As of late, when Holder dug in and simply refused to the turn over the documents the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed, the contest between he and Issa turned into nothing less than a battle of wills. And Issa upped the ante when he drew a line in the sand and gave Holder until 5 pm on February 9^th to comply with the subpoenas or face charges of contempt of congress.

And so they squared off, and for any of you who wondered which man would blink first the answer has been revealed—Issa blinked, and gave Holder & Co. a time extension for turning over the documents.

Keep in mind, that throughout the time the back and forth has been taking place, the DOJ has given the House Oversight Committee just 6,000 documents, but they’ve provided their internal IG with 80,000 plus. The bottom line: time hasn’t been the issue, rather, the refusal to comply has. Nevertheless, Issa has given in and provided Holder with more time anyway. And to make matters worse, as of today the extension has no time limit on it.

So as it stands, Holder has from now till the cows come home to play it his way.

Torres  “was in charge of operations in the border state of Chihuahua,” which includes the crime-ridden city of Juarez: a city that is just across the border from El Paso, TX, and one to which Fast and Furious weapons were believed to have been transported. Moreover, Torres, “[who] was wanted in connection with numerous crimes including murder, extortion, kidnapping and the sale and distribution of drugs,” had “two assault rifles and two  [semi-automatic] pistols” with him.

I can’t help but wonder, “Where did Torres get the rifles and the pistols?” Let’s see, he was “alleged to have amassed weapons” via Fast and Furious and he admits to taking over “armed operations for the organization in Chihuahua during the last two to three years.” Hmmm…it doesn’t seem like it should be difficult to figure this one out.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, where we’re all supposed to take comfort in the fact that Holder swears he did not authorize gun walking and that he believes gun walking to be a foolish tactic, this news just isn’t that comforting. In fact, this arrest should put the focus squarely back on any (and all) communications between Holder and Criminal Division Chief Lanny Breuer. For according to Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), on the very day the DOJ was denying it “would ever let guns walk,” Breuer was having discussions with Mexican officials about “plans to let guns cross the border.”

At one point during the hearings before the House Oversight Committee on February 2nd, Attorney General Eric Holder said he hadn’t learned of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death until 24 hours after it happened. However, this timeline seems questionable at best when you consider that at 2:31 a.m. on very night of Terry’s death (Terry was shot on the night of December 14/15, 2010), then U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke received an email from an unnamed official that read:

On December 14, 2010, a BORTAC agent working in the Nogales, AZ AOR was shot. The agent was conducting Border Patrol operations 18 miles north of the international boundary when he encountered [redacted word] unidentified subjects. Shots were exchanged resulting in the agent being shot. At this time, the agent is being transported to an area where he can be air lifted to an emergency medical center.

Approximately one hour later, Burke received a follow-up email which said “our agent is dead.” The email was sent to Monty Wilkinson, Holder’s Deputy Chief of Staff at the time. And a few hours later, Wilkinson responded that the incident was “tragic” and added: “I’ve alerted the AG [Holder], the Acting DAG, Lisa, etc.”

Here’s the problem: the timeframe doesn’t match up. What I mean is, if we go by the times the emails were sent and the time at which Wilkinson responded to say he had alerted Holder about Terry’s death, it’s not unreasonable to suppose Holder knew within 12 hours of the murder. Claiming that he didn’t learn about Terry’s death until 24 hours after the fact gave him 12 extra hours in which he could go golfing or play tennis or perhaps even get his team at the DOJ on the same page before news of Terry’s death broke(?).

Such a scenario isn’t that far-fetched when you consider the fact that Burke, who was the middle man for the emails in the wee hours of the morning of December 15, was also the attorney who actively tried to conceal the ties between Fast and Furious and Terry’s death. And moreover, as recently as November 2011, when Holder testified before the Senator Judiciary Committee, his stated position was that, “It is not fair…to assume that the mistakes that happened in Fast & Furious directly led to the death of Agent Terry.”

Honestly folks, no wonder Josephine Terry, Agent Terry’s mother, is so absolutely frustrated right now. She just feels like Holder isn’t giving straight answers and that he isn’t taking her son’s death seriously.

Wrote Josephine on her Facebook page:

Mr. Holder. How come you can never say my son’s name? You never have. All I ever hear you say is “I didn’t find out or I can’t say.” I’m actually tired of hearing your double talk in answering questions. What a joke you are. You know my son was a real AMERICAN, a WARRIOR, and a HERO, who was also protecting COWARD POLITICIANS like you. [I] hope you remember that.

Signed,

PROUD MOM OF BRIAN A. TERRY

Repeatedly during the February 2nd  ”Fast and Furious” hearings led by the Chairman of the House Oversight committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) , Democrats were coming out in force praising Holder for his excellent work. Democratic Congresswoman Maloney from California commended Holder for his favorable accomplishments as the acting Attorney General. Even if Holder is not found guilty of a crime, is he not guilty of incompetence over his ineptitude in running the Department of Justice?  But his party members continue to exalt him and one can only wonder for how long.

This was Eric Holder’s sixth time testifying with the investigation and in attendance offering words of support was Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Democratic member of the House Oversight Committee and Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio who informed Holder at the hearing “I prayed for you this morning.”

However, an investigative article recently released contains strong accusations of bribery and corruption in Holder’s Justice Department stating prosecutors for the Department of Justice have received ”cash bribes from allegedly corrupt finance executives who were indicted under court seal within the past 13 months, but never arrested or prosecuted”, as reported by Matthew Boyle. If the accusations prove to be valid, will the Democrats then join the growing number of Congressman and Senators calling for Holder’s resignation?

Unfortunately, a hearing that should be about justice and accountability for the deaths of over 300 people from the trafficking of guns to Mexican drug cartels is now reduced to a partisan stand off.

This past November, Congresswoman Maloney was already playing the partisan card in an op-ed piece she wrote for The New York Daily News.  She claims the Holder hearings are nothing more than a “Republican red herring” and that Eric Holder should not be blamed for a program that was not his creation as she refers to the investigation as a game of “gotcha“.

Even more bothersome than the claims that Republicans are simply creating a scandal for their own benefit, are the calls from the Left saying the bothched “Fast and Furious” operation is proof for the need of aggressive gun control.  In that same op-ed piece, Maloney wrote stricter gun laws are necessary and “We cannot continue allowing weapons to end up in the wrong hands”.  If Rep. Maloney truly believes this, then why would she stand by Eric Holder’s Department of Justice for graciously providing the “wrong hands” with the very weapons they need?

“I should not be held accountable for Fast and Furious”, said Holder at the Congressional Hearing.  If he is not accountable for Fast and Furious at the very least he should be held accountable for his incompetence and lack of  leadership and not just by Conservatives, but his compatriots as well.

The White House remains oddly quiet on the matter.  But as Holder is responsible for the Department of Justice, President Obama is responsible for Holder and his actions.  However, Obama has done nothing but offered continued support for Holder.  Even the very appearance of corruption should be investigated to the full lengths of the law regardless of party affiliation.  One would hope the Conservative Right would pursue one of their own just as fervently as they are with Holder.

It all leads to a question of integrity, and not just at the Department of Justice, but at the very steps of the White House as well.

For example, consider how Holder continued to defend (and rationalize) the speed at which the DOJ is releasing subpoenaed documents to the committee. How he simultaneously maintained that the DOJ has “shared huge amounts of information” and promised to share more, albeit on the DOJ’s timetable rather than that of the Oversight Committee.

But the reality is that the DOJ has only released 8% of the subpoenaed documents, or approximately 6,000 documents. And according to a report from the Oversight Committee, among these 6,000 were many which consisted “of blacked-out pages containing no information,” as well as “many duplicate documents” meant only “to bolster [the DOJs] page count.” (In other words, among the measly number of documents delivered, many contain no information on them.)

At the same time, Holder & Co. have turned over 92% more materials (about 80,000 documents) to the DOJ’s in-house Inspector General. And I’m not the only one who views this through a skeptical lense, especially since the IG falls under the auspices of the DOJ. In fact, it’s easy to assume that Holder’s being more open with the DOJ’s IG because he fears them less than he fears Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and others on the Oversight Committee.

Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN) certainly believes this is so. Thus during his exchange with Holder last week he said: “I think you’re hiding behind something here.  There [are] things you don’t want us to see.” Added Burton: “You ought to give us the documents.”

Stop for a moment and think about this: What would happen to the average American if they only provided a court or a federally-backed investigative committee with 8% of what that court or investigative body requested? Moreover, what if a portion of the 8% of documents they turned over were blacked-out pages “containing no information”?

Why then should Holder receive special treatment? (It’d be nice if the law were applied equally, to the ruling class as it is to the country class.)

The good news is that Issa is on record saying that if Holder hasn’t reversed course and complied with the document subpoenas by February 9th, the “committee will have no alternative but to move forward with proceedings to hold [Holder] in contempt of Congress.” Therefore, between now and the 9th Holder needs to hand over the documents  and we need to remind Issa that we expect him to follow through with the contempt charges if Holder simply thumbs his nose at the Oversight Committee again.

For example, when Congressman Gerald Connolly’s (D-VA) time began, he addressed the room, and Holder, thus: “Thank you for being here and showing such dignity and honor in the face of some who are suggesting that you are other [than dignified and honorable].” And Congressman Mike Quigley (D-IL)  opened his time by referring to yesterday’s hearing as a “bonfire of the vanities.” He said this was so because “after nearly six hearings, [by those who] are looking for the perfect case to embarrass the AG and the President,” all that’s been learned is that “this is not it.” These two examples were indicative of the praise Democrats heaped upon Holder, and they clearly demonstrated that the facts don’t matter. Rather, they put party and power above the truth.

Yet as stomach turning as this was, perhaps even worse was the Democrats’ unabashed, open pursuit of more gun control during yesterday’s hearings. Almost to a man, once they finished praising Holder they took turns trying to alleviate the pressure he’s under by suggesting Fast and Furious couldn’t have happened if we had more stringent gun control laws. (In making this point, they conveniently overlooked the number of gun control laws that violated with impunity during Operation Fast and Furious.)

So as the saga unfolded yesterday, once Connolly had praised the “dignity and honor” of Holder, he and the AG basically had a conversation in front of the world about the supposed need for a new federal firearms trafficking law.

And Holder indicated that there is no significant federal straw-purchasing law either: so he wants that too. (Here, Holder was disingenuous at best because anyone who has bought a firearm within the last fifteen years knows that on the yellow federal background check form, the buyer has to declare that he’s the actual buyer of the weapon: that he’s not buying it for someone else who can’t legally buy it. In other words, the buyer is declaring that he’s not a straw purchaser.)

And I didn’t even get into the latter portions of Quigley’s time, where he also bemoaned the lack of a new federal firearms trafficking statute, spoke highly of the long gun reporting measure Holder & Co. implemented in the wake of Fast and Furious, and then actually expressed support for expanding the budget of the ATF, as well as boosting the number of ATF agents. And hapless Holder concurred: “If we’re serious, as we all say we are,  in dealing with the problem of guns going to Mexico…we need more people than we have now in ATF.”

When Holder then tried to turn the hearing into a discussion about the need for the Senate to confirm a new head of the ATF, Chairman Issa interrupted and brought matters back to reality by saying the president had spent more than two years without even bothering to nominate a head for ATF.

The bottom line: It’s just not that important to them folks. And Holder (and his defenders) only bring these issues up now as a way to get Issa, Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX), Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ), and others, off Holder’s trail. The Democrats have no intention of pursuing justice on the matter of Fast and Furious, and they proved it again yesterday.

After opening her time by pointing out that Holder had frequently responded to charges in a dismissive way, by saying they were all part of a political game, or an election year charade, Buerkle said:

I think it’s important to recognize that you, as the Attorney General, with all due respect, need to  be held accountable, or someone does, as to what happened. Of all the issues that face this country, this is the issue that I hear from my district so frequently about. In fact, today I have no fewer than 30 questions from folks in my district who want to know what happened, why it happened, and who’s going to be held accountable.

She then stated that she’d been “taken aback” by Holder’s haughty declarations to others on the committee, wherein he said “I am the Attorney General,” as if that meant he were above reproach. Said Buerkle: “With all due respect, yes you are [the Attorney General], but you are also accountable not only to the folks in my district, but to the American people.

Buerkle then played a video clip from a June 2011 hearing wherein the spokesman for Brian Terry’s family asked if the dragnet in the investigation of Fast and Furious would be set deep enough and wide enough to catch everyone involved, and would those involved face charges? After the clip had played, Buerkle looked at Holder and asked how far the investigation has come since June of last year, and whether “everyone in that operation who had to deal with [the weapons used in Terry’s death] will be brought up on charges for facilitating the murder of Brian Terry?”

Holder rambled and stuttered like Obama without a teleprompter:

We’re certainly working now to, it’s an ongoing investigation, this is a very sensitive time, I’m not sure I can talk an awful lot about where the investigation is. I’ve indicated that I think we’re pretty close to making some announcements.

…And with regard to people who were involved in Operation Fast and Furious, we are endeavoring to find out who made the determination to allow guns to walk. I am not at liberty to talk about weapons that were used during the actual incident.

(Call me crazy, but Holder’s answer seemed like little more than a long, circuitous way of saying “Nope, the investigation hasn’t come that far since last June.”)

Anyway, Holder finally quit trying to answer and instead started to clarify what he’d meant when he’d earlier declared “I am the Attorney General.” Said Holder: “I did not mean to imply that I should not be held accountable. But I also believe there’s a certain fairness component in this thing as well. …I am more than willing to admit mistakes when I have made them. …We need to put aside the political gotcha games.” At this point, Buerkle interrupted Holder and said, “Excuse me sir, my time is ticking away, and I have one more question.”

Buerkle then asked the best question of the morning:

I was one of the members [of this committee] who called for your resignation. I feel that [as head of the] DOJ, that you’re responsible for all activities that fall under your umbrella. You’ve denied knowledge of the program and that accordingly you should not be held accountable. My question to you here today is what more could have possibly gone wrong? …How many more Border Patrol agents would have had to die for you to take responsibility?

Holder reacted by painting the question as ridiculous, and added: “I mean, really, as a member of Congress, is that the way you want to be seen, or the way you want to be known?” (i.e., do you want to be known as the one who asked such an asinine question?)

The problem for Mr. Holder is that the American people don’t believe the question was out of line in any way. Moreover, the American people also took note of another important fact: Holder never answered the question.