Democrats Walk Out of Eric Holder Contempt Vote
The House voted to hold AG Holder in contempt anyway, for a wingnut conspiracy-fueled version of Fast and Furious. A version that has been exposed as largely a fabrication (surprise!) by this great bit of reporting from Fortune.
This is a very long piece, but worth every minute:
Quite simply, there’s a fundamental misconception at the heart of the Fast and Furious scandal. Nobody disputes that suspected straw purchasers under surveillance by the ATF repeatedly bought guns that eventually fell into criminal hands. Issa and others charge that the ATF intentionally allowed guns to walk as an operational tactic. But five law-enforcement agents directly involved in Fast and Furious tell Fortune that the ATF had no such tactic. They insist they never purposefully allowed guns to be illegally trafficked. Just the opposite: They say they seized weapons whenever they could but were hamstrung by prosecutors and weak laws, which stymied them at every turn.
Indeed, a six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging that Voth and his colleagues walked guns is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies. Fortune reviewed more than 2,000 pages of confidential ATF documents and interviewed 39 people, including seven law-enforcement agents with direct knowledge of the case. Several, including Voth, are speaking out for the first time.
Basically, Fast and Furious was meant to be an investigation into straw purchasers and then agents kept being frustrated by the local federal prosecutors who kept telling agents that the transfer of the guns under the multiple scenarios they were investigating was legal. So instead of a conspiracy to walk guns, we have an agency trying to nail straw purchasers. And the NRA and their like have run up the whole thing into some dark conspiracy, that the MSM has laundered into credibility.
Anyway, a number of Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, walked out of the manufactured outrage of the contempt vote:
17 Democrats voted for the contempt citation:
Jason ALTMIRE (D-PA).
John BARROW (D-GA).
Dan BOREN (D-OK).
Leonard BOSWELL (D-IA).
Ben CHANDLER (D-KY).
Mark CRITZ (D-PA).
Joe DONNELLY (D-IN).
Kathy HOCHUL (D-NY).
Ron KIND (D-WI).
Larry KISSELL (D-NC).
Jim MATHESON (D-UT).
Mike McINTYRE (D-NC).
Bill OWENS (D-NY).
Collin PETERSON (D-MN).
Nick RAHALL (D-WV).
Mike ROSS (D-AR).
Tim WALZ (D-MN).
Boren is retiring and is a shadow of what his father was. Kind, Hochul, Rahall, Boswell & Matheson all have tough reelection campaigns. Donnelly is running for the Senate. So these were basically bullshit votes to save their jobs.
Most of them are Blue Dogs too.
more dem’s voted for the contempt than did for ALL of Obama’s budgets combined. All Holder has to do is provide all the documents and stop playing gamemanship. Open and Transparent
Given the lack of any substantial policy issue here, it looks like the blue dogs are convinced they have to be purely spiteful to Obama in order to get re-elected. I have no idea how they’re planning to get any Democrats to the polls whatsoever (with the exception of Rahall – Democrats in WV hate Obama anyway).
This vote reminds me of the vote to defund ACORN based on faked information and media hit pieces.. Where do you go to get your reputation back?
Holder and Obama made the right choice not to cooperate with this election-year fishing expedition and NRA pep rally.
Heck Yeah, where were you when Dick Cheney was running the White House? The records of his meeting with Oil CEOs is still kept secret – why don’t you fucking ask to see that, too, you partisan troll? Where the fuck were you when Harriet Miers, Josh Bolten, and Karl Rove were held in contempt of congress?
xstyker, didnt take you long, love the way you argue- ‘where the fuck were you?” ha, why dont we discuss this issue, not the issue that was 4-8 years ago.
btw, why dont we show the forged Bush’s airforce records. No wonder the D’s voted. They just want to see the information.
If the documents are classified, how did Fortune get them? Are they and all the other documents been shared?
Cant you just discuss the points?
I’m not going to waste my time arguing with a fucking hypocrite. I have zero tolerance for “transparency for thee but not for me”. I’ll save my breath for someone who has at least a single shred of honesty.
is’t a shame that you are the ‘smartest’ one on the web. the issue isnt Cheney or any of Bush, the issue is Holder. And how the fuck do you know what my opinion was then?
so pussy whats your thoughts?