John Raoux/Associated PressAttorney General Eric HolderWhatever you think about the House Republicans, you have to admit they stay focused. Yesterday, while the rest of the country was distracted by the Supreme Court decision on the most important piece of social legislation in generations, the House Republicans were concentrating on the big picture – the personal and political destruction of President Obama.
They weren’t dithering with softballs like fixing the student loan problem, or getting Americans back to work, or preventing violence against women. Not at all. Within a few hours of the Supreme Court announcement, House Republicans voted to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents relating to an investigation into a botched drug and gun-running probe known as Operation Fast and Furious.
The White House made a mistake last week when it blocked a subpoena by invoking executive privilege, for which it had a weak constitutional claim. But Mr. Holder has already disclosed more than 7,600 documents. If there were some missing that were vital to the investigation by Rep. Darrell Issa and his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, everyone would have been better served by an agreement between Congress and the White House to produce the documents.
That is especially true for the public. Last time I checked, that’s what everyone involved in this absurd partisan affair is supposed to be serving.
The Republicans are, of course, being wildly hypocritical about this whole thing. Many of the ones who are howling about Mr. Holder were quick and ferocious in their defense of President George W. Bush and his Attorney General Alberto Gonzales when he stonewalled Congress on documents and repeatedly misled them on issues like torture, warrantless wiretapping and the political purge of the U.S. Attorneys’ ranks.
But Mr. Issa had a plan that began even before he took over the chairmanship of the oversight committee – to tie up the Obama administration with non-stop investigations. “I want seven hearings a week, times 40 weeks,” Mr. Issa exulted at the time. He said he was going to be evenhanded, but he also called Mr. Obama ”one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times” – which is ridiculous.
And he has since shown that he planned to wield his gavel as a partisan weapon. Holding the attorney general in contempt fits perfectly into that plan. And it was a nice way to try to distract people from the huge loss the Republicans suffered at the Supreme Court yesterday. Fortunately, it didn’t work. No one paid attention.
