Gunrunner: Darrell Issa refuses Eric Holder’s request for a private meeting on Fast and Furious–and more

   The month of June has not been a friendly one for Barack Obama, but as bad as the month has been for him it may be turning out be be an even worse month for Eric Holder. Throughout the last year and a half, while facing an investigation into Fast and Furious, Eric Holder has remained arrogant and defiant while denying any knowledge of the deadly scandal even as circumstantial evidence seemed to indicate he had to have known about Fast and Furious.

  There simply seemed to be no hard proof to tie Eric Holder to Fast and Furious and he knew it because he refused to release the documents which most likely showed a direct link between him and the deadly operation, but that all changed last week when Darrell Issa finally found the whistleblower he was looking for. This person provided Darrell Issa with some of the emails Eric Holder was hoping to keep classified, and these emails show a direct link between a top level Department of Injustice official–who had daily briefings with the beleaguered Attorney General–and Operation Fast and Furious. These emails went so far as to discuss the political ramifications which would ensue one the public became aware of the scandal. Eric Holder could no longer claim Fast and Furious was the action of rogue agents in the field, and he could no longer claim high level officials knew nothing about Fast and Furious.

    So when he appeared before the Judiciary Committee earlier this week he adjusted his story by claiming that when the emails mentioned Fast and Furious they weren’t talking about THE Fast and Furious, but rather some other gunrunning scheme. This defense fell flat on its face, Eric Holder only dug his hole even deeper because it was obvious these emails were talking about THE Fast and Furious.

  Feeling emboldened with the new evidence now in his possession Darrell Issa finally decided he had enough information to proceed with contempt charges against Eric Holder and suddenly the attorney general is starting to squirm. He is now trying to spin his way out of this mess by offering to sit down in private with Darrell Issa, Charles Grassly, and John Boehner to discuss  “creative ways” to make the documents available:

I want to make it very clear that I am offering to sit down, by myself, offering  to sit down with the Speaker, with the chairman, with whomever, to try to work  our way through this in an attempt to avoid a constitutional crisis and come up  with way — creative ways, perhaps — in which we can make this material available

  Eric Holder has personally been stonewalling the investigation by refusing to release these documents and now that the walls are closing in on him he wants to have a private meeting with those who are investigating him, but the time for talk is over and Eric Holder had his chance to comply with the subpoena and he refused to do so. John Boehner has refused this offer unless Eric Holder first turns over the requested documents, and it doesn’t seem very likely he will do so at this point.

  Eric Holder is now trying to play the victim here by claiming he is the one who reached out to the Republicans:

But I’ve got to have a willing partner. I’ve extended my hand and I’m waiting to  hear back

  After a year and a half of stonewalling the investigation Eric Holder actually has the balls to claim he is the one who needs a willing partner? That is laughable on its face considering he has been unwilling to cooperate with the subpoena and is only now showing signs of cooperation because it appears as if Darrell Issa is getting close to possibly indicting him in this deadly scandal.

  But he took it even a step further when he called this a potential constitutional crisis, because while he walked back this statement later on, there is no doubt in my mind there was a purpose behind using those words. Eric Holder was following Rahm Emanuel’s mantra of never letting a good crisis go to waste, and in this case Eric Holder was hoping if the people and the Republicans heard that a potential constitutional crisis was drawing nigh that this might cause people to rethink taking action against him for the good of healing the nation.

  Meanwhile John Cornyn called for his resignation for “violating the public trust” saying he hoped the president would replace him with somebody who was up to the challenge. When Eric Holder said he hoped to be judged on his record John Cornyn laid out that record:

You misled Rep. Issa in May 2011 by saying you did not learn about the Fast  and Furious program until the Spring of 2011,” Cornyn continued. “And then, you  had to admit to Sen. Grassley that you learned about those tactics in January of  2011.”

“You claimed at a press conference in September 2011 that you had no  knowledge of the gunwalking program, while it’s clear that your inner-circle,  your high-ranking Department of Justice employees, received briefings and memos  on gunwalking in Fast and Furious, including Deputy AG Grindler and others in  early 2010.

“You claim that Fast and Furious wiretap applications did not detail gun  walking tactics,” Cornyn went on. “Sen. Sessions has read them. I’ve read them.  And, Sen. Grassley has obviously read them. They do raise plenty of details or  raise a red flag about this tactic.”

“You have defied the lawful and legitimate oversight responsibilities of the  House of Representatives and of the Senate,” Cornyn added. “You have resisted  producing documents, you’ve produced about 7,600 documents out of a pool of at  least 80,000 documents and you’ve failed to respond to my letter of August 2011  where I’ve asked you about gunwalking tactics that occurred in my state.”

“So sixteen months after Fast and Furious has been uncovered when Brian Terry  lost his life at the hands of a drug cartel member who shot him using a weapon  that was allowed to walk, there’s been zero accountability at the Department of  Justice. You won’t appoint a special prosecutor in the case of a potential  conflict of interest. You won’t tell the truth about what you knew and when you  knew it when it comes to Fast and Furious. You won’t cooperate with a legitimate  congressional investigation. You won’t answer my questions about gun walking in  Texas. You won’t take any responsibility for failures of your inner circle. And,  you won’t acknowledge what your top aides knowingly misled Congress about and  you won’t hold anyone accountable.”

“The leaking of classified information represents a threat to national  security, and your office faces a clear conflict of interest and you won’t  appoint a special counsel,” Cornyn said. “You won’t support a truly independent  investigation and you won’t take this threat seriously. Meanwhile, you still  resist coming clean about what you knew and when you knew it with regard to  Operation Fast and Furious. You won’t cooperate with a legitimate congressional  investigation and you won’t hold anyone, including yourself, accountable.”

“Your Department blocks states from implementing attempts to combat voter  fraud,” Cornyn continued. “In short, you’ve violated the public trust in my view  by failing and refusing to perform the duties of your office.”

  As bad as all this is, it got even worse for Eric Holder when he committed a Joe Bidenesque gaffe by stating he “stuck by my guns.”  Yes you did Mr. Attorney General, but those guns led to the deaths of hundreds of Mexicans and two American heroes.