Fast and Furious

[TheMercenary]

Holder is still holding out. Throw his ass in jail.

[classicman]

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[classicman]

Rewind to 2009. The fight over ObamaCare is raging, and a few news outlets report that something looks ethically rotten in the White House. An outside group funded by industry is paying the former firm of senior presidential adviser David Axelrod to run ads in favor of the bill. That firm, AKPD Message and Media, still owes Mr. Axelrod money and employs his son.

The story quickly died, but emails recently released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee ought to resurrect it. The emails suggest the White House was intimately involved both in creating this lobby and hiring Mr. Axelrod's firm—which is as big an ethical no-no as it gets.

Mr. Axelrod—who left the White House last year—started AKPD in 1985. The firm earned millions helping run Barack Obama's 2008 campaign. Mr. Axelrod moved to the White House in 2009 and agreed to have AKPD buy him out for $2 million. But AKPD chose to pay Mr. Axelrod in annual installments—even as he worked in the West Wing. This agreement somehow passed muster with the Office of Government Ethics, though the situation at the very least should have walled off AKPD from working on White-House priorities.

It didn't. The White House and industry were working hand-in-glove to pass ObamaCare in 2009, and among the vehicles supplying ad support was an outfit named Healthy Economy Now (HEN). News stories at the time described this as a "coalition" that included the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the American Medical Association, and labor groups—suggesting these entities had started and controlled it.

House emails show HEN was in fact born at an April 15, 2009 meeting arranged by then-White House aide Jim Messina and a chief of staff for Democratic Sen. Max Baucus. The two politicos met at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and invited representatives of business and labor.

Informative read - more at the link

Link

[Lamplighter]

Politics supercedes all else...

NRA Statement on Fast & Furious

Ammoland
posted June 21, 2012

Dear Chairman Issa and Ranking Member Cummings:

On behalf of the National Rifle Association of America,
I am writing in support of the Committee’s resolution recommending
that the House find Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. in contempt of Congress.<snip>

Heightening the NRA’s concerns—and requiring our involvement
—is the White House’s use of this program to advance its gun control agenda.
The White House actively sought information from the operation to support
its plan to demand reporting of multiple rifle sales by the nearly
9,000 federally licensed firearm dealers in border states.

It is no secret that the NRA does not admire Attorney General Holder.
For years, we have pointed out his history of anti-Second Amendment advocacy and enforcement actions.<snip>

This is an issue of the utmost seriousness and the NRA will consider this vote in our future candidate evaluations.

If you have any questions about our position on this issue, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,
Chris W. Cox
Executive Director
NRA

[classicman]

snip =

"Since taking office, Attorney General Holder has seized on the violence in Mexico to promote the lie that “90 percent” of firearms used in Mexican crime come from the U.S.; to call for bringing back the 1994 Clinton gun ban; and to justify the illegal multiple sales reporting scheme, which amounts to gun registration for honest Americans who buy long guns in southwest border states."

[DanaC]

Don't understand why Obama used his executive privelege on this. It's toxic ffs.

[Griff]

Probably because it was the continuation and enormous expansion of a program that was a proven failure in the Bush administration, which they knew going in, but politics prevailed over policy so they are going to look terrible when the information gets out. They are going to spin it as a W idea that they simply continued but that won't look reasonable with full disclosure.

[DanaC]

Exactly. There's no way of getting through this looking good. But basic rules of damage limitation should have clicked in long ago. This looks so much worse than having bungled something or been cornered into continuing a failed scheme because of politics.

[Griff]

Yeah, they gave it the power to hang around through the election cycle. I really think that, at least through my lifetime, as soon as anyone takes the oath as POTUS they start believing the people around them instead of stepping back and using the brain they got there with. I have a hard time seeing Obama suggesting this or drones or troop surges when he is in the real world. Not staying grounded is probably gonna cost him the election.

[DanaC]

Same thing happens over here with the PM.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Don't understand why Obama used his executive privelege on this. It's toxic ffs.

I've also heard that they thought they were smarter than those looking into it and thought they would give them 6000 pages of mostly useless documents and that would be the end of it. Unfortunately they dicked around for about 18 months and now its in the heat of the election year.
Obama has been far to loyal to Holder and this will certainly have some serious repercussions if it gets any "real" play in the press.

[xoxoxoBruce]

"GOP Oversight Chair Admits There Is No Evidence Of White House Involvement In Fast And Furious"
link

[classicman]

"GOP Oversight Chair Admits HE HAS No Evidence Of White House Involvement In Fast And Furious"
That is different than there "is none" - no?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Not really, until someone produces some, there is none. I'm damn sure if someone had produced any, he'd have it in a NY minute.

[DanaC]

In which case......wtf use his executive privelege?