Bureau Of ATF Problems - Marc's Alternative Explanation

There is an alternative explanation to all this:

Congressional Republicans have been upset at the management at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which authorized a botched sting operation near the Mexican border that put guns in the hands of drug criminals.

But Republican leaders, responding to complaints from gun-rights lobbyists, have refused to confirm a director for the bureau since it was split from the Treasury Department eight years ago.

...Eight years ago, Congress removed the bureau from the Treasury Department and made it a separate law enforcement agency under the Justice Department. For the first time, lawmakers put its director under political control by requiring Senate confirmation of the president's nominee.

Since then, no one has been confirmed. Both nominees have drawn opposition from gun-rights groups, including the powerful National Rifle Assn. Obama nominated Andrew Traver, the ATF's special agent in Chicago, to lead the bureau, but his nomination has gone nowhere in the Senate.

..."The bottom line is the gun lobby will oppose any nominee who promises to be a strong and effective director of the ATF," said Dennis Henigan, vice president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "Fast and Furious is what happens when you don't have a strong director," he said.

Marc's interpretation of all this is that Congressional Republicans are acting in league with Mexican drug cartels in protecting the lucrative cross-border guns-for-drugs traffic. The GOP will do anything it can to derail the ATF, not for ideological reasons, but for money. There's lots of money in treason, and the GOP wants to be right there, right at that particular trough.