for the states attorneys general to pick up the banner in the name of the Constititional rights guarantee to all citizens of the United States.
From a legal theory standpoint, that mandamus idea is not bad.
In practical application, I doubt it would have a chance in hell, BUT it could be a very useful tool in the political toolbox.
Anything that raises the profile of this outrage would be good.
Rags, mandamus is currently being considered by the power players in Austin. There is no shortage of showing how unfettered illegal immigration, which is covered by immigration laws, and now being overruled by presidential fiat, creates harm to “legal” Texas citizens. I am sure that Rodney Johnson’s wife would be more than happy to join in a law suit that would bring an end to the harm that every Texas law enforcement officer faces due to the federal government’s refusal to do one of the very specific things outline in our Constition; to protect our borders.
And considering that the Texas schools systems are basically supported by property taxation, Texas home owners are being unduly burdened by having to pay taxes that educate those who are not legally here, due to another bad ruling on the part of the SCOTUS resulting in unfair taxation.
You left out Lincoln. He didn’t have much use for “co-equal” either.
retire05 –
Great comments, as usual !
I agree that Obama achieved his purpose by seeing that nothing damaging gets out before the Nov. elections. It’s just stalling tactics and smokescreens until then. Btw, you should check out justoneminute.typepad.com to see if they are more to your liking than what we found at DDRino. I’m thinking you’ll like what you find there, and could add another great voice to the mix.
As for what happens to Holder down the road … Holder is already very experienced at walking “pardon papers” into the Oval Office in the waning days of a presidency !
When the people don’t know their Constitution and that its sole purpose is to LIMIT the created government, what results is the Democratic Party and its parasitic harpies, the welfare/entitlement class PLUS the oodles of unnecessary government “employees” (most involved in make-work type of “jobs”), stealing from the productive. The parasites will always vote a “pay raise” for themselves by voting Democratic.
A tyranny is defined as government operated by criminals. If the Commerce Clause is not interpreted as itself a limitation to simple trade in goods across state lines (yes, Wickard was wrongly decided), then fedgov is unrestrained. Predictably Breyer, Ginsburg, Kagan, Sotomeyer will all “find” the CC an open-ended proposition, just as they “found” that the 2d Am was not intended as a restraint on government but applied only to state-authorized militias.
The only alternative to limited government is . . .
The left has worked diligently for the last 40+ years through their vise-grip on education to ensure that young Americans learn nothing about the constitution and by allowing our population to fill with uneducated foreigners looking for a handout instead of opportunity and freedom, which are constitutional protections by operation.
We’ve stood by and let them do this to us out of fear of being called “racist”, “redneck”, “backward”, “right wing” and so on. We’ve been letting the left alinsky us for going on two generations, so American lack of understanding of the constitution is no surprise.
the living document BS.
Yes, the left dogs it as a “living document”, but that’s ONLY when one of us raises the subject of the constitution. Otherwise, they never mention it at all. It only exists in their world when we force them to admit its existence.
Fast and Furious White House Cast of Characters:
Bill Newell: ATF Special Agent, “super-genius” who started Fast & Furious and Wide Reciever.
Kevin O’Reilly: friend and communicator with Bill Newell, a State Department employee seconded to the NSC, who was suddenly transferred to a State Department job in Iraq when the White House discovered that the Issa committee wanted to talk to him.
Dan Restrepo: O’Reilly’s boss, then Director of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the NSC, Center for American Progress alum.
Denis McDonough: then NSC’s head of Strategic Communication and since then promoted to the Deputy Director of the National Security Council, Center for American Progress alum.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-57458825-10391695/w.h.-ex-staffer-cant-be-questioned-on-fast-and-furious/
The assertion of Executive Privilege is simply a tactic, to be flogged upon the public by Obama’s media cronies. It’s in place more for form than content, and serves only to delay the conclusions at law once it makes its way to a competent court.
Had the MSM any concern for the country as an entity ruled by laws, they’d make a much bigger deal over this sordid tactic.
This is just like the scene from a “Few Good Men” …
“Why the 2 orders ?”
The White House was uninvolved …
or
There is executive privelage …
They both can’t be true …
Unanswered questions, chronological order:
Did Holder come up with FF by himself and implement it without telling his boss, or did the idea/order actually come from the White House? If the concept of FF actually came from Agent Newell, how far up the chain of command did it go before being approved and passed down the chain for implementation? There would be a paper trail here, all government agencies run on the stuff.
Was there any discussion inside the Justice dept regarding the goal of the operation, or who the target of eventual criminal prosecution would be? Did anybody ask the question. “Why are we shipping thousands of rifles to a drug cartel in Mexico?” and what was the answer?
After FF hit the newspapers, what actions were taken to cover up the involvement of higher-ups in the agency who signed off on the project? What actions were taken against whistleblowers in violation of Federal Law? By who? Are they being charged?
Seems to be a “slight drift” in their stories, from “Some rogue agents may have….” to “Well, a few offices may have…” to “Well, yes I got the email, but I didn’t read it…” to “Yes, I signed that, but I sign a lot of….” to “Yes I gave a speech, but I didn’t listen…”
“Success has a thousand fathers, failure is an orphan.” — JFK
Answers:
1. Holder was a willing channel to move the scheme from WH strategic planning to field operations. 2. Agent Newell merely fleshed out the operational nodes required to facilitate the WH’s desires. 3. Of course there was a paper trail. But shredders exist, too.
4. There were lots of blowback memos from the field in DOJ and ATF, but they were suppressed and corralled by DOJ and ATF VIPS. Issa has whistle-blower copies of many, the others probably no longer exist.
In this thread’s comment section are some great links to this sorry episode that answer your questions, plus some others you’ve not thought of. You would do well to follow and read those links before asking more questions that have already been answered – in spades.
What needs to be done now is for each of us to counteract the lame-stream-media’s attempt to pass this all off as partisan politics. Pushback hard on every attempt or it will become “gospel” in a few weeks.
mark my words, history will show this to be a clinton plan that holder went with as soon as he could.
Add. The press (ABC News) is painting this as a groundbreaking event..an AG being held in Contempt. By all means we should remind folks that Janet Reno was cited but the case didnt get to the House Vote. I like the Reno/Holder association that might creep into voter’s minds. Hey…dont think for a minute Axelrod wouldnt do the same if things were reversed.
YES!! Finally, a good post on this, one of my biggest issues with this administration (and they are legion!).
Sipsy Street Irregulars has TONS of info. on Fast & Furious, Gunwalker, Wide Receiver – the works, as does Michelle Malkin, who has been on this story a long time. Sharyl Attkisson, of CBS, is the ONLY MSM reporter who would touch this; and of course, Katie Pavlich wrote the book Fast & Furious, published earlier this year. (Hannity also did many TV one-hour specials on this…… they are on YouTube.)
Issa has whistle-blowers and “leakers” who have given him documents that tell much more than Issa can publicly state. He knows who is involved at the top; his comments on the Sunday shows this past weekend discussing F&F help to give a glimpse of the so-called “7600 pages” and how useless they are, in reality, and more. So much on this at Brietbart.com and powerline blog (this is just a taste – great stuff by Hinderaker there).
There are so many things on this – yet most people haven’t heard of Operation Fast & Furious, not to mention Project Gunrunner or Wide Receiver!!! Shame on the MSM!!!! This is by far the lowest they have gone……..and to cover up FOR this debacle to protect Obama and his administration.
This really burns me up – the Terry family has suffered enough!!
As Bill Whittle says in the linked video (powerline link) – “Have you no shame?!?!?!”
Hmmmmm…. My very LONG and link-filled post isn’t here…..
Here is another CNBC Kudlow-Issa interview video link where Issa states clearly that he knows more than Holder and Obama want the public to know – and that this is a cover-up.
This is SO. MUCH. BIGGER. THAN. WATERGATE.
And, no I won’t stop saying that – it is all too true, unfortunately.
This is Watergate with MUCH darker motives…
and HUNDREDS of dead bodies. The score isn’t in yet, either.
Some of those guns…and grenades even…are still in the wind.
…..and another excellent article on this, at Human Events:
…The Administration Strikes Back.
This gives a good summary of events – and takes up-to-date.
This will go to the courts. Mark Levin gave an excellent overview of the proper path for doing so on Friday’s radio broadcast, with caveats, to ensure no one makes any minor errors that will cause the case to be thrown out.
I am so thankful for Mark Levin – and the Professor. What would we do without you?! 😉
This whole Fast and Furious stuff is reminding me of Watergate which I remember pretty well.
While Watergate and the resulting coverup were more about political mischief making, F&F is about pure felonious activity that killed many people.
The stench coming from DC now leads directly to the White House with the invoking of executive privilege. This is one issue where maximum heat on the executive branch must be maintained.
The democrats may have met their match with Issa…
Also, if my prior link doesn’t make it to the postings….
Here is Bill Whittle’s latest – on Fast & Furious and the cover-up: “Follow the Ideology.
For any of you in the DC area on July 2, there is going to be a Fast & Furious protest in front of the White House. I read about it here:
http://www.fireandreamitchell.com/2012/06/24/fast-and-furious-protest-on-white-house-north-lawn-set-for-july-2nd/
And the Facebook page promoting it is here:
http://www.facebook.com/events/148753525260286/
Issa/Grassely already have the documents to sink Holder. More damaging, the extent of the operation…
As in, it was not just that they forced gun shops to sell to straw buyers, but guns purchased by actual ATF agents (missing 3rd gun at Terry murder)
The problem is, Issa/Grassley can’t use them (yet). They were leaked.
He needs to acquire them legally.
Issa/Grassley isn’t fishing. He already caught the fish. He just can’t brag to the world about his catch yet until he get his fishing license.
[…] Professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection, I feel remiss in not commenting more on the blossoming Fast and Furious […]
One thing I have not seen in all the comments and commentary on this plot, it its potential use as a talking point to influence Hispanic voters in the November elections.
The hundreds of people who have been killed are mostly Mexicans, and apparently expendable to this administration. They are willing to kill Mexicans by the hundreds to construct a pretext for satisfying the gun-control lobby. Talk about a racist war on Hispanics!
Ray:
Rush made this point today.
I’ve wondered the same thing. I’m glad you made that point.
But the GOP’s failure to make righteous, justified political hay out of this is no more baffling than any of their other failures and stupid moves.
If we mean to generate public outrage, we have to Breibart the headline and start seeping it in the comments section of MSM sites. Stop calling it ‘Fast and Furious’.
Call it: “The Guns from the WH that killed 200 Mexicans and 1 US border”
This is worth sharing……
Reason’s Nick Gillespie goes head on with Bill Maher and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC over their partisan remarks
“First of all, let me just say, Republicans don’t care about dead Mexicans,” he said. After a lengthy pause, the audience responded with scattered applause.
”I think those 200 dead Mexicans would be dead even if we hadn’t sold them guns. They would have gotten the guns somewhere else. So is this really a scandal?”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/ready-reasons-nick-gillespie-blasts-rachel-maddow-bill-maher-over-fast-and-furious-partisanship/ via @theblaze
It all boils down to one issue, did Holder follow established procedure for covert programs OR not? F&F was a covert program under the rubic of national security as admitted by Obama himself when he invoked Executive Privilege. Otherwise Obama had no justification for invoking this privilege and this is merely a cover up.
If Holder followed established procedure then ALL the Department heads had to have signed off on the cover action and Obama himself had to give the final authorization. This means Holder lied to Congress and is doing so to protect Obama from being held accountable for the murder of over 300 Mexican citizens via the weapons he personally authorized to be purchased by US government funds and given to a CI who belonged to a Mexican Drug Cartel. IF Holder didn’t follow established procedure and just let the ATF do their thing then Holder is incompetent and must be immediately removed.
However, after the revelation of Obama’s National Security advisor bragging to the NYT that Obama presides over a monthly meeting of Dept. Heads who submit names for candidates for a Kill List with Obama’s personal final decision who goes on this list, there is a credibility problem. Holder filed the legal brief that outlined how this covert program was to be run…so it is not at all likely that Holder incompetently allowed the ATF to do their own thing with F&F.
Bottom line, 300 dead Mexicans and neither Holder or Obama has apologized to the Mexican government for their murders using government funded guns to people who were known murders.
deliberately NOT placing any working tracking devices on the items pretty much tells me all I need to know.
SOS had to know, there is no way clinton would have not stabbed people in the back over this if she wasn’t the mastermind…I mean involved.
I would also add to your comment that Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, an American, was murdered by one of these guns. Also, ICE Agent Jaime Zapata, an American, was murdered in Mexico by one of these guns.
This is much, much more than:
Not to belittle the international incident (which could be considered an act of war), or the 300+ Mexicans who were murdered using these guns. But the death of Americans makes this DoJ’s operation and the subsequent cover-up that much more heinous.
How does Holder sleep at night?
No conscience, no shame, is all I can figure.
Stone. A heart of stone.
[…] as I can, transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.” Hmmm. How many instances can you come up with where he’s failed to live up to that promise? It […]