Tags
2012 election, boehner, darrell issa, dc abortion bill, dream act, eric holder contempt, fast and furious, government reform, immigration, obama, obama immigration executive order, politics, trent franks
While overshadowed by the ruling on the Affordable Care Act, the House of Representatives voted 255-67 to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions related to documents on the botched Fast and Furious operation. Many Democrats walked out in protest before the vote. Seventeen Democrats actually voted with the Republicans, one of which was Joe Donnelly, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Indiana. As an Indiana native, I am incredibly disappointed in Congressman Donnelly, but that’s a topic for another post.
I’m not really going to get into much of the investigation on Fast and Furious as there are plenty of places to find both sides of the issue. The Republican conspiracy theory about Fast and Furious is that Democrats intentionally botched the operation to provide evidence for stricter gun control laws in the United States, essentially letting a US Border Patrol officer die for political gain. There is, however, absolutely no evidence of this. [Aside: But now that you mention it…maybe we should use this as an example of how ridiculous our gun laws are.] The House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa himself recently admitted that there was no evidence linking the White House to the operation.
So what are the House Republicans doing? The contempt vote will obviously fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Congressman Issa essentially ordered a contempt vote – without any evidence – under the assumption that the withheld documents would make the White House and the Justice Department look bad. President Obama has already claimed Executive Privilege for these documents. Should the Congress really be using its time like this?