The White House and Justice Department mounted a frantic behind-the-scenes effort on Wednesday to bolster Democratic opposition to a contempt resolution against Attorney General Eric Holder, but Republicans appear to have more than enough support for the divisive vote to sail through the House.
House Democratic leaders did a head count and found that 20 to 30 Democrats were likely to vote for the resolution, mainly because of National Rifle Association support for it, according to Democratic sources. The powerful NRA believes that President Barack Obama wants to use the uproar over the Fast and Furious scandal — in which federal agents allowed roughly 2,000 weapons to be purchased by straw buyers working for Mexican drug cartels — to institute stricter gun-control laws, a claim the White House has ridiculed as categorically untrue.
Continue ReadingThursday’s vote sets the stage for a major moment in the unceasing struggle for power between the executive and legislative branch. Never before has a sitting U.S. attorney general been held in contempt of Congress, and the vote comes in the heat of a presidential campaign at a time when Congress is as polarized as it has been in years.
Holder has refused to turn over all the documents sought by congressional investigators in the Fast and Furious probe, at least until the contempt threat is withdrawn. At Holder’s urging, Obama asserted executive privilege over some of these documents, further infuriating GOP lawmakers. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has scheduled votes on two contempt resolutions against Holder for Thursday, one civil and the other criminal.
If the vote passes the House, it’s not clear what’s next.
A criminal referral by the House to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia will not be enforced, based on the experience of previous contempt fights. The Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by California Rep. Darrell Issa, the lead Republican during the Fast and Furious probe, will be authorized to sue the DOJ in federal court. But a ruling could take months to be issued, and even then, could go against House Republicans, legal experts said.
Yet the NRA’s decision to wade into the Holder contempt fight has intimidated some vulnerable Democrats into backing the measure. These Democrats are more scared of the powerful pro-gun-rights group than they are of the president. At least five Democratic congressmen — Georgia’s John Barrow, Utah’s Jim Matheson, North Carolina’s Mike McIntyre, Minnesota’s Collin Peterson and West Virginia’s Nick Rahall — have already publicly declared their support for the resolution.
Democratic leaders countered by playing up the opposition of Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) to the Holder resolution. Dingell has been a longtime supporter of the NRA, but he is opposed to the contempt motion, arguing that it has nothing to do with gun rights. Dingell also said Issa’s investigation into Fast and Furious was poorly executed and is more about scoring political points against Obama than getting to the truth of what happened and who is responsible for the botched program. A Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, was killed during a Dec. 2010 shootout, and weapons related to the Fast and Furious program were found at the scene of that shooting.
“I am offended by the way the majority has handled this investigation, Dingell said in a letter to fellow Democrats. “During the committee’s 16-month investigation, the committee refused all Democratic requests for witnesses and hearings. The minority asked for very relevant interviews; they requested that witnesses from ATF be called to produce testimony, facts and papers. This was never done, and they were ignored. Worse, the majority held partisan private meetings, and refused to allow open investigative hearings. This is not how an investigation is to be conducted if the intent is truly fair and properly investigative.”
Democrats were also circulating a statement by Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), who will also vote against the resolution. Cooper had joined 30 other Democrats in calling on the DOJ to turn over all the information in its possession on the Fast and Furious program.