Members of the Senate, true to the old trope that their chamber is the saucer that cools the hot passions of the more fiery House of Representatives, are notably declining to call for Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation over the botched Operation Fast and Furious gun-tracking effort, the conservative political website The Daily Caller writes.
But Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) continues to say the highest ranking official with knowledge of the program should step down, the website reports.
That puts Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who overseas the Criminal Division, in an uncomfortable position. Breuer has conceded he knew about a gun-walking operation during the George W. Bush administration, but has testified before Congress that the Justice Department agency leading the effort provided him with inaccurate information about Fast and Furious.
Fast and Furious was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is part of the Justice Department. It was a law enforcement effort to trace weapons from straw buyers in the U.S. as they made their way to drug cartels in Mexico. ATF lost track of the guns, allowing some 2000 weapons to flow un-monitored across the border into Mexico. One of the guns purchased in the U.S. was found at the scene of shootout in Arizona that left a Border Patrol agent dead.
Any hopes Breuer may have had of succeeding Holder as the nation’s top law enforcement officer in a putative second Obama term have been dashed by the debacle, as angry Senate Republicans are unlikely to confirm him. Holder in a Nov. 8 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing expressed support for Breuer, saying he did not “expect to hear a resignation offer” from him.
Meanwhile, a potential primary opponent of senior Judiciary Committee member Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is calling for Hatch to demand’s Holder’s resignation.
Utah State Sen. Dan Liljenquist also told The Daily Caller he thinks Holder should resign. “My premise is, if [Holder] knew about this program or authorized it and he didn’t tell the truth about it, absolutely, he should resign,” Liljenquist said, according to The DC. Liljenquist added that he would “expect” Hatch to demand Holder’s departure also.
But a Hatch spokesman said the senator wouldn’t call for Holder’s resignation. “Senator Hatch has been appalled by how the Department of Justice conducted its Fast and Furious program and its refusal to take full responsibility,” Hatch’s spokesman told The DC. “Working with his colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee, he has called for Attorney General Holder to say what he knew and when he knew it and continues to demand more answers.”
And Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) hasn’t called for Holder’s resignation — yet — either, saying he plans to continue pushing Holder for more information, The DC said. But Cornyn said pointedly that he thinks “the Attorney General has taken every opportunity to sidestep and stonewall.”
Several dozen Republican House members have said Holder must go (see Main Justice’s recent report), but there have been no explicit demands for his resignation from the Senate.
A spokeswoman for Grassley, who’s leading the congressional investigation into Fast and Furious with House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), told The Daily Caller he thinks “Holder should resign if there is evidence that he knew the details of Fast and Furious.”
“Beyond that, Senator Grassley would like to see the resignation of the highest ranking official who knew of the details/approved the program,” his spokeswoman added, according to website.
Grassley, the ranking minority member on the judiciary panel, has repeatedly accused the Department of Justice of stonewalling on Fast and Furious (see Main Justice’s recent report).
This article had been corrected to reflect that Lanny Breuer testified he had knowledge of a George W. Bush administration gun-walking operation, not of the more recent use of similar tactics in Fast and Furious.
This was no “effort to trace…” any weapons at all — and the only thing “botched” was the COVER-UP!
THINK!
In “Wide Receiver” they had full cooperation with the Mex.gov. They tried to hide GPS devices in the weapons, but the batteries died before the guns crossed the border. When they tried to use helicopters for surveillance, the smugglers would just wait until they had to refuel then skip over the border.
You’d think they might have learned something from this, no?
F&F (AKA “Gunwalker”) was certainly different:
(1) Not only was the whole “operation” hidden from the Mex.Gov, but also from all US folk in Mexico. When the ATF Liason (Darren Gil) found out and raised hell, he was forced into early retirement!
(2) No effort WHATSOEVER to track the guns – agents were ordered to “stand down” and not even TRY surveillance!
(3) To make matters worse, all Mex.Gov personnel and US agents in Mexico were even blocked from accessing any database records on any of the “gunwalker” guns. WHEN they were found at crime-scenes, and they tried to trace them — from what they could see, the guns didn’t even EXIST!
So, tell me again how this was supposed to help “take down the cartel”??!!
This was NOTHING but a deliberate scheme to create a “crisis” of US civilian arms being used in Mexican crimes, in order to justify further infringement of the rights of American Citizens — rights which our Constitution says “…SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!”
In other words, this was a deliberate conspiracy to cause murder, in support of TREASON – and all involved should HANG (following a fair and speedy trial, of course!)!
Don’t drink the kool-aid — do your own research and you’ll see what I am saying is 100% TRUE!!