Video: Republicans on House Appropriations Committee Keep the Heat on Holder For Fast and Furious

Appearing before the House appropriations committee, yesterday, Atty Gen Eric Holder was asked to explain why he doesn’t see the need for provisions in the budget bill preventing operations like “Fast and Furious” in the future. When Congressman Kevin Yoder, Republican from MO, asked him why the DOJ had asked that the such language in the budget be stricken, Holder’s answer was: “To the extent that we are opposing it, it’s because it’s already the policy that we use so it’s something that is not necessary…”

“Do you understand why members on the Hill may not believe you’re following the policy that you have internally – given what just happened?” Yoder persisted.

“Frankly, no – I don’t understand that, given the action I have taken. There’s a certain amount of distrust, I get that…there’s a certain amount of partisan wrangling that’s going on…”

The immediate question that comes to mind, is – why go through the trouble to ask that language be stricken, if your only objection is you already have such a policy – given your poor performance enforcing said policy?

Note also, how  Holder implies that the Republicans investigating the “fundamentally flawed program” (better described as a criminal conspiracy), Fast and Furious, are somehow motivated by partisan politics. That’s the Dem narrative on Fast and Furious. That’s the best they’ve got: Stop the partisan bickering!” That and , “Bush did it, too!”

And if Holder thinks, Yoder looking him in the eye, and dryly stating, “Do you understand why members on the Hill may not believe you….” is “detached and neutral”, he was missing some clear signals, there.

Megan Kelly covered Holder’s testimony on her show, yesterday, and interviewed Darrell Issa for his response.

Once again, Holder rewrote history by implicating the previous administration – which had absolutely nothing to do with Fast and Furious. He patted himself on the back for stopping the program once the murderous gunwalking policy was exposed in the media. No mention of his stonewall of the House investigation.

“That was a fundamentally flawed program, fundamentally flawed,” Holder said of Fast and Furious. “And, I think that I can agree with some of my harshest critics that there are legitimate issues that need to be explored with regard in which the way Fast and Furious was carried out.”

“But, I think one thing that also has to be understood is that once this was brought to my attention” — Holder said before slamming his hand on the committee room table he was sitting at — “I stopped it. I stopped it.

In spite of what other attorneys General might have done, with briefings that they got…when this Atty Gen heard about these practices, I said to the men and women of the US Dept of Justice to the field, to Main Justice, this ain’t going to be the way that we conduct business, stop it.”

Seriously. He said that.

Issa expressed his  doubt of the “legitimacy” of Holder’s claims:

NRA News’ Cam Edwards and Seattle Gun Rights Examiner Dave Workman discussed the latestFast and Furious news on February 27, 2012.

Issa, Grassley Push Holder for Answers in Zapata Slaying:

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