Is he making it up as he goes along, or are these further examples of our Attorney General’s incompetence, or is it something else?
Last spring, Attorney General Eric Holder could have apologized, or otherwise acknowledged his responsibility as head of the DoJ for Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death, to Terry’s mother when they crossed paths at the May Police Week in D.C., but he did not.
Last Tuesday (8 November), during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Holder flatly refused to apologize to the Terrys, and more amazingly, he further testified that he hadn’t even bothered to speak with them. When pressed by Senator Cornyn (R, TX), all Holder would offer was weasel words and “regrets.”
Now, through Politico, Holder reveals a letter characterized as “private” that he wrote to the Terrys wherein he does express his sorrow over their son’s death. There are two things of interest with this revelation. One is Holder’s decision to publicize the letter even before the Terrys had received it. So much for the “private” nature of the communication. The other is that the letter is dated last Wednesday (9 November)—the day after Senator Cornyn’s questioning. Is the letter at all sincere?
It’s also interesting that, although Holder’s letter references a letter the Terrys had written Holder on 1 November (in which they wrote, among other things, “We have been irrevocably harmed because of Operation Fast and Furious and its deadly ramifications. We seek accountability from our government….”), the DoJ insists that Holder did not receive that letter until after the hearings mentioned above. For Holder to get out a letter to the Terrys by the day after those same hearings represents an astonishingly fast turn-around for any government bureaucracy, much less Holder’s, whose junior bureaucrats routinely screen his correspondence and determine for themselves what is fit for him to read.
In the meantime, Holder is continuing actively to obstruct a government investigation, as he refuses to present 11 witnesses whom the House Oversight Committee have called in order to interview them about his “Fast and Furious” gun running operation. I have to wonder why Holder is so anxious to prevent independent investigators from learning the details of his failed operation. Is it because Holder’s own IG is investigating? Nah—the two investigations have no need of interfering with each other as they pursue their independent looks. Police forces do this all the time. Surely two Federal government investigations can do the same.
On top of all this, Holder, as recently as that Judiciary Committee hearing three days ago, still is insisting that
It’s [Operation Fast and Furious] a federal law enforcement operation that was of local concern. It was not a national operation.
Hmm…. Operation Fast and Furious was designed to allow guns to leave the United States and enter Mexico. How is an international operation only of “local concern?” How is an international operation “not a national operation?”
What’s up with this guy? Why does Obama insist on keeping him on the Federal payroll?