Progressives Blame President Bush for 'Fast and Furious' Scandal

This is a literally unbelievable piece-of-junk report, at the Soros-backed Think Progress, "Five Things to Know About the Republican Witchhunt Against Attorney General Holder":

In 2006, during the presidency of George W. Bush, the Justice Department launched the first of a series of misguided “gunrunning” schemes that eventually led to the death of federal Agent Brian Terry. Rather than look to ways to prevent such a tragedy from happening again, however, House Oversight Chair Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) spent his tenure as a committee chair trying unsuccessfully to embarrass Attorney General Eric Holder.

Hardly. But read the whole thing for the rest of the lies.

Yesterday, Sandra Miller had this, at The Examiner, "The Fast and Furious Scandal":

Eric Holder in his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, has been evasive and has had several memory lapses. He states that he knew nothing of the gunrunning program, that he was not aware that guns were walking into Mexico during Fast Furious, that is until the reports became public in early 2011. Holder claims he knew nothing of the operation until almost three months after a Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry was killed by one of the 2,000 firearms that traveled across the Mexican border into the hands of drug cartels. He continues to insist that Fast and Furious was being handled by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) employees with little to no direction by the Department of Justice.

One of the most compelling parts of Eric Holder's testimony was the inclusion of an exchange with Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) regarding an e-mail written by the Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein to James Trusty, chief of the Department of Justice's Organized Crime and Gang Section. In this testimony and in this e-mail the words “Fast and Furious” were used. Chaffetz says the e-mail says Fast and Furious, Mr. Holder says it does not. Mr. Chaffetz says I have it in black and white. Eric Holder insisted the term was referring to the Bush Administration operations and later said, “I have superior knowledge.”

Eric Holder has tried to implicate the Bush Administration in this scandal all along. This is what Holder said to the committee:

“Although these law enforcement operations, which include Wide Receiver, Medrano, Hernandez, Fast and Furious, and others, were focused on the goal of dismantling illegal gun trafficking networks, they were flawed in both concept and execution. I share your concerns about how these operations were developed and implemented. That's why, just as congressional leaders have called for answers, I have asked the Department's Inspector General to conduct a comprehensive investigation as well”.

However, there are two differences between the Bush and Obama administration and their operations. At least three of four operations conducted under the Bush Administration, Wide Receiver, Medrano and Hernandez, were conducted by co-operating with Mexican law enforcement authorities. There was no effort by the Obama administration to co-ordinate with Mexico on Fast and Furious.

The next difference is the most important. There were no casualties as a result of any Bush administration efforts. As the result of Fast and Furious, one US Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and possibly Jaime Zapata have been killed, along with hundreds of Mexican citizens. Eric Holder seems indifferent to this fact. The Department of Justice is also apparently attempting to stonewall an investigation into the people that are responsible for these operations that have lead to the murder of government officials. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) says the Department of Justice is “out of excuses.” Contempt is the only tool Congress has to enforce the subpoena, says Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), who is the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

And from late last year, see Andrew McCarthy, at National Review, "Fast & Furious Was . . . Bush’s Fault."

And that's Katie Pavlich at the clip above. She literally wrote the book on Fast and Furious, and she calls out top Justice Department officials as liars.

And see Pavlich's essay from last night, "Issa to Holder: You Said You Want to Talk, Let's Talk." And she's interviewed by the National Rifle Association here.