Ho-Hum, Contempt Vote Today

I've been listening to Talk Radio, specifically Sean Hannity, trying to understand the Right Wing's take on the 'Fast and Furious' scandal, but I'm afraid the hullaballoo escapes me. The House of Representatives can hold as many contempt votes as it pleases for Attorney General Eric Holder, but at the end of the day, it is not enough to assert conspiracy theories. One needs to specify crimes.

As far as I can tell, 'Fast and Furious', like its Bush Administration predecessor 'Wide Receiver', falls in the category of a Very Bad Idea. Actually, it's not even that - it would be a pretty good idea if prosecutors did not demand ironclad evidence regarding gun-law violations to even make an arrest. So, given effective non-enforcement of U.S. gun laws, Fast and Furious turned out to be a Very Bad Idea. But it is not a crime, or at least not much of a crime. As far as I can tell, Holder can be properly-accused of not micromanaging the BATF. J'accuse! Ho-hum!

Scandals like this NEED a crime - a BIG CRIME - and if there is no BIG CRIME there, then it's not much of a scandal:

The drive to hold Holder in contempt grew out of an attempt by conservative leaders, activists and media outlets to turn the tragic death of U.S. border patrol agent Brian Terry into a political scandal involving the Obama administration. On the right, the Fast and Furious story has been a huge deal for well over a year now, but it wasn’t until the last few weeks that Americans who aren’t regularly exposed to Fox News or conservative talk radio heard much, if anything, about it. And now that Fast and Furious is attracting real media scrutiny, the basic premise – that ATF agents intentionally permitted guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug gangs — is crumbling, as a new Fortune magazine report thoroughly explains.

What’s left is the right’s determination to pin something, anything on the Obama administration – and Holder, its top target among Obama Cabinet officials from the start of his presidency, in particular. The contempt vote, after all, isn’t even about the circumstances that led to Terry’s killing; it’s about vague, unsubstantiated suggestions that the Justice Department engaged in some kind of political coverup after the fact. Conspiracy theories enter the picture here, with the numerous Republican congressmen – including the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Darrell Issa – and the NRA claiming that the administration tried to arm Mexican drug gangs in order to create a tragedy that would build momentum for domestic gun control efforts.

When the GOP began playing up the Fast and Furious program, some in the party may have believed – or hoped – that it would produce a scandal that would derail, or seriously wound, the administration. But that’s not going to happen. By this point, the Holder contempt vote is simply a matter of base maintenance for Republicans; their voters and some of the most important interest groups aligned with their party are demanding this, so they’d better deliver.