Thom Hartmann: The GOP Witchhunt against Eric Holder

[thomhartmann]

Republicans live in an alternate universe. It's a universe where Attorney General Eric Holder conspired with President Obama to sell a bunch of guns to Mexico in hopes that those guns would eventually make their way back to the United States - kill Americans - and create a crisis that gives the administration justification to then start confiscating everyone's guns. I know this sounds like a tin foil hat conspiracy. But it's how Republicans - in their alternate universe - have spun this so-called "Fast and Furious" program run out of the Department of Justice.

But for those who don't watch Fox News and don't know what Fast and Furious is - here are the facts. It was a program started by the Bush Administration - and it's purpose was simple - though arguably misguided. Basically - the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives sold guns across the border in Mexico - in hopes that they could then track those guns as they made their way up to Mexico's biggest drug cartels - to then bust up those big drug cartels. The plan didn't work out too well - and in December of 2010 - a border patrol agent named Brian Terry was killed in a firefight with suspected undocumented immigrants along the Souther Border in Arizona. And it was later discovered that one of the guns that killed Agent Terry was traced back to the ATF's Fast and Furious gun-running mission.

A month later - the ATF ended the Fast and Furious program. And the Republicans began their conspiracy-theory witch-hunt against Attorney General Eric Holder. Again - Attorney General Holder has handed over thousands of documents to comply with Chairman Darryl Issa's investigation. The only documents he hasn't handed over are ones that pertain to ongoing criminal investigations - which are not subject to Congressional subpoena. And Holder's witchunt is even turning off other prominent Republicans. As Politico reported last month, "Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California have decided to slow Rep. Darrell Issa’s drive to hold the attorney general in contempt...Some within House GOP leadership circles would like Issa to abandon his plan for a committee and floor vote...They fear negative political fallout from citing the U.S. attorney general with contempt of Congress in an election year." Yet next week - Republicans - stuck on their delusion and led by Darryl Issa - will vote to hold Attorney General Holder in contempt of Congress. They'll do that rather than anything constructive - like trying to figure out what went wrong in the Fast and Furious program to begin with - or better yet - trying to figure out how to get Americans back to work.

It's well known that Republicans plotted to commit treason on President Obama's inauguration day - when the likes of Eric Cantor, John Kyl, and Newt Gingrich came together at a fancy steakhouse in Washington, DC and vowed to sabotage the economy to ruin the President's first term. Voting no again and again to economic stimulus is just one part of the plan. The other is to carry out witchhunts - be it against Attorney General Holder - or Treasury Secretary Geithner - or President Obama's so-called "czars" This isn't about justice - this is about distractions, sabotage, and treason - led by people like Eric Cantor and executed by people like Darrell Issa. The only question is - who will hold these people to account when they succeed in crashing the economy and sentencing millions of Americans to poverty and desperation?

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