Non-Fox News viewers may not be aware of the "Fast & Furious" story they've been beating the drums on for about a year. We won't get into the particulars here, you can read up outside of class, but suffice it to say that the GOPers are engaged in a political witch hunt and they want Attorney General Eric Holder to resign at any cost.
To that end, yesterday was the first official hearing for AG Holder on capitol hill re: fast and furious, and it was a quite a day. The two most notable exchanges were between Holder and Reps. Labrador of Idaho and Farenthold of Texas. Labrador embarrassed himself with a misguided diatribe about how AG Holder isn't prepared when he comes before Congress, and therefore isn't fit to hold office.
Each member was allowed 5 mins to question Holder during yesterday's hearing, and if you need evidence that Rep. Labrador's time was used for a grandstanding political speech, look no further than his official youtube page. The Congressman only posted his portion of the Q and A session (Just the "Q", not the A... see below).
Congressman Raul Labrador (ID-01) questions Attorney General Eric Holder on his knowledge and/or involvement in the "Fast and Furious" program during a hearing in the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform.
What Rep. Labrador DOESN"T want you to see is Attorney General Holder's response during which the Congressman is completely pwned for his foolish line of "inquiry".
Eric Holder to Rep. Labrador: How dare you treat me that way?
The exchange with Rep. Farenthold is almost as ludicrous. The freshman tea partier from Texas (known best for this fun picture) questions Holder's ability to competently run the Justice Department. A.G. Holder was quite forceful in his response.
Feb. 2, 2012 hearing entitled "Fast and Furious: Management Failures at the Department of Justice."
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hes going to bring obama down in 2012.............time to selfdeport holder
Only in your mind. Then there is reality.
Go Eric.........that tp wipe is just a bully.
this is a pattern of behavior that the repubs love, trying to "fire" a democrat. does anyone here remember the impeachment of Bill Clinton, and the horrible way they treated him for lying about a blow job, something that many in the repub party were doing at the very same time.
lets also go back to the framing and imprisonment of Bob Siegelman, the popular Alabama governor, whom the W. bush administration wanted out of office.
lets also take a look at the outing of Valarie Plame, the CIA agent who was outed during the W. bush administration because her husband, Joe Wilson, wouldn't lie about WMD in iraq. karl rove was involved in that, as was dick cheney, but who took the fall? scooter libby.
fox news is BEATING A DEAD HORSE, with the fast and furious issue, and also with solyndra which they cover all day long, every day. they are trying desperately to create a scandal in the Obama administration by covering these stories relentlessly.
if i were a repub, i would be much more concerned about the blatant lying of karl rove, dick cheney, W. bush, and their stooping to lies and illegal tactics to get a democrat out of office, or prevent one from winning the presidency (dade country, florida, 2000) by having his daddy's friends (the supreme court) annoint him president.
they are unembarassable in their relentless quest to remove democrats from gov't, and they are shameless in that they don't care even if they send an innocent man to prison. i guess to them, the end justifys the means.
Also Suzette they are just jealous of the Obama administration and the accomplishments he had while in office. The Fast and the Furious witch hunt is only because they (GOP) want Holder to be smeared and brought down to their level like their AG Gonzales who had to resigned during the Bush administration because of the unjustly firing of the US. Attorneys in their own office because they did not got after Democrats the way that some GOP congressman wanted them to. Just take what Former US attorney Iglesias went through below when he was fired during the Bush administration because he did not do what the GOP wanted him to do.
Iglesias has long served in the Navy as part of the JAG corps. When Bush chose him to become the U.S. Attorney for New Mexico, it was a dream come true. He was a core member of Karl Rove's idealized Republican Party of the future Hispanic, evangelical, and a military veteran. The dream came to an abrupt end when Senator Pete Domenici improperly called Iglesias, wanting him to indict high-level Democrats before the 2006 elections. When Iglesias refused, the line went dead. Iglesias was fired just weeks later.
Yet again they (GOP) are just haters, imiataters, and perpatrators.
GO OBAMA 2012!!
Take your meds Matt...you're delusional.
OK boys and girls, "GET OUT YOUR CEL PHONES". Can Obama's "Occupy" rioters win Him reelection in 2012 ? Vote 666BO for yes, and God Save Us for no. Love You Ed, You socialist You, ;)
The better question would be who's the bigger idiot....Robme or Nitwit Newt.
I just looked up this guy Labrador and he's Mormon too. How many Mormons do we have in this government? More than I realized evidently. And he was born in Puerto Rico.
wow.
dont think neither of them has a clue.
if their brains was fuel they would not have enough fuel to power a piss ants motorcycle to do a figure eight inside a cheerio hold.
Holder should be held in contempt...he has 13 months to provide was asked of him. If that isn't grandstanding, I don't know what is. He is incompetent and arrogant. The Republicans have been too soft on him. This things should have been over with months ago. The family of the killed agent deserves answers. Holder is a cold hearted, dispicable human being for not getting to the bottom of this sooner so the family could have peace and before others get killed.
And then there is reality. Try it you might like it.
rufus:
How do you stand on GWB and Cheney going to court for war crimes?
Nothing???? I guess that's why Cheney's himself and his daughter are so dead set against Obama. Afraid he's going to have to answer for his evil deeds!
one:Your so right it wasn't a war it was an occupation. Second where are the WMDs? Or the connection between Osama and Saddam? Tell that one to the 4500 dead wives sons & daughters & husbands to their family's
:Your so right it wasn't a war it was a crusade!
no but when you sit on you race in TX on vacation and dismiss the intel thats the part i am totally not ok with.
Bush Lie!!!!!!! Thousands Died!!!!!!
Obama Lead!!!!!!!! osama is Dead!!!!
NO $h!t!!!!
hey dingdong,
no, it is not OK when terrorists use planes to fly into buildings.
what we should be able to expect from our leaders is that they don't lie about WMD in iraq, and go there instead. we should be able to also expect that the bush administration wouldn't put someone's life at risk, and take hundreds of thousands of innocent lives/troops based on a personal vendetta against saddam hussein.
they also outed a CIA agent, Valarie Plame, because her husband, Joe Wilson, wouldn't lie about WMD in iraq.
how much more evidence do you all need?
Jan Brewer is looking to get a pink slip, And not the kind she can wear! Bye Bye Tea Party!
Might I add GOOD RIDDANCE TEA PARTY!!
Right the tea bagging nation a group of stupid people who were clueless then proved how stupid they really were by selling out for a bus ride and a hotdog. No wonder the Koch industries laugh at them they are the dumbest of the dumb. Right as long as Obama runs against GOP candidate generic against Mittens or Newt Obama will be on top.
I think you mean INTELLIGENCE Humm.....Pot calling the tea kettle black!
Beats being a dumb pawn that sold out for a bus ride and a hotdog. Gee they could have got a V-8 instead.
At least Sarah Bachmann & Michelle Palin are out of the picture!LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!
She wrote a book the only accurate thing was the page numbers!
She might had written the numbers of the pages down on her hand in order to remember that 1 then 2 then 3 is right.
Good one!!! Palin's birth control plan is no WINE COOLERS!
A wine cooler might work if you hold it between your knees.
You read her book?
I read the reviews of her book and my IQ dropped 15 points. That book should come with a warning..........Caution reading this book cause sever bouts of stupidity and may cause delusions of grandeur, read at your own risk.
And what less government looking out for them! When she was in school she an A in handwriting! Actually Double A one for each hand!
whomi
who read the reviews to you????? She only sold 2.7 million copies but then who is countin. By the way i bet you had the review in Mother Jones read to you.
What the congress is doing is just politics. Nothing will happen. Fast and Furious was design to be a top secret operation designed to bring down the Mexican drug cartels. All this fiasco have blown the thing wide open. The Anthony general is not suppose to publicly give account of any of his knowledge because its not supposed to be traced to the US in the first place.
ROFLMAO!!! The "Anthony general"? This is quite a brain trust you have going here.
Labrador should be retrieving some courteous behavior and rep texan gomer pyle the same.I have never heard such contemptuous trash in my 42 years of voting. Hated dubya but respected the Office!
this is why hitler should have been questioned. when are the americans going to smarten up and see the goddamn light. repugs should all be recalled on their record (as horrible as it is). I live in canada and love President Obama especially because he stands for the average american. He will not bend forany cheap shots. He is a man who will stand forever for his people and we are all his (north america). Love you President Obama from the bottom of my heart for all you've done and will continue to do. thankyou
Trudy Tizya
trudy
yes lets have a new election every 2 months or better yet replace elections with a POLL. iF YOU DON'T LIKE THE RESULT TRY TRY AGAIN.
typical republican stupidity who the hell cares what he thinks
- "Non-Fox News viewers may not be aware of the "Fast & Furious" story they've been beating the drums on for about a year."
Ed might want to (finally) pull his head out of his backside. Just because he and the rest of MSNBC have been willfully ignorant for this long doesn't mean everyone else has. Fox was actually quite late to the party in covering F&F, and they haven't even been the most dogged in it. CBS News (you know, that famous bastion of right-wing ideology?) was actually the first major news outlet to cover the story, and has been doing so ever since. You should try reading their coverage, as it pretty much tracks with what Fox and everyone else has been reporting, and is consistent with all of the documents that have been release and the testimony that has been given by ATF agents.
Thousands of firearms intentionally (by BATFE, DOJ et al) allowed to be smuggled to Mexican drug cartels without even notifying the Mexican government. Holder has steadfastly refused to cooperate with a Congressional investigation into the matter, yet his own internal OIG (you know, where the DOJ investigates itself for possible wrong-doing...what could go wrong there?) STILL, after over a year, cannot (or will not) answer the simple question, "Who was responsible?"
You window-lickers truly don't have a clue what's going on.
LOL thanks for the laugh.
window-lickers that's funny and have to give you credit its new as well.
just another scandal the right is trying but falling short on to create. smiling and just like the others they start off fast and then they fine its more of a scandal for them (right) so they get furious.
Even overlooking the painfully illiterate construction of your post...you just eagerly applied that "window-licker" label to yourself. You haven't got the faintest idea what's going on.
LOL thanks
Pilotshark - I don't find it funny that an American citizen and law enforcement officer was killed by a gun that was knowingly placed into the hands of a drug cartel by the US government.
Do you?
and this is in fact true then you should be far more concerned about the actions of the law enforcement agencies who put this on ie the DEA and ATF....they do these types of operations all the time and I gurantee you removing Holder will NOT stop this from happening in the future
the ATF and DEA need to be held accountable for the billions they waste with their cowboy antics....that and only that will stop this from happening again
but congress is in fact motivated by politics so I am certain we will find incidents like this happening long into the future so unfortunately this will keep going on for the considerable future....I predict more will die
Cynical - you make some good points and I agree that Holder is not solely responsible for this program and the death of an American Federal agent. However, as the Attorney General of the United States that oversees these federal agencies he does have a responsibility to answer for this program, just as a CEO needs to answer for the performance of their company.
Isn't ignoring this issue because you agree with Holder's politics, thus protecting the Obama Administration from a black eye, playing politics as well?
I don't agree entirely with Holder's or Obama's politics so don't waste your time making assumptions
Congress has a very short attention span so after they get rid of Holder, if that happens, they will stop there and will not make any of the needed changes to the ATF or DEA. They will get rid of Holder and try to say that the problem is now solved and it won't be.
Congress has the attention span of a ten year and so with that in mind I would wager they are only smart enough to get one of the following two things done.
1. get rid of Holder or put him on the fire
2. Examine the ATF and DEA and dish out bidget cuts and punishments
I would in the spirit of that say the option two is far more likely to stop things like this from happening in the future...far more so than door number one. Congress can't do both, they should be able to but they can't....blame them for that...not me....it's just reality........
Furthermore I find it shocking that even the hawks on Fox news have not even in any way discussed the thing that will make the biggest change ie door number two and why because it's really about politics for them as anyone who's looked at how the ATF or DEA operate realizes they do things like this all the time throughout many administrations. There needs to be someone holding them accountable because there never is....when was the last time the country to a deep look into these agencies.....oh yeah never.
well well well cynical
You and i finally agree. If there was ever not needed organization or two it is DEA and atf. The trouble is they both make a profit. At the end of the year the value of the money and cars and boats they confiscate make money. So it is difficult to rid the world of them. Since i believe in legalization of all but the most dangerous drugs, (heroin comes to mind) it can easily be handled at a local level and once the profit is taken out no need for border tunnells and guns. Lets get rid of both .
- "To that end, yesterday was the first official hearing for AG Holder on capitol hill re: fast and furious"
A bit misleading there, Ed. While this was the first hearing devoted solely to his testimony, it was Holder's FIFTH appearance before a Congressional committee to testify on the Fast & Furious scandal. And of course you dishonestly omitted the question by Gowdy, Issa and others who quite skillfully interrogated Holder on the facts, and further exposed his non-cooperation with the investigation.
And of course, if you were really wanting to talk about political grandstanding you would have noted the Dem members of the committee, who's time slots have - in every single hearing on the issue - been 100% committed to nothing but speeches about how wonderful Holder is and how we really ought not to be digging into the details of the issue. Of particular note was senior member Cummings' utterly clueless approach, and how he had to be provided with copies of documents - that he already had - because he was too stupid to realize that they directly contradicted the claims he was trying to make.
Equally interesting is the fact that, although the DOJ's own internal investigation is still on-going and no details or conclusions from it have been released, the Dem members of the committee have already produced and released a "report" in which they completely absolve the DOJ or anyone else in the current admin of any responsbility. Apparently it never occured to them to at least wait for the facts to come out before blindly covering for the admin.
I think Eric Holder is not doing that great as head of the DOJ
it took them this long to act on South Carolina's voter suppression law....I guess we're lucky it didn't take longer since it was already too late to make a difference
where are they on all these other voter suppression acts
What about Governor Snyder's financial takeover law in Michigan which allws him to effectively overthrow any state government and local government he decides. All Snyer has to do is go in and decide that a city is in a financial crisis and then he gets to appoint a financial manager of his choosing who then has complete control of that local government
Sheriff Joe has a SURPRISE coming for holder, obama and the justice dpt!!
LOL
are you saying he is going to show up in pink underwear.