Too Fast Too Furious

This is probably not good for the Attorney General's job security...

New documents obtained by CBS News show Attorney General Eric Holder was sent briefings on the controversial Fast and Furious operation as far back as July 2010. That directly contradicts his statement to Congress.

On May 3, 2011, Holder told a Judiciary Committee hearing, "I'm not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."

Yet internal Justice Department documents show that at least ten months before that hearing, Holder began receiving frequent memos discussing Fast and Furious.

...The Justice Department told CBS News that the officials in those emails were talking about a different case started before Eric Holder became Attorney General. And tonight they tell CBS News, Holder misunderstood that question from the committee - he did know about Fast and Furious - just not the details.

The old saying that's the coverup is worse than the crime almost certainly doesn't apply here, because the operation itself led to the death of a Border Patrol agent and allegedly a large number of Mexican citizens.  But that excuse at the end certainly won't fly -- what's the "different case" they're referring to?  And he didn't  understand the question Congress asked him?  Yeesh.  Allahpundit has a better take on what the emails reveal...

Either Holder didn’t want to know more after reading that July 2010 briefing or he read it and simply didn’t recognize the gravity of what he was reading. Big, big trouble either way.

Given this administration's penchant for throwing people under the bus, I'm surprised Holder hasn't been forced to resign yet.  But if this starts gaining traction and impacting the President's poll numbers, he may want to update his resume, because "fast and furious" might describe the speed of his departure.

Next Operational Name is Hudson Hawk

At this point, the ATF's Fast and Furious scandal may actually make the news...

In a classic Friday document dump -- a sure sign of an administration with something to hide -- the feds released to congressional investigators a month’s worth of e-mail correspondence in the summer of 2010 between Bill Newell, then head ATF agent in Phoenix, and his friend Kevin O’Reilly, a former White House national-security staffer for North American affairs.

What do you know? Among the e-mails was a photograph of a powerful Barrett .50-caliber rifle that had been illegally purchased in Tucson and recovered in Sonora, Mexico, raising the possibility of a second “gunwalking” program, this one called “Wide Receiver.”

Like Fast and Furious, the ATF-supervised scheme that saw thousands of weapons “walk” across the Mexican border for reasons no one in the Justice Department has yet satisfactorily explained, Wide Receiver was apparently a joint operation that also included the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the IRS and the US Attorney’s office.

It’s likely there have been others, in such states as Florida and Indiana.

While the back-channel e-mails don’t explicitly discuss Fast and Furious, they do show the White House’s intense interest in the ATF’s and other federal agencies’ activities in Arizona. In one message, O’Reilly asks Newell whether he can share some information with other officials. “Sure, just don’t want ATF HQ to find out, especially since this is what they should be doing (briefing you)!” comes the reply.

"Wide Receiver?"  Seriously?  Who came up with these dumb operational names?

Just remember, it was very important to have a special prosecutor deal with the alleged leak of allegedly classified information during the Bush Administration, and it was a huge scandal when the Bush Administration fired several U.S. Attorneys... but it's not important to have an independant prosecutor or much focus on the illicit sales of guns to international drug cartels (and potentially domestic criminals) as ordered by a component of DOJ, potentially for the political benefit of being able to advocate for gun control.  And before you think I'm pushing the envelope on the last point, I'm not the one who allegedly told gun control advocates the administration was working on gun control "under the radar."  That was... the President.

But hey, nothing to see here.

Who's Questioning Who's Patriotism Now?

You know what else is at odds with core American values, Mr. President?

1.  Forcing a massive, costly, and allegedly unconstiutional healthcare entitlement down the throats of Americans despite majority opposition, with a bill drafted behind closed doors after promising transparent negotiations that would be shown on C-SPAN.

2.  Having a federal agency supply a drug cartel with weapons that get used to kill an American border patrol agent.

3.  According to your 2008 campaign, leaving Guantanimo Bay open as a prison camp for enemy combatants.

4.  Advocating raising taxes on the wealthy in the interests of "fairness".  Even Bill Clinton thinks this idea is dumb.

5.  ATTTTTAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKK WAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTCCCHH.  Although maybe they've figured that out, since they're apparently not posting new stuff.

I'd list more, but I haven't got all week.  Plus, I don't want to overwhelm the ATTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCKKKKK WAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTCCCHHH servers.

I'll Take The Latest Obama Scandal for $500, Alex

It used to be that people claimed that despite the incompetence, at least we didn't have any major scandals plaguing this Administration. Of course, that was... well, a couple weeks ago. The Solyandra scandal is officially getting bad when it becomes a punchline for Jon Stewart...

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Stewart's already done Gunwalker.  Wonder when he gets around to this one?