Fast & Furious: Holder Found in Contempt of Congress

After more than a year in which DOJ and Eric Holder have been significantly non-responsive to requests for documents and details of reasoning and decision-making in the Fast &Furious gun walking case, the House Oversight Committee today voted to refer a Contempt of Congress Report to the Full House of Representatives.  The next step is a vote of the full House, but a floor vote is not expected before next week.

After a full day of discussion, the vote came down to a party line vote of 23 to 16.  This is unfortunate in my opinion.  The Democrat side argued in favor of "benefit of doubt" about how responsive DOJ has a been.  The Republican side concentrated on the serious nature of the subject and the matters of the deaths of agents and Mexican citizens and the fact that open government was not being served by DOJ throughout this matter.

I think there is truth on each side, but I lean strongly in favor of the exposure of the truth.  The obvious stonewalling by Eric Holder and DOJ, and the obvious water-carrying by Democrat members for various reasons such as more gun control, sympathy for Holder, protection of the Administration, and blatant mis-representation of facts did not serve their side at all.  Some Democrats expressed valid views about investigation of broader issues of oversight of ATF and DOJ, and these issues have some merit, although in a broad context that may be too broad at this time.