Did Eric Holder Commit Perjury - 4

Until yesterday afternoon, Attorney General Eric Holder has been silent about whether or not he lied to Congress when he told them in may that he had first learned about the Fast and Furious program just a week or two earlier. Not surprisingly, Holder chose Friday afternoon for his first response. Indeed, given what he says in that response, it was almost guaranteed that it would come on a Friday afternoon. That timing, of course, is when official Washington lets fly with news that it does not want American to hear. The thinking is that many fewer Americans watch the TV news on Friday night or read the newspapers on Saturday morning. I have to say that just the timing of his announcement makes Holder look guilty.

Let's forget the timing, however, and look at the substance. Holder repeats that it was just a few weeks before he testified in May that he first heard of Fast and Furious. That's right, the DOJ was overseeing and operation to sell 2000 assault weapons to the Mexican drug cartels, but no one high up in Justice knew anything about it. Even when an American border patrol agent was killed with one of the guns and many in Mexico were also killed with them, Holder claims ignorance of the facts. Even after the program was highlighted on TV news shows, Holder remained ignorant according to him. What about the six memoranda of important weekly events that have surfaced in which on of his highest ranking deputies describes the program in detail to Holder? Holder says that he got a lot of memoranda and did not read them all. What about the two letters about Fast and Furious from Senator Grassley of Iowa that the senator says he personally handed to Holder in January, five months before Holder says he learned of Fast and Furious. Holder ignores them. I guess he could say that he gets a lot of letters from senators about specific programs that are personally handed to him and that he customarily fails to read them.

The best part of Holder's response, however, is classic Obama administration. Holder says that under president Bush there was a similar program. Get it? It is all Bush's fault. Of course, no one died in the Bush program. The weapons in the Bush program had tracking devices on them so that the police could follow them and arrest those who held them. That measure was somehow overlooked on Fast and Furious.

The truth is that Holder's response is totally unbelievable. Indeed, it makes me think all the more that he was clearly lying when he answered the questions of Congress. With this as his first response, it seems even more likely than before that Holder's days as Attorney General are numbered.