Going Around, Coming Around

Former CIA head Gen. Hayden tries to control his lesser impulses as he watches Eric Holder squirm:

(CNN) -- Schadenfreude -- joy at the misfortune of others -- is a bad thing.

So I've been trying to resist temptation these past months as I watch Attorney General Eric Holder deal with public and congressional reaction to the "Fast and Furious" scheme, the failed attempt by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to seed and then track U.S. firearms to Mexican drug cartels.

Fast and Furious was a secretive, high-risk operation seemingly intended to deal with an intractable problem abroad. On those grounds, some may be tempted to equate it to a CIA covert action.

Yet despite this seeming common ground the General is not sympathetic:

But any personal instinct toward some common "executive branch" empathy for Holder is muted not only by the dubious character of Fast and Furious, but by some of the attorney general's other actions, as well. While out of office, for example, he famously called for a "reckoning" for CIA officers and other officials who authorized and conducted operations that were edgy and risky and intended to deal with difficult circumstances.

 

Comments

[Jane]

That was a delicious, delicious piece by Hayden. And hopefully Eric Holder will do a lot more squirming today on the stand.

So it is groundhog day - is anyone surprised Hit was born on groundhog day? Me neither.

[peter]

Happy bday hit

[Captain Hate]

is anyone surprised Hit was born on groundhog day? Me neither.

Did his parents send him back for another six weeks? That would explain a lot...

[Captain Hate]

More good news for the chinless rodent: The family of slain CBP agent Brian Terry will sue the ATF and DOJ. They allege that the then-U.S. attorney in Phoenix lied to them about where the gun that killed Terry came from.

[Dead man Holders on.]

Like the Lady said 'This is personal'.
===========

[Captain Hate]

If Stedman sees his shadow, will he refuse to testify for six weeks?

[Janet]

Happy Birthday, hit!!

[Clarice]

I thought the Hayden piece was brilliant. I already marked it for the column. The topper is an article also cited this a.m. by Instapundit--a well done piece at Daily Caller documenting DOJ prosecutors taking bribes, the DOJ knowing about it and doing nothing to prosecute the lawyers involved.

I'll let you guys know as soon as the scaffold construction is underway.

[Captain Hate]

Here's a link to the article Clarice mentioned: http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/01/bribery-compromised-officials-leave-indicted-financial-crime-suspects-free-from-prosecution-under-holders-doj/

[centralcal]

Good morning and Happy Birthday Hit!

[Clarice]

Beginning at 9 a.m. EST you can watch Steadman fry here:

http://issues.oversight.house.gov/fastandfurious/hearing2.html

[Extraneus]

If the next AG launches a criminal investigation into the actions of the previous DoJ - take F&F and racial discrimination to start - then what went around will have come around. Getting Holder to resign, join the boards of a few companies and foundations, write a book and collect big speaking fees doesn't cut it.

[Or Fitzgerald.]

Wonder what Schumer thinks.
==============

[Captain Hate]

Here's a link to the Brian Terry article (warning: It's from the LA Times so a large % of the comments will be by imbeciles) http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20120202,0,6431783.story

[Clarice]

I'm still waiting to see why Fitz never pursued the leaker who tipped off the WH that Blago was being wiretapped.

[Hubris he got, nemesis he gets.]

Wait'll next year, C.
============

[Captain Hate]

Wonder what Schumer thinks.

Have there been any Chuckie Sleaze sightings in Punxsutawney? I figured the camera lights would entice him there like a moth to a flame (apologies to moths for the comparison to such a loathsome lower life form).

[Clarice]

Can't wait for the real debates..Don Surber:

"The only president to ever need a teleprompter to handle a press conference — so his staff could feed him the answers — held his last prime-time press conference in July 2009, which ended in disaster when he said the police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, “acted stupidly” in arresting his friend Henry Louis Gates.

The New York Times broke the unwritten code among journalists that you never, ever complain about mistreatment from Barack Obama.

In a blog post, Brian Stetler wrote:

Mr. Obama has been interviewed a total of 408 times in his first three years as president, according to Martha Kumar, a professor at Towson University who works alongside reporters at the White House. President George W. Bush had given 136 interviews at the same period in his presidency, and President Bill Clinton had given 166.

However, Mr. Obama has comparatively avoided Q.&A.s with scrums of reporters, according to Ms. Kumar, answering questions at 94 photo opportunities and other such sessions in his first three years. Mr. Bush had spoken at 307 such sessions after three years in office, and Mr. Clinton, 493.

Those 408 interviews include appearances on Jay Leno, You Tube and Twitter questions from sycophants, and the like.

President Obama has bubble-wrapped himself in the White House. "

[pagar]

Happy Birthday, Hit!!

[narciso]

He was on Morning Joke, just a bit ago, crowing about Dodd/Frank.

[Captain Hate]

narc, I'm confident that noted conservative icon, Joke Scarblowhard, provided a well thought out idea against that position.

[NK]

Eric Holder is Exhibit A of the mental illness that is the modern American Dem-Liberal. That's right mental illness. They project onto conservatives evil motives for anything they do, while at the same time liberls rationalize as 'good' anything liberals do. hayden picks the prime example; Bush/Cheney after 9/11 hunt down Jihadis and interrogate them harshly, in 3 cases cruelly, in order to learn information that may save untold innocents from a chem/bio/nuke 9/11. Bush/Cheney are evil! 'Bam kills Jihadis from 5,000ft w/o due process, because he doesn't want to deal with the legalities of confining and interrogating them. Good! 'Bam tries to sting American gun dealers and gets hundreds of Mexican nationals and at least 2 US Federal agents killed, then covers up-- all to try to pass more gun laws through a Dem Congress. Good!!! The examples go on and on. Dem-Libs are mentally ill, but I don't pity them.

[NK]

Clarice-- what makes you think there WILL be REAL debates. Axelrod/Plouffe will only agree to one debate, and they will only accept panelists like Jonathan Alter, Andrea Mitchell and Greg Sargent. I'd pass on that and tell the Indy voters exactly what your quote from Surber said.

[narciso]

Wow, the stupid it burns, Colonel Otis is screaming from the great beyond. Burke, is of
course, Incompetano's long time aide.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vnjagvet]

Happy Birthday, Hit. We at JOM should deem this day Hit and Run Day, and Hit should walk outside early in the morning to check whether his shadow is visible to the naked eye. I am pretty sure he will do better than those impostors, Punxsutawney Phil and General Lee who have made opposing predictions today. According to wiki, PP has a sorry 39% record in his prognostications over the last hundred years. I say Hit can do much better than that.

[pagar]

Janet, If you ever wondered why more people don't get involved in politics, see the LUN.
--------------------------------------------
Think Holder will change?

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/headline/infographic-a-year-inside-eric-holders-fast-and-furious-stonewall-city/

[Threadkiller]

The National Prayer Breakfast is today. I wonder if Holder will get a shout out.

[Ranger]

On the positive side, Holder has given the next administration justification for a thurough house cleaning at DoJ. This, combined with the blatant racial bias in the Civil Rights Division and the blatant political hiring for "career professional" staff make it pretty clear every corner of the DoJ needs to be looked at very hard, and entire divisions emptied and re-staffed. And where possible, federal prosecutions as well. Its 15 years too late, but late is better than never.

[Porchlight]

Happy birthday, Hit! Can't wait to hear about your fun in Hartford with the JOM gang.

[centralcal]

Who all is meeting up, Porch. I know of Hit, Jane and boatbuilder. Anyone else?

[Porchlight]

I thought maybe some more of the MA folks, centralcal. No?

[Janet]

The shorter, furrier algore saw his shadow & predicts 6 more weeks of winter.

[centralcal]

And this just in from Iowahawk:

iowahawkblog David Burge
Puxatawney Phil looked out and saw the GOP field. 4 more years of Obama.

[narciso]

Well it's like that picture of weasels, from last night's thread,

[OldTimer]

Jack Cashill warns us not to underestimate the candidates:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/02/underestimating_mitt_and_newt.html

[Janet]

Janet, If you ever wondered why more people don't get involved in politics,

I have no high ground there either. I posted that I got a call from the Arlington Tea Party over the weekend (Sunday I think) about helping get signatures to get one of the TP candidates on the Republican primary ballot. Well,I went & got the forms & everything but then chickened out. I couldn’t go door-to-door by myself & ask for signatures & talk politics. It felt sketchy. I sat in my car dreading it…until I took the forms back. The flyers had negative stuff about George Allen (who will probably be the nominee) so it felt odd spreading negative stuff about him too. Mostly I chickened out though. Maybe if I did it with another person I would have been braver.

a picture of me in my car dreading getting signatures...cluck,cluck. :(

[centralcal]

I can never quite keep up with all of Narciso's links, so don't know if this is a repeat, but revealing none-the-less (just as we've all suspected): What Does Barack Do All Day?

The President’s decision-making method–at least as described in the piece–seems to consist mainly of checking boxes on memos his aides have written for him.

From Mickey Kaus at Daily Caller.

[NK]

Ranger-- right on about the DOJ house cleaning. The DOJ spent $1.8M defending its corrupt prosecutors from the wrongful prosecution lawsuits over the Ted Stevens affair-- you remember that DOJ prosecutors bringing a flim flam prosecution to get a Dem Senator elected in Alaska. The 'career' DOJ attorneys are Dem operatives, Just like at IRS and EPA and Interior et al. Clean 'em out and only hire back 50% of the staff level. Country will be better off.

[centralcal]

Janet, several times back in the day, in my late 20's, I did the door to door signature gathering thing for several issues, candidates, and the like. It really wasn't too awful.

However, I am afraid I couldn't do it today - too opinionated and would probably get some doors slammed in my face - which didn't happen to me back then, because I was more shy.

[Captain Hate]

Janet, is it just me or is the Duke and Duke Virginia branch doubling down on stoopid by going with Allen? Yeah he got punked by the WaPo with that "macaca" garbage but he also reacted to that like a clueless dufus. Is that really the best they can come up with?

[narciso]

I missed that one, cc, I also see that there was pushback against what I considered Kantor's rather already obsequious tome.

By contrast, we have another piece of certified dreck 'Game Change' which is the polar opposite of reality, being blasted far and wide, by Minitrue.

[narciso]

So, Erickson, second thoughts at the temper tantrums at Jamie and Sarah. last year.

[Ranger]

And, as I recall, its a federal crime to deliberately interfere with a federal election. I would say what the prosecutors did to Ted Stevens fits the spirit of that law.

The only good thing about Fast and Furious is that in sending guns across the border, it give Mexico the right to charge these people with crimes there. If Mexico does, then Obama's last minute pardons of all these guys won't really help them avoid justice.

[Porchlight]

Cap'n,

Even after macaca Allen only lost narrowly in a very bad year for Repubs. I'm not in VA but I think he's fine.

[Janet]

Is that really the best they can come up with?

We will see. There are 4 or 5 running against Allen in the primary. Jim Ryan posted something about it...he knows more. I was suppose to collect signatures for Jamie Radtke, who I heard speak at a TP gathering. She was very strong.
It can be a dilemma...attacking viciously in the primaries only to weaken all the candidates. Just like what is happening in the Presidential primaries.
I guess it will HAVE to happen to unseat Duke and Duke though.

[Captain Hate]

Speaking of a clucking hen, Nooner is on Laura Ingraham.

narc here's a link to Teh Tam's post of a Game Change trailer with pointed comments: http://tammybruce.com/2012/02/hbos-game-change-trailer.html

[NK]

CH-- I think Allen will benefit materially from TP primary challengers and McDonnell support driving him to the fiscal conservative right. Kaine will campaign as a faux conservative - good luck after pushing Obamacare and stimulous. I think Va. voters see the difference between a real and faux conservative. Allen can't gratuitously attack fed workers because of NoVa, but other than that, campaigning as fiscal conservative will do well in Va in 2012.

[narciso]

You would think Halperine and Heileman, would turn in their press pass, after buying a line,
like 'I'll never go back to Alaska,' of course
the third string dweeb from 'Angel' Danny Strong, who is helming this effort, can't tell the difference, in every library, I see at least three copies of that trash.

[Threadkiller]

Live feed:

http://www.c-span.org/Events/AG-Holder-Testifies-on-DOJs-Response-to-Operation-quotFast-and-Furiousquot/10737427861-1/

[OldTimer]

Watch F&F hearings here, live:

http://issues.oversight.house.gov/fastandfurious/hearing2.html

[narciso]

Btw, Mike Myers would have done a much better
Steve Schmidt, seeing this is a Jay Roach effort.

[OldTimer]

Gosh, TK--like minds, and all that... :)

[Threadkiller]

;-)

[MarkO]

cc, that's a great link. It does go to show that he's just not that smart. It's almost like a Dilbert Sunday offering.

He has no ideas of his own and when something comes along that exceeds his pay grade, which would be most everything that comes along, he "cautiously" wants to study it. No wonder they leaked it. Can you imagine what it would be like to have believed in this fraud only to work there?

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vnjagvet]

I've been taking small doses of the ff hearing. So far my impression is that both Holder and Issa are very well prepared. Holder's demeanor is far less hostile and belligerent than has been the case in earlier testimony. He has extensive notes at his side which he is regularly consulting.

Issa, in passing, fired a shot early on about correspondence provided to the committee by "whistle blowers".

[narciso]

Are 'his lips moving' then he's probably lying.

[Captain Hate]

Ed Harris as McCain? I'd have just used whoever played Gollum in Lord of The Rings with no change other than having him say "My Friends" instead of "My Precious".

[centralcal]

It's almost like a Dilbert Sunday offering.

Or, satire written by bgates! haha.

[narciso]

He's taller and has a deeper voice, but it's still relatively plausible.

[BR]

Holder just said when he heard of Operation Fast & Furious, he told everyone to stop. A member of the committee should ask him to produce the memo to prove what he says.

[BB Key]

Does anybody who is watching the Holder hearing know the name of the DOJ lawyer sitting behind Holder's right sholder ?

[BR]

Ha, and then have the memo forensically tested in case it's back dated.

[Sue]

Good grief, Obama couldn't sound anymore bored if he tried talking at the prayer breakfast.

[NK]

BR-- are you sure Holder didn't say that when F&F became public he told everyone to stop and cover up the moronic sting against USA gun dealers? because that's what really happened.

[BB Key]

sholder = shoulder

[NK]

Sue-- no surpise about 'Bam's boredom at the pray breakfast. Obviously he has no interest in the "great sky person"; he's just there checking a box. Like the daily Caller post describes.

[narciso]

Well it's the obligatory talk to the 'bitter clingers' that's like Dracula at a garlic venders event,

[BR]

Heard him say, "When I heard about it..." We can check transcripts later.

Ms. Maloney, (D), in trying to defend Holder, just put her foot in it. She said Holder immediately contacted Brian Terry's parents.

[Clarice]

Andrew McCarthy seems at last to have caught on to his old friend, Fitz:http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-persecution-of-Lord-Black-7286

[narciso]

I think Mit's just been breaking mirrors lately;

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/02/breaking-trump-to-back-romney/

[BR]

If I'm correct that Border Patrol is under Dept. of Homeland Security, why would Holder, DOJ, have contacted Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's family immediately after the shooting, unless he knew ATF F&F guns were involved.

[Rocco]

Happy Birthday hit. I wish I could be there and hope there's a next time down the road.

[BR]

Oh, interesting, apparently Hillary testified earlier to the Senate committee that State was not consulted on Op F&F.

[BR]

Oh, yummy, Holder is trying to implicate Hillary!

[Captain Hate]

Stedman vs Muffer? POPCORN FUTURES SKYROCKET!

[Clarice]

Funny, narciso, all the other reports are that he's endorsing GIngrich.. Not that who he endorses makes any difference to me.

[Porchlight]

Can you imagine what it would be like to have believed in this fraud only to work there?

Great question, MarkO. I am really hoping we will see some interesting tell-alls after this chump gets the boot.

[Porchlight]

From Kaus:

I’m sure Obama is smarter than this. He can’t be an executive who spends his days checking boxes, accepting the choices presented by his aides, never reaching outside them through unconventional channels or reaching unconventional thinkers, never throwing over the framework with which he is presented.

Why are you sure of it, Mickey? Why?

I’m sure of it, but I can’t find much evidence for it in Lizza’s piece. The aides who leaked him the memos didn’t do Obama any favors.

No, you can't. And no, they didn't! It is so very puzzling, isn't it?

I don't know if Mickey is genuinely bewildered, but at least he has the stones to publish this stuff.

[BR]

The army of hermit crabs crawling through emails, memos, etc., hee hee, should now come up with the coordination between Holder, Hillary and Obama to, in Holder's words, "impinge on Second Amendment rights."

[centralcal]

ooooh - slap!

DarrellIssa Darrell Issa
.RepWalberg to #Holder - you are well known in this town for failing to read memos, failing to know the facts

[Clarice]

Gosh, I'd hate to have to make a credibility resolution between Hillary and Holder.

[Ranger]

Porch,

I had the exact same reaction.

[centralcal]

Does anybody really care who The Donald endorses?

[Captain Hate]

Kaus believed all the hype about El JEFe instead of the overwhelming evidence right in front of him. It's really disappointing that people become so stubbornly attached to an opinion that really doesn't have any tangible benefit for them.

[MarkO]

Kaus obviously thinks Obama is a dunce. Like some others here, Mickey is an actual HLS lawyer who sees Obama for the fraud he is. But, he has to temporize in the publication. The meaning is clear and devastating.

[Rick Ballard]

Porchlight,

Kaus would be really disappointed to find out the President only checks boxes previously initialed by ValJar. If he's "sure Obama is smarter than this" - how smart can he be?

[Captain Hate]

No cc; it's just another boring "reality show" to me.

[Porchlight]

Yeah, I usually pick up on Kaus' obama-snark but this time he actually really did sound confused. I certainly hope he isn't at this late date.

Anyway I won't give Kaus that much credit because he'll end up voting for him anyway.

[centralcal]

Funny - I read Mickey Kaus as writing really heavy with the snark (perhaps I am jaded from reading here?).

[centralcal]

It looks like MarkO and I read it about the same way. Hope we are not wrong. (wink)

[Porchlight]

It's hard enough to forgive an Obama voter for the first mistake. If after writing so many columns poking fun at this clown, Kaus sends any indication that he plans to vote for him a second time, I will never click on anything he writes again. Ever.

[Ranger]

IIRC, Kaus has actally called Obama "the biggest affirmative action babby in history.." but I could be mis-remembering the specific working on that. Perhapse he is atoning for past sins with his wording here. I've had the feeling in the past the Kaus was honestly embarassed that Obama has an HLS degree.

[bgates]

From the community of true believers at WaPo comes this report of the Prayer Breakfast:
President Obama speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, said his policy arguments stem from his interpretation of his Christian faith. For the wealthy to give up tax breaks, he says, is simply following the scriptural mandate: “To whom much is given [by God or Obama or whatever], much shall be required [ditto].”

Remember, theocracy is ok when it's actually God giving the orders.

[Ranger]

President Obama speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, said his policy arguments stem from his interpretation of his Christian faith.

Does he mean the belief that: "This is a world where white peoples' greed... runs a world in need"?

[Sue]

And chickens come home to roost?

[Sue]

Or not God bless America but God damn America? Which interpretation, Obama?

[Neo]

After two decades of drilling through miles of Antarctic ice, Russian scientists are about to breach an underground lake that has not been exposed to the surface in more than 20 million years. Lake Vostok, as the body of water is called, is part of a chain of more than 200 lakes hidden beneath the ice, some of which were formed when Australia and Antarctica were still connected. ... The lake is known to have quite a bit of gas in it, like a carbonated soda, which could lead to a catastrophic geyser shooting up up out of the borehole when the drill finally hits water. If that happened, the lake could lose a quarter of its water and the weather above Antarctica could be altered, due to the sudden influx of water vapor into the air.

I guess these folks have never gone skiing. If there is a geyser shooting up from the lake, it will be the biggest snow making machine on the face of the planet.

[Porchlight]

"His interpretation of his Christian faith"? How about just "his Christian faith"?

I smell code words at work.

[Jane]

Skipping ahead to ask if anyone knows where the Holder hearings are being aired.

[MarkO]

If reading with cc is wrong, I don't want to be right.