holder contempt citation. republican payback to the nra.

[Free Thinker]

The House’s 255-to-67 vote on Thursday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress said more about how far lawmakers will go to pander to the gun lobby in an election year than about any improper conduct by Mr. Holder.
He was cited for refusing to hand over some documents in an investigation of a botched gunrunning sting operation known as Fast and Furious. President Obama was on weak constitutional ground in invoking executive privilege last week on the disputed documents. Mr. Holder had turned over more than 7,600 documents to the House oversight committee, which is conducting the inquiry.

The public interest and the principle of Congressional oversight would have been best served if the committee’s chairman, Darrell Issa, and the Justice Department had reached a deal for production of the requested documents, or some version of them, to avert the showdown.
But it now seems clear that negotiations were never really possible. Beyond the usual hyperpartisanship on Capitol Hill, the National Rifle Association and the even more strident Gun Owners of America wanted a vote in order to push their bizarre theory that Fast and Furious was part of a secret Obama administration conspiracy to further a gun-control political agenda. They wanted it to be a recorded vote that could be used in their ratings of House lawmakers and potentially help defeat some Democrats in conservative-leaning districts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/opinion/score-one-for-the-gun-lobby.html?_r=2&smid=tw-share

 

[Arnie]

The reason the NYT is upset is that a number of Dems also voted for contempt.

Issa would have been an idiot to settle on Holder's terms, which were bascially..."I'll give you the documents I think are relevant, and then you will consider the matter closed".

What's really telling is that this was the best argument the NYT could make, and its a weak one. Payback for the NRA? Really? LOL

I can just imagine the righteous indignation if this involved an Republican AG.

 

[wjk]

Quote from Free Thinker:

their bizarre theory that Fast and Furious was part of a secret Obama administration conspiracy to further a gun-control political agenda.

Where there's smoke...

"Sarah Brady claims Obama pushing ‘under the radar’ gun control"

http://www.examiner.com/article/sarah-brady-claims-obama-pushing-under-the-radar-gun-control

"Obama Contributor, Who Helped Enact Assault-Weapons Ban, Ran ‘Fast and Furious’"

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/oba...nact-assault-weapons-ban-ran-fast-and-furious

 

[OccupyThis]

How the NRA Helped ObamaCare
Thursday, June 28th at 8:23PM EDT

It’s tough to accuse the National Rifle Association of being left-wing, but events on Thursday highlight just how useless the organization can be to the conservative movement at large. On the day that the Supreme Court found the most odious provisions of the Affordable Care Act – ObamaCare – constitutional, the House of Representatives took the historic step of holding a sitting attorney general in contempt of Congress.

Just prior to the contempt vote, which centered on Attorney General Eric Holder’s refusal to cooperate with the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into Fast and Furious, a gun-trafficking sting operation that has resulted in the death of a Border Patrol agent and countless Mexican nationals, the National Rifle Association announced it would include the vote on its political scorecard. For candidates looking to earn the support of 2nd Amendment voters, the NRA scorecard brings both bragging rights and the likelihood of an endorsement.

At least if you are an incumbent it is likely to bring an endorsement.

As other conservative and right-of-center groups have come to realize the folly of endorsing Democrats – even marginally conservative ones – because the party as a whole is dedicated to radical progressive values, the NRA has insisted on endorsing pro-gun incumbent Democrats. In addition to allowing the NRA to claim the charade of “bipartisan,” the tactic also pads the NRA PAC’s endorsement/win ratio, always a key thing for establishment operatives playing an insider’s game.

Indiana Congressman Joe Donnelly, one of the last Blue Dog Democrats, joined 16 fellow Democrats in holding Mr. Holder in contempt of Congress. For that he should be commended. But it is interesting to note that Mr. Donnelly has earned the NRA endorsement in 2008 and 2010, and is currently running against conservative Richard Mourdock (R) in the battle for Indiana’s U.S. Senate seat. Mr. Donnelly was re-elected by the narrowest of margins in 2010 over a stalwart conservative champion, state Rep. Jackie Walorski.

Whether or not the NRA will endorse in the Indiana Senate race remains to be seen. But while focusing solely on gun issues, the NRA has championed candidates like Mr. Donnelly; Democrats who may have a couple of conservative positions but are not conservatives in principle.

Which brings up ObamaCare. Mr. Donnelly, along with the likes of former Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), expressed much reservation about ObamaCare during the Congressional debate. As a pro-life Democrat, Mr. Donnelly eventually supported ObamaCare after assurances from the White House that its implementation, if not actual language, would respect pro-life principles.

After Thursday’s court ruling, the American people are stuck with ObamaCare and the Administration has conveniently shed its cloak of pro-life promises, not to mention it is forcing the states to comply with every aspect of its radical experiment.

Holding Attorney General Holder in contempt is a step towards uncovering the truth about Fast and Furious, but losing a fight like the battle to stop ObamaCare on the front line, in congressional debate, is a tremendous blow that was only worsened by the Supreme Court’s decision.

It’s time for the conservative movement to start embracing full spectrum conservatism, realizing that no individual principle of conservatism may survive alone and apart from the support of other principles. Freedom is not a matter of picking and choosing which rights are important. The 2nd Amendment is not more important than the principle of limited government, the principle of limited government is not more important than the 1st Amendment.

As long as conservatives continue to play small on single issues, they will lose ground to radical liberals who are willing to, bit-by-bit, limit freedom and curtail liberty. The Left wins when conservatives play an inside game that pits one freedom against another. It’s time for that to stop.

 

[AAAintheBeltway]

They seem awfully anxious to discredit this theory. Clearly the marching orders came out to knock it down. The WashPost had a nearly identical editorial. I saw one of the talking heads last week trying to get Issa to disavow it, with a lot of eye rolling etc to indicate to the viewers that he considered it nutcase land.

It's pretty obvious that Fast and furious was planned in conjunction with the media, or at least a group of friendly journos. I have posted before that the WashPost ran a series of highly misleading articles on gun running to mexico, how we needed stronger laws, etc as the operation unfolded. One of the key ATF officials is a former bigshot in one of the radical anti-gun groups. They clearly had planned a big bust with a huge stack of seized guns to provide the conclusion for the articles.

Anyone who believes these articles in the liberal media, whether gun related or anti-Romeny or pro gay marriage or whatever, just appear becauase some reporter or editor thinks they are a good idea is utterly naive. They are conceived and planned by the liberal mafia who control the media, the administration, a chunk of congress and a group of well-funded activist groups. They all work hand-in-glove to indoctrinate people.

 

[Free Thinker]

Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

Anyone who believes these articles in the liberal media, whether gun related or anti-Romeny or pro gay marriage or whatever, just appear becauase some reporter or editor thinks they are a good idea is utterly naive. They are conceived and planned by the liberal mafia who control the media, the administration, a chunk of congress and a group of well-funded activist groups. They all work hand-in-glove to indoctrinate people.

wow. you have really gone off the rails. glen beck much?



"The mind is a terrible thing to waste... But it does make becoming a republican much easier once it's gone..Without a shred of verifiable and falsifiable evidence to the contrary, 50% of the republicans don't believe that President Obama was born in the US less than 50 years ago. And yet, those same people are certain that 2000 years ago someone called jesus was born in of a virgin in the Middle East, did miracles, died on the cross and resurrected to heaven without a shred of verifiable and falsifiable evidence to support this."

 

[Ricter]

The dems who did could afford to vote for contempt because everyone knows at this point that the issue is dead anyway. The Fortune analysis of the matter has destroyed rep credibility on it and they know it. It's a tragedy what happened to the officer, but there was no malfeasance, no conspiracy, etc. We're seeing face-saving moves only at this point.